Art Dubai 2023: Gazelli Art House

27 February - 5 March 2023

GAZELLI ART HOUSE Mark their return to Art Dubai with two booths PRESENTing New materially diverse sculptural woks by NAQSH COLLECTIVE(BOOTH F-6) and A SOLO PRESENTATION OF Innovative DIGITAL ARTIST Brendan Dawes(BOOTH X-7)

  • Contemporary/Modern Section - Booth F6

    Naqsh Collective
  • Naqsh Collective, F. 2009

    Naqsh Collective

    F. 2009

    Inspired by the rich heritage of their culture, Naqsh Collective combine contemporary and traditional Arabic aesthetics with specialist local craftsmanship. Founded in 2009 by artist sisters Nisreen Abudail (B. 1976) and Nermeen Abudail (B. 1980) in Jordan, Naqsh Collective have exhibited their work in Tiraz Amman (Widdad Kewar house for Arab dress) and were part of the Islamic Art Festival in 2016 Al-Sharjah UAE, Dar Al-Nimer in Beirut as part of (at the seams) exhibition in 2016 (Palestinian Museum in Beir Zait). In 2018, Nisreen & Nermeen were one of the 8 finalist artists to win the Jameel Prize 5, at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Their work has been exhibited in several national and international museums, such as the Jordan National Gallery for Art, Jameel Art Center in Dubai, Al-Sharjah Art Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

     

    Nisreen received her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Jordan University of Science and Technology, and began her career as an architect. Following her move to the United States in 2004, she continued to develop her career, while studying art at the Corcoran Collage in Washington D.C. She exhibited at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C and the Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland, and returned to Jordan in 2009.

     

    Nermeen graduated with a BA in graphics from Yarmouk University, and rapidly established herself as a leader in graphic design. She has worked with prominent regional and international agencies and is currently based in Dubai. Nermeen’s creative efforts fuse her understanding of local culture with her understanding of brand building and identity to produce work that exudes international appeal.

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  • A Story of Our Lives In a Thobe

    Channelling the culture of their Palestinian heritage, Naqsh Collective present materially complex relief based artworks and sculpture. These works continue the artists’ career-long fascination with bringing together customarily divergent materials and visual techniques.

     

    In The Thobe (2023) sculpture, a statuesque piece of natural stone is interlaced with hand-cut brass in designs that mimic embroidery. Presented in its original cut, this work represents a culmination of the stories created by Naqsh Collective throughout their practice. The material longevity is emblematic for the lifespan of tradition. For the artists, these works act as a portal to imagine “experiences of our beloved Palestine, like jumping off Akka’s cliff and going on a fishing trip by Jaffa’s Port”.

     

    Elsewhere, three monumental wall pieces composed of onyx, Italian Verde marble, and walnut wood comprise the Shawl (2023) artworks. Demanding fastidious observation, these complex pieces present tactile surfaces and myriad components. The natural qualities of the materials used are given space to breathe. Through composition, shape, and design Naqsh Collective invites the viewer into a conversation of intertwined histories.

     

     

     
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  • “In the distance, a thobe outline in the making from the hardest of stone, a stitch is embroidering a story to narrate our lives, with every stitch it brings us closer to our home, in a continuation of a much larger odyssey. From single units hitching a ride on our ancestors’ thobes and surviving challenging situations, locked into our core, then set free here on stone to stitch a story of many lives. It has taken thirteen years to reach this precious artwork in our time and existence. Every stitch has an amazing tale to tell, every motif is a link in an unbroken chain, routing us throughout the years, on cushions, thobes, fabrics, and now on stone.”

     

    — Naqsh Collective — 

  • Digital Section - Booth X7

    Brendan Dawes
  • Brendan Dawes, B. 1966

    Brendan Dawes

    B. 1966

    Brendan Dawes (B. 1966) uses generative processes involving data, machine learning, and code to create interactive installations, electronic objects, online experiences, data visualisations, motion graphics, and physical sculptures. An Alumni of the Lumen Prize and Aesthetica Art Prize, Dawes’ work has been featured in exhibitions worldwide, including Big Bang Data in thirteen cities, and three shows at MoMA, New York; the latter acquiring artwork Cinema Redux for their permanent collection.

     

    Dawes draws much of his inspiration from popular culture and nature, often revolving his work around concepts of time and memory. These analytical explorations interrogate our understanding of the surrounding world.

     

    Following his Genesis NFT on KnownOrigin selling within the hour to legendary collector WhaleShark, Dawes released a collection on Nifty Gateway – selling out in under sixty seconds. He has also released work on MakersPlace, Foundation and SuperRare. His work has been auctioned at Sotheby’s Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale and Generative Art and The Future, an art exhibition in Shenzhen hosted by China’s largest auction house, Beijing Poly International Auction.
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  • Persian Dreams

    Presented by Gazelli Art House for the fair’s New Media section (Booth X7), this new body of work sees Dawes combine facets of artistic expression, ranging visual, linguistic, audio, and dance. The display comprises four screens of metamorphosing imagery: a fusion of AI, motion-captured choreography and algorithmically generated forms.

     

    Inspired by The Book of Kings, or Shahnameh, these contextually charged artworks suggest temporal linkages; a renewed, digitised interpretation of an age-old Epic Poem. Written by native poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE, the Shahnameh is the national epic of Iran and recounts a Persian golden age via some 50,000 ‘distichs’ or couplets. This work attests a preservation of mythologies and histories that here lend Dawes’ work an arcane and scholarly agency.

     

    Persian Dreams: Heroes, Persian Dreams: Dynasties, and Persian Dreams: Creation, are stirred, respectively, by the Heroic, Historic, and Mythical Ages of the Shahnameh. Visuals choreographed to the movements of Charlotte Edmonds, are displayed over three uniform screens. Meanwhile a fourth, larger screen Persian Dreams: Monument draws from the whole. Scored by Artist duo Madota, experimental soundscapes incorporate elements of zoorkhaneh – traditional athletic – rituals. In each work, Shahnameh’s verses and visuals are manifest in fortuitous oscillations between figuration and abstraction.

     

    Madota have described Persian Dreams Dynasties, Heroes, Creation, and Monument, respectively, as a “deep sense of history and the passage of time”, “a voyage alongside the mighty heroes within the myths and legends that embody Iran’s golden past”, “rooted in simplicity and airiness”, and like a “lucid dream".
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  • “I’ve always felt the promise offered by new technology and especially AI is the ability to see things in a new way, beyond our own imaginings. Yet these technologies don’t sit alone: they are built on past experiences together with universal themes which run through each and every one of us. With Persian Dreams, I’ve embraced these new tools yet fused them with the stories of the Shahnameh, an epic poem thousands of years old, to create a lens we might use to see how stories told a millennia ago still resonate today, even in a contemporary context.”

     

    — Brendan Dawes —