In Real Time

February 22 - June 09, 2024, 12:00PM

The Art Gallery

Past Event

Exhibition Open Hours
Tuesday through Sunday: 12-8pm
Closed on Mondays

February 22–June 9, 2024
The NYUAD Art Gallery

A Letter of Intent

This web page marks a moment in time, at the beginning of an experimental exchange among three collaborators:

1) The artist/s

2) The visitor/s (you)

3) The living keepers of the Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi (including the curators, the production managers, the content creators, the museum administrators, the security officers, the facilities crew, the student assistants…).

This is an exhibition about visiting and revisiting, about being physically present in the space, with the traces left by artists who have been there, or hints of those who will be there. Watch for updates, here and elsewhere.

This exhibition emerged as a response to a sense of urgency around the real-time changes we are experiencing today. Perhaps art can offer something different from the news, from the scroll, and yet not distract us or make us forget. Artists have been invited, on very short notice. Some were unable to. Those who said yes are preparing work, or preparing to prepare work. As the show evolves, and history unfolds around us, my readings of the artworks themselves are changing.

Some artworks will appear first as a letter of intent. Others will evolve over the course of the exhibition. Some will arrive ready-made, but ask us to consider the space around us. Some artists will leave traces as if to say, “the artist was here, and may be back.” Some dancers and performers will come and go, changing the work yet again. Some works might only last one day. I invited our curator, Duygu Demir, to offer a curatorial intervention: an artist will bring an entire scenography, and collaborate on a performance that brings certain “choreographic objects” to life. The artist list will grow, if and when it seems right. Two of the works will be made entirely by the hands of the community. We will invite you to be one of those participants.

I often say that if words could explain what art is actually doing, artists wouldn’t need to make art, they could just say it. It’s a good tool for when there are no easy words. For me, when artists are at work in the gallery, or when I am in a place where they have recently made new work, a quality of “being present” pervades the space. And so, I invited artists to make work in the space, or to bring work that invites us to notice our own presence, taking up space. A few will bring existing work that speaks directly to the way our body lives and moves through space.

We will see what happens.

Every time I embark on a new curatorial project, I ask the “why” of art (what is it for? Or, why do I do what I do for a living?). This line of questioning is critical, because the answer changes constantly. It’s a bracing, uncomfortable process, and a very rewarding one.

What do we need from a space for art in this particular moment, in this particular part of the world, in the UAE, in a university, in an academic gallery? I hope this exhibition allows for any number of responses.

—Maya Allison

Artists

Haleh Redjaian (b. 1971, Frankfurt, Germany)

Redjaian’s practice is one of drawing, grounded in geometry, and with an acute awareness of negative space on the page and in the gallery. Her works on paper, textiles, murals, and spatial thread installations are ordered by structures and systems, while also embracing irregularities and deviations. They create rhythmic surfaces and spaces of reflection.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows at museums and institutions including Kunsthaus Dahlem, Märkisches Museum (both Germany), MAO (Italy), Magazin 4, Kunstverein Bregenz (Austria), Museum Kortrijk 1030, and Museum 1302 (both Belgium), and Stedejlik Museum Breda (Netherlands). Her works are held in the collections of Museum für Konkrete Kunst and the Ritter Museum (both Germany), BIC Collection (France), the Progressive Art Collection, Cleveland, and LACMA (both US), among others.

In 2021 the Cultural Foundation of Hesse awarded Redjaian a year-long travel fellowship, which allowed her to work in Iran and Senegal, continuing her research around weaving techniques as well as the interplay between craft and rhythm.

Redjaian is Iranian-German. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She studied art history at the Goethe University of Frankfurt, followed by study of drawing, printmaking, and sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp. She completed a postgraduate degree in fine art at the Higher Institute of Fine Art in Antwerp.
Ramin Haerizadeh (b. 1975, Tehran, Iran), Rokni Haerizadeh (b. 1978, Tehran, Iran), Hesam Rahmanian, (b. 1980, Knoxville, USA)

In Ramin, Rokni, and Hesam’s art-making, production is performance, and performance is a collective action leading to dance, art, and politics. The trio investigate a model of how to collaborate, translating it into multiple forms which often evolve around artists and people from different walks of life. Through this body assembly, they explore the creation of a self-sustaining creative life; how to build an aesthetic and undermine it; how to be politically acute and humorous, generous and eccentric The trio’s work is often referred to as a landscape where the complex nature of processing is integrated in the nested system that forms the landscape of their shows.

