11 art galleries from Middle East and North Africa take center-stage at artparis-abudhabi

artparis-abu dhabi is a combination of three events - an art fair, a cultural exhibition and an educational symposium on art.

The fair is being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The event will be organised in conjunction with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC).

The Cultural Exhibition, organised by Amal Traboulsi, will showcase some of the most prolific members of the Arab art world. The exhibition will focus on the theme of "Signs and Calligraphy", a concept central to the art that has emerged from the Middle East and North Africa.

Calligraphy has long been associated with the Islamic world and it represents a symbiosis between meaning and form, a platform for artistic representation of religious and cultural expression.

The etymology of the word "calligraphy" is sometimes used to describe the art of forming letters and, taken literally, the word itself means "beautiful writing". As a cornerstone of Islamic art, calligraphy seemed to be the natural choice for an overarching theme to embody the myriad collection of art from a region as diverse as the Middle East and North Africa.

Commenting on the Cultural Exhibition, Caroline Clough-Lacoste, founder of artparis, said, "One of the goals of this exhibit is to pay tribute to traditional calligraphers, and to show how others, more modern, have liberated themselves from meaning on the way to a form of artistic primacy. Additionally, the exhibit seeks to present a new interpretation of particular signs, more suited to a universal expression that seems to be the quest of our time."

Four of the UAE's top art galleries have also confirmed that they will contribute some of their best works to the art fair. These pieces, which are available for sale, will be among the 3,000 artworks to be displayed during the four-day exhibition. Green Art Gallery, The Third Line, B21 and Aziz Kurtha Fine Art are the galleries chosen by an expert panel to participate at artparis-abudhabi.

The four galleries will be showcasing the works of dozens of artists from the region and Arab world, including Hassan Hajjaj, Mounir Shaarani, Ismail Fattah, Ghass Rouzkhos, Shadi Ghadirian, Dia Azzawi, Abdul Kadir Al Rais, Dia Azzawi and many others. The fair will also welcome seven other art galleries from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Bahrain and Oman.

artparis-abudhabi organisers said that the event is a significant milestone for the UAE art community because it is an amazing opportunity to expose their artists to an international audience. Their paintings and sculptures will all be on sale and are expected to draw in a large audience of enthusiastic fans and art lovers from the region.

The themes of identity, religion and post-modernism are all central to the pieces being exhibited by the local galleries and they point to a much wider spectrum involving art and expression. artparis-abudhabi is aiming to create an atmosphere of cultural understanding and a meeting place for artists and art lovers to share their thoughts and opinions on the progression of art.

Organised by leading European art specialists, artparis, the Abu Dhabi event takes place at the Emirates Palace Hotel from November 26 to 29 and a total of 47 blue chip European and international art galleries will take part.

The artworks that will be shown during the event and includes works by greats such as Karel Appel, Arman, Jean Arp, Jean Michel Basquiat, Daniel Buren, Christo, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Sam Francis, Alberto Giacometti, Keith Haring, Robert Indianna, Yves Klein, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, Kasimir Malewitsch, André Masson, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Pierre Soulages, Kees Van Dongen and Andy Warhol, among others.