A Group Art Exhibition '6 By 6' At Gallery 76
A group art exhibition '6 by 6' opens on Saturday, September 22 at Gallery 76 in Dubai International Art Centre showcasing the works of six artists from six nationalities. The artists, who all live in Dubai, will present abstract artwork in various media including video, photography, painting, drawing and installation art.
- (1888PressRelease) September 11, 2012 - Through this exhibition, the artists have primarily, and most importantly, combined to create a modern artistic expression of multiplicity unique to the Dubai art scene. Their work responds to the city's urban complexity while examining its landscape as a dynamic and multicultural metropolis. Says Enzo Messina, "Part of Dubai's identity depends on the diversity of people living here. And that is what's so compelling about this collaboration. It is a statement and reflection of the fact that we all have our lives here. Strictly speaking, it is art that belongs to a local context and hence is a critical and necessary engagement with Dubai and its people."
The exhibits are, instantly engrossing and provoking. It is evident that the artists have been really enjoying and influenced by other's work. Diyali Sen Bhalla points out, "There is a lot of cross fertilization here. You can see a lot of interaction between the works displayed. I like to incorporate my interactions with people as influences into my work".
In addition to showcasing absolutely stunning works by Jeff Scofield, Diyali Sen Bhalla, Enzo Messina, Scott Jezzard, Sana Jamlaney and Anja Beckert; 6 by 6 fires up an exciting debate on contemporary art scene in Dubai and sets some new ambitions for the future.
For artists as well as audiences, 6 by 6 is about challenging the stereotype and the perception that contextualizes contemporary art and culture in Dubai in a very commercial sense. Questions Scott Jezzard, "What is contemporary art aside from being a commodity that is bought? The answer to this question is a critical one. I am not concerned about how many Picassos are sold at the art fair. Art has to create its own science, its own dialogues and venues for debate. 6 by 6 is an attempt to participate in and drive this process."
Scott believes, "The contemporary art culture of Dubai is still emergent and by definition requires the active participation of its culture makers. It is a process that does not happen overnight. In other countries there are well established venues for culture making/display. To import these simply as a commodity is the difference between buying into some where else's readymade identity and building one here that is unique".
Jeff Scofield stresses, "Local awareness about producing art in the UAE requires effort by everybody and in particular the media and government. Especially now, as both artists and society are seeking new ways of making and engaging with art. More opportunities must be made available for local artists that will place them in a wider local and international network. People must understand what collecting and buying art is about.
Jeff continues, "The art scene has diminished in the UAE during the current Great Recession, with art galleries closing and the market drying up. Artwork being offered has become a bit more conservative than in the past, and more 'formulaire'. We hope to see more innovative work being offered in Dubai and the UAE. Positive examples of local innovators, like the conceptual artist Hassan Sharif, are an inspiration to me, and I hope more artists will express themselves as freely as he does. Art as a sector has got to be more resilient to the changing economy and periods of uncertainty."
Besides producing art collectively at Dubai International Art Centre, the six artists also work individually on their own personal expressions.
6 by 6 will run through until Saturday, October 6. For more information please call 04-3444398.
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About the Participating Artists:
1. Jeff Scofield
Jeff Scofield is a right-handed American artist who migrated to Dubai 10 years ago.Unlike most artists, Jeff uses discarded waste material from construction sites to create absolutely fascinating paintings.
Being an architect by profession, Jeff feels a responsibility towards the environment. "Times are changing and so should our approach to art," he says. "Sustainable aspects of recycling are important to me, because this is an increasingly critical part of life today. Any kind of extravagance doesn't fit anymore into our modern way of life particularly if it is damaging to the environment. My approach is based on restraint. Hence, I recycle construction wastes such as pieces of plaster, wire, plywood, jutefabric, pieces from electronic devices, basically anything and everything that I can lay my hands on and mix them with oil and acrylic paints.
Discipline and rigor are the master words for Jeff's unique approach to art. His paintings are an unbeatable combination of the ethical and aesthetic. His new collection 'Dubai Beach' evokes the seashore. He explains, "My main intention as an artist is to create original abstract works that evoke nature in its endless aspects. I strive to express the moods and emotions of our changing natural world.'Dubai Beach' displays elements of waves, sailboats, the wind, the surf, sunsets, and all the marine aspects of the coast. My influences are modern masters, such as Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Hans Hoffman and the Abstract Expressionists, among others.