Major museums and institutions have featured solo exhibitions of their work, including Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré (CCC OD) (France), Schirn Kunsthalle (Germany), Frye Art Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (both US), Officine Grandi Riparazioni (Italy), MACBA (Spain); Kunsthalle Zurich (Switzerland); and Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art (Denmark), among others.

Their work has been included in multiple biennials, including Liverpool (2016), Toronto (2019), and Sydney (2020), as well as being represented in extensive museum collections worldwide, a few of which include the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire (Switzerland), FRAC Corsica (France), the British Museum (UK); the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Powerhouse Museum (both Australia), Städel Museum (Germany), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (US), and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark).

The trio has been awarded the Black Mountain College Prize (2022), OGR Torino & Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT Prize (2017), and Han Nefkens Foundation/MACBA Award (2016).

Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian’s collaborative practice formed in 1997 in Tehran, and the artists have resided in the UAE since 2009.
Gözde İlkin (b.1981, Kütahya, Türkiye)

Gözde İlkin lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey. She earned her BFA and MFA degrees in painting from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts (2004) and Marmara University (2012) respectively. İlkin was part of the artist collective Atıl Kunst between 2006 and 2013.

In lkin’s early work, she often stitched or made patchwork on repurposed fabrics that she collects, such as table cloths, curtains and bed duvets. These focused exclusively on dormant tensions within the domestic sphere, with imagery that departed from family photographs. Her motifs later expanded to include cityscapes, flora and fauna, as well as ancient forms from archeological sites; urbanization, gender dynamics, and power took center stage. With a growing interest in healing, İlkin has more recently shifted her attention to plants, using them both as conveyors of stories as well as employing them to color her fabrics or stitching their seeds into the pockets growingly three-dimensional fabric works.

İlkin has shown her work in biennials such as the 4th Autostrada Biennial (2022), 13th Gwangju Biennial (2021); 15th Istanbul Biennial (2017) as well as numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums internationally, including the Wellcome Collection (UK); Istanbul Modern (Turkey), Val-de-Marne Contemporary Art Museum (France), Bündner Kunstmuseum (Switzerland), Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (Latvia), Herbert Art Gallery and Museum (UK); Badischer Kunstverein, and Kunstraum Kreuzberg (both Germany), and Pori Art Museum (Finland), among others. She has participated in artist residency programs at the Water Mill Center, New York (2021); IASPIS, Stockholm (2021); MAC VAL Paris (2019); Pioneer Works, New York (2018); Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2017), and Künstlerhaus Bremen (2014). Her works are included in public and private collections, including Arter, Odunpazarı Modern Museum, and Istanbul Modern (all in Turkey), as well as Bündner Kunstmuseum (Switzerland) and MAC-VAL (France).
Julie Becton Gillum is the artistic director of the 14-year-running Asheville Butoh Festival, which brings US and international artists to teach and perform at the BeBe Theater in downtown Asheville.

She has been creating, performing, and teaching dance in the US, Europe, Asia, and Mexico for over 40 years. She has practiced butoh for 27 years and was awarded the 2008-09 North Carolina Choreography Fellowship and used the funds to travel to Japan to study Butoh. In recent years, Gillum has been active in India, Serbia, Georgia, Greece, Mexico, and the US, including recent performances at the Amsterdam Butoh Festival (October 2023) and Seattle Butoh Festival (November 2023).

Her most influential mentors have been: Anzu Furukawa, Diego Piñon, Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima, and Seasaku. Noguchi Taiso (a physical training technique) has become an equally important practice for Gillum who learned the basics from Itto Morita, Semimaru, and Dairakudakan. Gillum’s studies with Mari Osanai and Emre Thormann have further refined the practice. She has been guiding butoh for 25 years and Noguchi Taiso for 10 years.
Rana Begum (b.1977, Sylhet, Bangladesh)

Rana Begum’s work draws from the visual language of architecture, Minimalism, and Islamic design. Moving between traditional hand-made technologies and modern ones, her work consistently activates the space around the visitor, drawing attention to the nuance of surfaces and light.

