Triggers of olfactory memories sourced from Sara’s native Syria, the protagonists of her latest body of work awaken thoughts of things and places she associates with the realm of the familiar, yet also perceives as foreign.

Using a Scanning Electron Microscope, Sara captures the cellular structure of each sample, magnifies it, and reveals its complexity through imagery mounted on wood and plexiglass. The large-scale renditions include deliberate glitches such as formal distortions, light leaks or reticle cross-lines—interferences that further abstract the works and hint at the imperfection of memory and thus of human nature.

Titled 'Forms', the sculptural works exist in a variation of more or less organic shapes that imitate topographies Sara randomly encounters during her scanning journey. The process is illustrated by a short film that places the viewer’s eyes in front of the microscope as its lens explores the relief of all three samples morphed into one. Ensues the uneasy realization that coming closer is here synonymous with grasping less.

Conversely, one of the elements magnified in the 'Forms' series, the Aleppo soap, morphs from micro to macro, as soap brick structures are erected on the gallery’s floor. In part broken, cut and fragmented, the towers’ intentional defaults imitate glitches witnessed on Sara’s photographs. Their carefully orchestrated arrangement, on the other hand, performs a cellular analogy to the building blocks of life and further intimates the vastness of the microscopic universe extant within us.

SVENM has invited the American Artist Maria French to display a selection of her images for GPP Photo Week. This timely Dubai exhibition embraces the distinct poetry of the everyday and aims to inspire a new generation of image-makers similarly influenced by the seminal work of Wolfgang Tillmans in establishing the irrepressible genre of the 'snap-shot aesthetic'. With subject matter ranging from the resilience of nature to the beauty of urban-decay, Maria's work has the profound impact of mobilising you to run out and look at the world afresh. 

Maria French is an American artist who including living in the Middle East, has travelled the world with her family and camera. Maria has been avidly behind a camera lens since she was twelve, making her highly trained in documenting diverse lived-experiences.

To support new creative voices (aged 10 and up) that use 'snap-shot aesthetic' photography for daily social media, SVENM are hosting a 'Dubai photo-story' walk around Al Quoz (which will be posted 'live' to Instagram as a collective memory) on  Saturday, Feb 9, at 11:00AM - 12:00PM.

For the third consecutive year, CHI-KA is pleased to present NEW JAPAN PHOTO - ISSUE 7, catalogues of young talented Japanese photographers, held in collaboration with Tokyo-based Einstein Studio. JAPAN PHOTO AWARD is an annual competition and award bringing together emerging and award-winning Japanese photographers leaving a mark on the contemporary fine art photography scene in Tokyo and beyond.

CHI-KA will host a curated selection of 100 up-and-coming works from NEW JAPAN PHOTO, as well as recipients of the prestigious Japan Photo Award.  The Award, which started in 2013 by Einstein Studio, is currently the largest photography award in Japan, with over 5000 participants.

The exhibition will also have on display a series of publications by Einstein Studio, featuring a collection of photography introducing Japanese talent, and presented yearly at international art book fairs ; Art Book Fair Basel, NY Art Book Fair, Paris Photo, LA Art Book Fair, Stockholm Art Book Fair, and UNSEEN. 

Jury members include established curators and editors, such as David Toro (founding member of The New York based DIS), Emilia van Linden (artistic director of Unseen), Charlotte Cotton (Independant Curator and Writer / former Head of Programming at The Photographers' Gallery, London, and former Curator of Photography at the V&A, London), Bruno Kezhel (a lecturer at the London University of the Arts, and Founder of "Self Publish, Be Happy"), and Mutsumi Ota (IMA Editorial Director).

This exhibit by Tamashee features several photographs of Southern Saudi Arabia taken by Emirati, Saudi and Bahraini photographers. The exhibit displays aspects relevant to southern culture such as interior decor art, local dances, clothing, as well as landscapes. 

Cover image by Abdulsalam Alamri

The Odd Piece presents the work of American photographer Slim Aarons, exhibited for the first time in Dubai.

Curated by Bebe Leone in collaboration with The Getty Images Gallery in London.

Best known for his iconic images of ‘attractive people in attractive places doing attractive things’, Slim Aarons (1916-2006), the photographer of the rich and the famous, documented with his camera a bygone era of carefree, glamorous living.

Thanks to his hands-off intimacy, he established a special bond with his subjects and was granted privileged access to their private and intimate spaces. He was one of the first to employ a style of portraiture described as ‘environmental photography’. 

The subjects would be seen in their milieus - their gardens, their offices, their living rooms, with their books, often with their pets.

By photographing them in their natural surroundings, Aarons was able to depict a unique portrayal of society and lifestyle after World War II and throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s: a closer look at the life of the elite.

A closer look into their houses and stunning interiors, at their clothes and adornments, at their inner circle and sophisticated gatherings. Aarons was able to document rarefied events and penetrate enclaves that were inaccessible to many: one of his most famous images, Kings of Hollywood, captures a moment between four Hollywood superstars, Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, and James Stewart engaged in a frivolous conversation at Romanoff’s during New Year’s Eve in 1957. The image is representative of an era: it screams glamour and charm; it celebrates a star system that was experiencing its most glorious time. But it also tells a story: of four friends, on ‘top of their glittering world’, at ease with one another, having fun on a night out. And here is Aarons’ strength: the ambivalence of his portraits, authentic social commentaries on one side, intimate stories of ‘not so ordinary’ people on the other.

http://www.the-oddpiece.com

http://www.gettyimagesgallery.com

A tribute and obeisance to female artists from Middle East and to their role, influence and contribution to Art & Culture.

From Cambodia and Ladakh in India, to Al Gharbia in the UAE, Yiannis portrait subjects tell us our common story, that of human beings linked by the very same simple pervasive questions: “Why am I here? What is the meaning of all this?”

For his “Songs for everyone” and “UAE Heritage” collections, Yiannis met people of various education levels and backgrounds who gave him the impression of having found a way to stand still and calmly observe themselves and life around them, transforming their reality into an expanded vivid dream, a tale of consciousness.

“I wish that all of us could experience the clarity and profound presence of “Grandma”, the deep, calm awareness and subtle, quietly ecstatic joy of the “Housekeeper”. I tried to transform these portraits into symbolic iconography about states of being, going far beyond the personal story of the protagonists”, says Yiannis.

Primarily a photographer, and a storyteller himself, Yiannis is also creatively playful. And so he conceived his “POP UAE collection” as an attempt to link traditional themes with contemporary design. Further, he finds secret pleasure in making the collages of his “Blue Arcana” collection, also introduced in the exhibition. There, Yiannis creates personal, surreal and subversive comments about the absurdity of the human adventure. There is a hidden path of narrative, waiting for the viewer to discover. He elevates ordinary elements, faces, objects, scenes etc into something bigger, broader, a symbolic state. The images walk a thin line between comic and tragic, serious and ridiculous, specific and absurd.

"It is a fascinating process to mix old materials, redefine their context and create something new. There are no limits, the possibilities are endless. For me, I soon realised the work always gets really personal. The only way to create a new piece is to talk about personal emotions, fears, dreams, hopes. It has to come from lived experience. I see it as a great form of sychotherapy - only it is in public!”

A photographic exploration of the dhows and spices Zanzibar, the African island known for its extensive trading history with Oman. Images by UAE based photographer Susann Johnston, taken during her January 2019 visit.