Hassan Sharif

After familiarizing himself with the ideas of Dada and Fluxus art during his studies in the early 1980s at Byam Shaw School of Art in London (now Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design), Sharif created performance-based works that engaged with repetition, landscape, and the body. Sharif first incorporated weaving into his art making process as a part of his Objects series (1982–2016) as a means of critically exploring the increasing modernization and industrialization occurring in the UAE.

An acute awareness of his environment led Sharif to embrace constant experimentation and a variety of materials. In his body of work focused on experiments and semi-systems, he utilized the grid to draft constructivist structures. Sharif aimed to create art that was linked to society and spoke to universal aspects of daily life, using everyday objects to critically reflect contemporary concerns such as consumerism, manufacturing, and the commercialization of handicrafts.

The artist’s work was the subject of a 2017 retrospective, Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist, at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, which traveled to the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2020); Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (2020); and the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole (MAMC+), France (2021). Sharif was a founding member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society and of the Art Atelier in the Youth Theater and Arts, Dubai, UAE. In 2007, he was one of four artists to establish The Flying House, a Dubai institution for promoting contemporary Emirati artists. Sharif was also among the selected artists to represent the UAE during its first national pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. In 2011, his work was the subject of Hassan Sharif: Experiments & Objects 1979–2011, a retrospective presented by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage/Platform for Visual Arts, UAE. Sharif’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including After Rain, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2024); Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s to 1980s, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY (2020), traveled to McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, MA (2021); Tampa Museum of Art, Fl (2022); Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2022); and Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (2022); and The Creative Act: Performance • Process • Presence, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE (2017), among others. Sharif’s work is included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; Museé d’art moderne et contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, among others. The Estate of Hassan Sharif is also represented by Gallery Isabelle, Dubai; gb agency, Paris; and Galleria Franco Noero, Turin.