Begum’s work has been included in institutions and museums including solo projects at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Djanogly Gallery, St Albans Museum + Gallery, Tate St Ives, and Parasol Unit (all in the UK), and Wanås Konst (Sweden), as well as group exhibitions at numerous institutions worldwide, such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (UK), The National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC (US), Kettle’s Yard (UK), Gemeente Museum Den Haag (NL), MRAC (France), and MAK-Museum of Applied Arts (Austria). Other notable presentations include the Creative Folkestone Triennial, UK (2021); Dhaka Art Summit (2020, 2014), and the Vienna Biennale (2015).

Her artwork is in public and private collections, including in the US (Cleveland Clinic, Ohio; Simons Foundation; and the Art Museum of Western Virginia), the UK (The London Institute, Westgate Oxford Alliance, The Sainsbury Centre), Bangladesh (Samdani Collection), Tasmania (MoNA Museum of Old, New Art), and the UAE (Ishara Art Foundation).

Born in Bangladesh, Begum relocated to the UK as a child. She earned a BA in Fine Art at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, and an MA in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art. She lives and works in London.
Kiori Kawai is a dance performer/choreographer, interactive installation artist and an educator. For In Real Time Kawai is an invited collaborator with the artist trio Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian.

As a dance performance artist/choreographer, she started her career in New York, she has worked with numerous US-based institutions (including Carman Moore/Skymusic Inc., Elaine Summers Dance and Film, Lincoln Center, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Brooklyn Museum, Mesa Arts Center) as well as internationally, including Serraves Contemporary Museum (Portugal), Transformation Festival (Denmark/U.S), Megaron (Athens, Greece), the Sharjah Art Biennial, and New York University Abu Dhabi (both UAE). Sheʼs built up her own improvisatory movement vocabulary based on the techniques of meditation, Kinetic Awareness, Contact Improv, yoga, and various dance/movement trainings. This led her to designing interactive installations that include human body movement within kinetic sculptures. In addition, in 2011, she founded Purring Tiger with Aaron Sherwood. Purring Tiger is a multi-cultural, multimedia, interactive installation/performance group. Their pieces have been commissioned and appeared at multiple festivals, museums, and performing arts centers in the US.

She has taught at New York University-Abu Dhabi (UAE), Alpine Dance Academy/Wave Festival (CO, USA), Tinkuy (Copenhagen, Denmark), Wrong Movement Studio (Athens, Greece), New England Dance Camp (New Hampshire, USA), Transformation Festival (U.S.A-Denmark), Deakin University/Federation Square (Melbourne, Australia), Savannah Arts Academy/ Telfair Museums (GA, USA), Dancing Water (TX, USA), Azule Dance Theater (NY, USA), Rinyou Temple (Japan) and more.
Chafa Ghaddar (b. 1986, Ghazieh, Lebanon)

Wall painting and surface finishing are central to the Chafa Ghaddar’s practice. She explores the use of fresco as a contemporary mode of making, as well as other techniques, and works equally with murals, painting, drawing, photography, and mixed media.

The artist executes site-specific and public artworks, and has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Beirut, Dubai, New York, Brussels, and Verona. In 2022, Ghaddar was commissioned to produce a site-specific work for the 16th Lyon Biennale, Manifesto of Fragility, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. She has been awarded several artist fellowships and residencies, including the Tashkeel Studio Critical Practice Program in 2018/2019 (with a solo exhibition), the Salama Emerging Artist Fellowship (SEAF, 2018), and the artist-in-residence program at the Villa Empain (Brussels, 2015), which also awarded her the Boghossian Art Prize for painting in 2014. Her work is in the collections of the Boghossian Art Foundation (Brussels), Tashkeel Art Foundation (UAE), and Fondation Saradar (Lebanon).