Jeff has extensive experience in a number of artistic fields ranging from modern architecture through to Chinese brush painting which he studied under Oriental masters in Paris and Dubai. After obtaining a master of architecture degree at Columbia University in New York, he studied art at the Beaux Arts in Paris, and, more recently, has taken up sculpture at the Dubai International Art Centre.He says, "I realized as a child that I had a talent for sketching and drawing, which I began to develop while in grade school."
As the Project Architect for Capital Gate, the leaning tower of Abu Dhabi, Jeff is writing a book about this building along with the Design Architect, Mr. Martin Dufresne, RIBA. Jeff reveals, "This exciting tower leans 18 degrees, and holds the Guinness World Record as the Most Leaning Manmade Tower. There is a compelling story to tell about its unusual design and construction challenges, and we are the best qualified architects to write that story, which we are doing now."
2. Sana Jamlaney
Sana Jamlaney is a 28-year old working artist raised in Dubai. The doodles began at the age of two and never stopped growing. She studied Fine Art with a major in Drawing in Florence and continues to work in Dubai. There is no single thing that inspires her work. And similar to her tendency of being fascinated by the tiniest gestures, her work draws from everything in life: love, political and economic conditions, childhood memories, religion, the Middle East, womanhood and everything else she would encounter in day-to-day life. Artists she looks up to are Willem de Kooning, Yayoi Kusama, Niki de Saint Phalle and above all, Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Sana's work is about building things (quite literally), and she uses ink, acrylic paints, pens, pencils, paper, canvas, fabric, wood, twigs, branches, wire, and everything else she can find as means to create Art. 6x6 at Gallery 76 would be her 7th group show. She is yet to do a solo show.
Having been raised in Dubai, Sana has seen a phenomenal growth in terms of culture and Art. Middle Eastern Art has dominated the Art market in the UAE for years and she hopes to see more International Art and artists being promoted in this multicultural hub. Initiatives, such as Tashkeel, motivate her to create.
'My work is about experimentation: experimentation with color, lines, forms, shapes, patterns, surfaces, tools, sizes and themes. I enjoy making a painting into a process by combining all the elements mentioned above to create a piece I can refer to as Art. Over the past few years, my work has been about filling wall spaces with work that are often compared to puzzles. I use multiple canvases (between 6 and 36 usually), wood and other material to create images and shapes on a wall space.
"My current pieces titled 'Just a work of Fiction' and 'This is what followed' are wall installations of canvas, twigs and branches, paper and wood designed for a corner space. It measures 6.5 meters wide and 2 meters tall. I am searching for more to draw from and for new techniques and tools to apply in my work. I wish to see each piece of work as an outgrowth or even a rejection of the previous one'.
3. AnjaBeckert
Born in 1976 in East Germany, AnjaBeckert studied in Berlin obtaining a teaching degree for primary school and fine art. She moved to Dubai in 2008 and is a teacher at the German International School Sharjah.
She developed an interest in art from early childhood and joined art classes at the age of 14 years. She says, "Art for me is an inner need: A way of getting thoughts, emotions and ideas 'translated' into images as a nonverbal language - continuing to develop my own aesthetic language.
Anja's works are inspired by unusual shapes, colors and color combinations, textures, surfaces, people, relationships, emotions, art, fashion, design. She uses mixed media (acrylic color, ink, pencil, charcoal, color pencil, pictures from magazines), oil or acrylic color.Anjahas so far participated in five group exhibitions (in Berlin and Dubai at DIAC).
Talking about how she sees Dubai or the UAE in terms of art Anja says, "Being from Europe the first thing I realized was that the colors of my palette changed when painting due to the light and the colors used around me. I also felt very attracted by Arabic ornaments. It is very interesting and inspiring to see all the works from Arabic artist or art influenced by Arabic culture and politics.
"In comparison to Berlin, where I lived before, the art scene in Dubai was relatively quiet when I arrived here in 2008. Since then I have been enjoying the development of the gallery district in Al Quoz and the shows of the galleries at DIFC as well as the Art Dubai fair. I especially appreciate the effort of institutions like the Pavilion, the Shelter ,Tashkeel, The Jamjar, etc. to develop alternative shows, events and meeting points for artist and art lovers."
4. Enzo Messina
Enzois an Italianartist,architectand filmmakerbasedin Dubai forthelastnine years.
Afterbeing introduced tophotographyattheage ofnine byhis older brother,a fashionphotographer working in Milan,he hasbeing experimenting withvisual artsever since,moving fromphotographytoarchitecturetopaintingand,in the lastfewyears,tovideo artand narrativefilmmaking.
