CITY NEWS PUBLISHING AT ART DUBAI

Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 2012, 138.4 x 138.4 x 31.1 cm,

Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York

Editor-in-chief of Selections and founder of City News Publishing Rima Nasser was in the Emirates last week for Art Dubai. This cultural and commercial highlight in the Gulf welcomed 70 galleries and 70 museum groups through its doors this year and spent a remarkable $45 million putting together the show. We were pleased to find that out of the 500 artists exhibiting, 50% were women; as Abellah Karroum, director of Mathaf, writes in his accompanying letter to the pages he curated for us in the latest issue of Selections, "After making the selection, I realised that just half of the artworks I included were created by men, underscoring the extent to which gender equality is crucial to the progress of art and society".

Huguette Caland, Rossinante Under Cover XI, 2011,132 x 104 cm, 

Courtesy of the artist and Lombard 

During the press tour of the fair, director Antonia Carver settled upon Anish Kapoor and Mona Hatoum as the artists exhibiting the most important works there, while Rima herself most appreciated Huguette Caland's pieces, being exhibited by Galerie Janine Rubeiz, as well as Anup Mathew Thomas's photographic portrait series of women from Kerala, India, working as nurses around the world. 

Reza Hezare, Drawing Collection - In Exile, 2008, 86 x 62 cm,

Courtesy of YAY Gallery

Rajaa Khalid, 1951-64, The Big Picture, 

Global Art Forum 8 Commission, Art Dubai 2014

Artist collective Slavs and Tatars did an excellent job of curating the Marker section (read our interview with them in the current issue of the Art Paper) - with the drawings of Reza Hezare at YAY Gallery standing out in particular here - and the Global Art Forum brought some of the brightest voices together to debate and discuss art in our region (look out for coverage in the next Art Paper).

MONA HATOUM AT MATHAF IN DOHA

Sculptural works with names like Bourj and Bunker represent the damaged buildings of Beirut.

Set in the entrance hall of Mathaf for Mona Hatoum: Turbulence.

We are often in Doha working closely with our partners there, but our most recent visit to the capital of Qatar was a little different. Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art invited us to join them for the opening of their latest exhibition, a solo show called Turbulence by the Palestinian-British artist Mona Hatoum.

Suspended by Mona Hatoum at Mathaf 

(Turbulence, the installation from which the exhibition 

takes its name, is also visible on the floor in the background)

The exhibition was curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, founders of Art Reoriented, who brought a new eye to the extensive body of work being shown from throughout the artist's 30-year career. Arranged as a series of tensions and counterpoints, the main concept behind this retrospective was the idea of turbulence and how it is created by shifting between different types of feeling in the gallery.

Over My Dead Body by Mona Hatoum at Mathaf

This idea comes from Mona Hatoum's artworks themselves, each of which generates a sense of instability using a poised balance between medium and message. Reading or hearing about her work can not compare to experiencing it in person because her large installations in particular (although also her video and smaller sculptures) trigger physical sensations of discomfort and anxiety in the body and mind of the viewer through their structure and motion.

Hotspot by Mona Hatoum at Mathaf

(The Impenetrable installation is also visible in the background)

It was a privilege to be able to interview such a prominent and accomplished artist, particularly as she was born in Beirut and has built up her considerable international reputation by continuing to work with integrity, wit and political awareness to produce world-class art.

The exhibition continues until 18th May 2014. Read our full review of the exhibition with comments from the artist and the curators in the March issue of the Art Paper, free with Selections magazine.