Ghaddar graduated from Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), where she earned her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts degree in 2007 and a Master’s in Visual Arts in 2009. In 2012, she attended an intensive course in fresco and traditional painting techniques in Florence, Italy, an experience that continues to inform her practice today. In 2024 she completed a six-month teaching artist fellowship awarded by DCT. Chafa Ghaddar lives and works in Dubai.
Cristiana de Marchi (b. unchosen time and place)

Cristiana de Marchi is a visual artist and writer who lives and works in Dubai. She describes her practice — textiles, film, and performance — as one through which she explores “the relation between time, space and their stratifications, often through the lens of the unequal relation between justice and legality.”

Her work has appeared in the Biennale Donna (2021), Yinchuan Biennale, Santa Cruz Biennale, and Culture of Peace Biennial (all 2016), among others. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at numerous museums and institutions, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Sharjah Art Museum and Maraya Art Centre (all UAE), Mathaf, Museum of Modern Art (Qatar), Villa Romana (Italy), Sursock Museum (Lebanon), Langgeng Art Foundation (Indonesia), The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art (US), and the Villa Vassilieff (France).

Her work is held in the collections of the Centre Pompidou (France), MoCA Yinchuan (China), and the LA MoCA (US). De Marchi has been an artist-in-residence at the Cultural Foundation, UAE (2022-23); Serlachius Residency, Finland (2022); University of Cincinnati (2018-19); MoCA Yinchuan, China (2016); Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2014); Santa Fe Art Institute (2014); and The University of the Arts, Philadelphia (2012). Awards include “Best 15 Award” and the “Best Independent Artist Award” (2017, Torino, Italy), and the Italian “Premio ORA” (2015). Her poetry book Embodying was published by Sharjah Art Foundation in 2016.

De Marchi is currently a PhD candidate in the Artistic Research Programme at the University of applied Arts, Vienna. She is a graduate of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship (Abu Dhabi). She received her MFA with honors in Archaeology from The University of Turin, Italy.
Moza Almatrooshi (b. 1991, Dubai, UAE)

Moza Almatrooshi is a Sharjah-based artist and pastry chef. She describes her practice as one of looking at “narratives from ancient and contemporary mythologies in the Arabian Peninsula” as they relate to nation-building, which, in her work, “culminates in fictions and metaphors derived from regional food production practices and food politics.”

In 2019 she earned an MFA from Slade School of Fine Art, London, followed by a diploma in culinary arts from ICCA Dubai in 2020. She is also a recipient of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF), cohort of 2014–15.

Her works have been featured in biennials such as Lahore Biennale 02 (2020) and the XX Bienal Internacional De Artes Visuales De Santa Cruz De La Sierra (2016), and the 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023), as well as museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) and the ICA (UK). Her writings have been published in ArabLit Quarterly, and by the Contemporary Image Collective in Cairo. Alongside running her art practice, she is currently a full-time pastry chef.
Sol LeWitt (b. 1928, Hartford, CT, d. 2007, New York, NY, US)

Sol LeWitt has been the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide since 1965. His prolific two- and three-dimensional work ranges from wall drawings, to photographs and hundreds of works on paper and extends to structures in the form of towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and progressions.

Encyclopedia Britannica credits Lewitt for his role in revolutionizing the definition of art, beginning with his 1967 statement in Artforum, “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work… all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”

With thanks to the Estate of Sol LeWitt.
Nujoom Alghanem is an Emirati poet, artist, and film director. She was born in Dubai, UAE, has published ten poetry collections, and produced numerous films including feature and short documentaries, short fiction, and art films. Her films have won regional and international prizes. She has been honored with three outstanding achievement awards as an artist and filmmaker.

Her achievements in the arts have been recognized both nationally and internationally. In 2019, she was the solo artist of the UAE National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In 2010, Nujoom co-founded Nahar Productions, a film production company based in Dubai. Since then, alongside her artistic endeavors, she has worked as a professional mentor in filmmaking, creative writing, and visual art. She is the holder of a master’s degree in film production from Griffith University in Australia and a bachelor’s degree in video production from Ohio University in the United States.

Exhibition

In Real Time

Past Event

Artists

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