Due tohisupbringing, his artworknaturallyspans throughdifferentmedia and frequentlyconsistsofa combinationofthem.He mainlyuses abstract photography,acrylic painting and videoespeciallyas he loves toexplore the sameabstractsubjects withthediverse toolsofpaint and light,bothin staticand moving form.
His workis stronglyinfluencedby theurban environment and the multicultural artscene of theUAEand he stronglybelieves thatitis preciselyin this multiculturalismwhere thestrengthofpresent-dayDubai anditsfledgling contemporary artproduction can be found.
6x6 will be his thirdgroup exhibition.He is also completingtwoexperimental shortmovies,one of them"VerticalLiving" for release later thisyear,while writinghisfirstfeature-lengthnarrativefilmscheduledforproduction in 2013.
5. Scott Jezzard
Scott Jezzard is an Australian Artist and Architect who has lived and worked in Australia and the UK, Barcelona, Paris and the USA. For the past 8 years he has been a permanent resident of Dubai along with his Wife and young children.
Scott cannot remember a time not making art, having studied 5 years fine arts in Australia where he explored painting, sculpture, ceramics and printmaking as discipline majors and having a certain naïve (in the modern sense) passion for the practitioners of the renaissance he decided to continue and deepen his knowledge of cultural production by studying architecture which he finished in London.
For Scott painting has an amazing history which has evolved with civilisation in both complexity and understanding. He enjoys diving into this history or continuum and engaging actively with it as a creator. It is both intensely personal and completely a process which involves the others, be they a history, a subject or a viewer, i.e. that which is not yourself.
"I like having a flexible skill set to make work, which architecture has increased the scope of. Fundamentally though when you talk of painting then you have to enjoy and engage with paint as a process, as a phenomenon unique to itself. It's not about images which are increasingly drowning our senses in a visually saturated culture. Perhaps as a reflection of the urban design work I have done in Dubai and the region this current body of work is loosely themed around urbanism, but more so as an abstract process than direct representation. How do we claim space? What do we start with, what are the underlying layers that guide and shape our choices and as a result leave their marks, still evident even if buried by the layers of cultural production since. You can still see in the shape of the apartment blocks in Rome the former plan of a circus, a unit of measure might be a city block to hold a tower in a master plan, or abstractly it might be the size and mark of single brush stroke on a canvas."
Scott's painting media of choice is Oil, though he also uses acrylic and other media. His works are painted on various media as both experiment and limit for material diversity and richness. An ikea box's corrugation's provides a challenging texture and measure and the use of it may be an ironic play on the role of the consumer of cheap or low culture and that which has often sat enshrined in museums as High. Old architectural prints painted over back up his need for a history or layering, as do found objects whose history begins somewhere else and is now redefined.
Scott's painting media of choice is Oil, though he also uses acrylic and other media. His works are painted on various media as both experiment and limit for material diversity and richness. An ikea box's corrugation's provides a challenging texture and measure and the use of it may be an ironic play on the role of the consumer of cheap or low culture and that which has often sat enshrined in museums as High. Old architectural prints painted over back up his need for a history or layering, as do found objects whose history begins somewhere else and is now redefined.
Scott says, "Art in dubai has to become less aware of itself as a commodity there is plenty of that level of awareness already, and become more focussed on making work related to life here, This place is not like anywhere else in the world, it needs its own stories its own contemporary and critical dialogue, its own contemporary culture."
6. DiyaliSen Bhalla
DiyaliSen Bhalla is an Indian national based in Dubai for the last 8 years. She has always been creatively inclined since childhood and has apprenticed under the eminent Indian artist Mr RameshwarBroota for 2 years. She says, "Born to a father who is an artist, my childhood was surrounded by turpentine and the smell of linseed. His guidance was instrumental in not just shaping my personality but also the way I approach my art."
The profound nature of life and the environment deeply influences Diyali's work. On the professional front, a course in fashion design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, served to hone her skills in drawing the human form. Her latest collection of artworks has been the result of evolution and an understanding of the oneness of man and the energy that moves life itself.
She says. "My need to search for a higher truth has led me through a wonderful journey of creative processes. The act of self-expression, for me is coupled with the need to translate thought into image, make the elusive moment sustainable and self-renewing… energizing. Freedom lies in creating the image, becoming one with the universal truth, connecting with the unknown and creating my own world.
Diyali uses mixed media in all her artworks and texture forms a very important part of all her works. Diyali has had a couple of amazing exhibitions in India and in the U.A.E. She observes, "The art scene is still growing in the U.A.E and there are a lot of opportunities for artists to come together and create wonderful awareness".
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