Art Dubai

Art Dubai 2013
Stand A4
Madinat Arena
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Alexander Gray Associates participated in Art Dubai 2013. The Gallery’s booth exhibition examined the process-based and conceptual practices of Gallery artists investigating identity. Spanning five decades, artworks by Luis Camnitzer, Melvin Edwards, Lorraine O’Grady, Hassan Sharif, and Jack Whitten engage personal and historical narratives across geographic lines.

Emirati artist Hassan Sharif (b.1951), a seminal figure in conceptual art and experimental practice in the Middle East, explores craftsmanship and cultural context through his drawings and sculptures. Luis Camnitzer (b.1937), German-born Uruguyan artist, employs language as art medium to comment on art making processes, form, and content. Melvin Edwards’ (b.1937) welded steel Lynch Fragments reference African-American civil rights activism, racial violence, and more recently, his immersion into Senegalese culture. Jack Whitten (b.1939) has challenged the traditions of painting and abstraction since the 1960s; the sculptural qualities of his acrylic painting references ancient architecture and murals, and pays homage to loved ones. Lorraine O’Grady’s (b.1934) Miscegenated Family Album series (1980/1994) juxtaposes images of the artist’s family members with Ancient Egyptian sculpture, creating parallels between her personal and diasporan histories. These works are featured in Tea with Nefertiti, a concurrent exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, on view through March 31, 2013.

Art Dubai 2013 Sculpture on the Beach: Hassan Sharif
The Gallery is presented Hassan Sharif’s Weave 2 (2012), featured in the Fair’s new program, Sculpture on the Beach, curated by Chus Martinez. Fashioned from aluminum and copper wire, Weave 2 provides a reflection on consumerism and Dubai’s trade history. The sculpture belongs to Sharif’s body of work Objects, a group of sculptural installations first initiated in 1982. Works among the Objects series originated out of Sharif’s conceptual alignment with the ideology of Fluxus, underscoring art’s role in revealing the viewer’s surroundings. Art Dubai Sculpture on the Beach is located on the Mina A’ Salam Beach.

Satellite, Dubai: Two Parallel Lines: Luis Camnitzer and Hassan Sharif
Two Parallel Lines presented the work of artists Hassan Sharif and Luis Camnitzer, the 2012 John Jones Art on Paper Award winners, who were shown in the Gallery’s Art Dubai 2012 presentation. This exhibition was the result of a fruitful year-long conversation between both artists that inspired the production of new work by each. Sharif’s semi-system, Iching, and Camnitzer’s Rorschach Series explore concepts of transliteration, psychology, and code, through existing and invented systems of language and communication. Two Parallel Lines was organized by Alexander Gray Associates in collaboration with John Jones, London. The exhibition was on view at Satellite March 19–24, 2013. Generous support for this project was provided by John Jones, London and in collaboration with Satellite and Art Dubai. Satellite is located at Al Serkal Avenue #c16, Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Dubai.

About Art Dubai
Over the last six years, Art Dubai, the leading international art fair in the MENASA (Middle East/North Africa/South Asia), has become a cornerstone of the region’s booming contemporary art community. In 2012, Art Dubai welcomed 22,500 visitors—including 75 international museums groups – and hosted 75 galleries from 32 countries.