De/Constructed Meaning, held at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, 26 October 2023 5 March 2024: De/Constructed Meanings is a collaboration with VCUarts Qatar faculty and staff. This project space exhibition will focus on an installation that acts as a writing device on sand showcasing the evolution of the Arabic script interpretations. Using a programmed coding system, it applies Arabic words through the lens of the deconstruction theory developed by Jacques Derrida. The work interrogates itself and the audience on the postcolonial shifts in the culture that is produced, consumed, and exported by residents of the Arab region.
Artists: Giovanni Innella, Hala Amer, Saga Elkabash, and Levi Hammett Co-curated by Noora Abdulmajeed and Rim Albahrani.
The Mailbox Project: Cities Under Quarantine, held at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, 26 October 2023 5 March 2024: “Cities Under Quarantine: The Mailbox Project” curated by Abed Al Kadiri, is a project born out of the pandemic-induced isolation that consists of 57 handmade, handstitched books created in-house in Beirut that were shipped to 19 different countries. Reza Abedini designed each book for a specific artist and invited them to fill in the book’s blank pages. In 2021, the project was realized and shown in Villa Romana and Florence Italy.
Mehdi Moutashar: Introspection as Resistance, held at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, 26 October 2023 5 March 2024: Moutashars first solo exhibition in Qatar presents a constellation of new and existing works in a wide variety of mediums, demonstrating how his conceptual practice bridges contemporary art with the heritage of the Arab-Muslim world. Inspired by Arabic calligraphy and ornamental patterns, and perceiving in them an endless potential, his production challenges the familiar categories into which his work might be inscribed, including Abstraction, Minimalism, or Op-Art. The exhibition points to an unmatched understanding of the regions aesthetic traditions, transformed and propelled into the present thanks the artists original methods.
Curated by: Amin Alsaden Distilled Lessons: Abstraction in Arab Modernism, held at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, 26 October 2023 5 March 2024: This exhibition examines experiments in abstraction that differentiate Arab modernism from its counterparts around the globe. The presentation of works from Mathaf collection privileges a specific take on abstraction that focuses on how regional artists have drawn ideas, visual elements, and techniques from the rich and diverse heritage of the Arab-Muslim world, particularly calligraphy and ornamentation.
Curated by: Amin Alsaden Mal Lawal 4, National Museum of Qatar, 20 December 2023 – January 2024: The biennial exhibition Mal Lawal (From the Old Times) invites local, regional, and international collectors to exhibit works from their personal collections and share their stories with the public. Mal Lawal was conceived by HE Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, with the aim of showcasing local heritage and offering insight into private collections and the practice of collecting in the region. With a focus on the 1990s, this edition of Mal Lawal adopts a curatorial approach exploring the history of gaming, marked by the emergence of advanced graphic capabilities which spurred remarkable growth in the gaming world. The exhibition aims to highlight how local collectors have preserved memories of this crucial time in gaming through their collections, which reflect the rising popularity of home game consoles during that period.
Source: Qatar News Agency