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Canvas Magazine

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Canvas Magazine

The premier magazine for art and culture from the Middle East and Arab world. Founded by Ali Y.
(6)

Canvas magazine as a contemporary art magazine is a catalyst to the growing art scene in the Middle East and beyond. Khadra in 2003 and based in Dubai, we set a benchmark for high-quality art and art-education in the region.

20/06/2024

CANVAS ISSUE 113: COMMON THREADS
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Our cover features Aya Haidar’s () work from the artist’s Tolteesh series, which features hand-embroidered fabrics that utilise craft as a method of expression and commentary on society and power dynamics. In this issue, ‘Common Threads’, we delve into how fabric and textiles have been the basis of storytelling and sharing memories across generations, looking at how costumes and uniforms contribute to identity, and at how artists seek to create contemporary narratives with every stitch.
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Featuring the Venice Biennale (), Design Doha (), Reza Aramesh (), Hangama Amiri (), Abdulnasser Gharem (), Filwa Nazer (), the Palestinian textiles exhibition at the Whitworth () and much more!
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Check out the ‘shop’ link in our bio or story to check out the latest issue!
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Image: Aya Haidar. اذا بتتشمسي بتذوب الشمس.
2022. Image courtesy of the artist and Tabari Artspace ()
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06/03/2023

CANVAS NEWS // DUBAI PUBLIC ART SHORTLISTED ARTISTS ANNOUNCED
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Dubai Public Art () has announced that the six shortlisted artists for the inaugural commission are Afra Al Dhaheri (), Asma Belhamar (), Khalid Al Banna (), Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim () and Shaikha Al Mazrou (.almazrou).
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Announced during Art Dubai (), the artists were shortlisted from over 250 applicants. Each shortlisted artist will receive USD 5,000 to create a detailed proposal and maquette, with a winner announced in the spring. The winning work will be completed and unveiled at the end of 2023.
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Image: Shortlisted artists for Dubai Public Art's inaugural landmark commission with Art Dubai (left to right): Khalid Al Banna, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Asma Belhamar, Shaikha Al Mazrou, and Afra Al Dhaheri | Image courtesy of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority
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02/03/2023

CANVAS LISTING // ANOTHER BIRTH
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Independent art platform The Mine (.mine) presents ‘Another Birth’, an exhibition that brings together the works of almost 20 Iranian artists, including Alishia Morassaei, Hadieh Shafie (), Parvin Shokri, Tahmine Monzavi (), Salé Sharifi (), Sara ChamanPira ().
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Taking place at Jossa by Alserkal () and curated by Sanaz Askari (), the exhibition navigates the current political climate in Iran and the impact of oppression on our sense of being and becoming.
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‘Another Birth’ runs until 12 March
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Images: Alishia Morassaei. Untitled. 2018 | Hedie Shafie. Trance 3. 2023 | Parvin Shokri. the absence of audience. 2022 | Tahmineh Monzavi. Red Soil. 2018 | Salé Sharifi. Untitled. 2022 | Sara ChamanPira. A boy with a Pearl earring. 2023 | Images courtesy of the artists and The Mine
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28/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // DO ARABS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?
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Curated by Palestinian independent researcher and culture producer Adam HajYahya () at ICD Brookfield Place (), ‘Do Arabs Dream of Electric Sheep?’ imagines an emancipatory future for the Arab region through the works of six young artists: Basel Abbas (.abb) and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (.ar), Meriem Bennani (), Haitham Haddad (.mnjnk), Studio Akakir (Walid Bouchouchi) (), and Tracy Chahwan (). Spanning across installation, film, text and prints, the exhibition forms an otherworldly space in which time and space are disjointed from our perception of reality.
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‘Do Arabs Dream of Electric Sheep?’ runs until March 23
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Images: Meriem Bennani. Party on the CAPS. 2018-19 |
Akrir Studios (Walid Bouchouchi). Fono-Type. 2018 | Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. At those terrifying frontiers where the existence and disappearance of people fade into each other. 2019 | Haitham Haddad. Balloon Shenanigans. 2023 | Tracy Chahwan. Resembling Resilience. 2023 | Images courtesy of the artists and ICD Brookfield Place
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21/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // FOR YOUR MOTHER
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‘For Your Mother’, Rula Halawani’s () latest exhibition at Ayyam Gallery (), is a two-part homage to the artist’s mother and motherland. Chapter I is made up of 11 photomontages combining archival images of Palestinian families prior to 1948 and Halawani’s photographs of the landscape. The series echoes her mother’s words: “Even when we die and leave this world, our spirits remain, floating in the skies of our country, Palestine.”
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Her mother’s reflections about the loss of the land’s natural beauty resulted in Chapter II, which captures the flora of Palestine through damaged and treated photonegatives.
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‘For Your Mother’ runs until 23 February
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Images: Rula Halawani. Untitled 7 (For Your Mother series). 2020 | Untitled 8 (For Your Mother series). 2020 | Untitled 11 (For Your Mother series). 2020 | Untitled 7 (For Your Mother II series). 2020 | Untitled 4 (For Your Mother II series). 2020 | Untitled 11 (For Your Mother II series). 2020 | Images courtesy of the artist and Ayyam Gallery
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20/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // THE TRAPPED LULLABIES
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Tirdad Hashemi’s ongoing exhibition at gb agency () features drawings, paintings and installations, including two recent series. A collaboration with Soufia Erfanian, ‘The Blue Poisoning’ consists of works on paper in which the recurrent use of blue expresses the melancholy of winter. This sense of pain is reflected in the exhibition’s eponymous series, ‘The Trapped Lullabies’, inspired by Iran’s recent protest movement Women, Life, Freedom.
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‘The Trapped Lullabies’ runs until 11 March
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Images: Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian. Do you ever feel alone in the cold? 2022 | Tirdad Hashemi. As we start moving our fear will vanish. 2022 | I’m the livest blood, don’t frighten me of death. 2022 | One day this war will be over and I will go back to my poem. 2022 | Radical care. 2022 | Photography by Aurélien Mole | Images courtesy of the artist and gb agency
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20/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // THE TRAPPED LULLABIES
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Tirdad Hashemi’s () ongoing exhibition at gb agency () features drawings, paintings and installations, including two recent series. A collaboration with Soufia Erfanian, ‘The Blue Poisoning’ consists of works on paper in which the recurrent use of blue expresses the melancholy of winter. This sense of pain is reflected in the exhibition’s eponymous series, ‘The Trapped Lullabies’, inspired by Iran’s recent protest movement Women, Life, Freedom.
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‘The Trapped Lullabies’ runs until 11 March
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Images: Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian. Do you ever feel alone in the cold? 2022 | Tirdad Hashemi. As we start moving our fear will vanish. 2022 | I’m the livest blood, don’t frighten me of death. 2022 | One day this war will be over and I will go back to my poem. 2022 | Radical care. 2022 | Photography by Aurélien Mole | Images courtesy of the artist and gb agency
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16/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // NOUR
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Raha Raissnia’s ‘Nour’, showcased at Empty Gallery (.hk), consists of a painting series and film that engage in constant dialogue with each other. The paintings, showing dreamlike scenes that combine abstract and figurative elements, hover in the liminal space between movement and stillness, informed by the formal language of experimental cinema.
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A closing performance by Raissnia in collaboration with cellist Charles Curtis, featuring an expanded cinema piece by the artist, will take place on 18 and 19 February.
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‘Nour’ runs until 18 February
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Images: Raha Raissnia. Tympanum. 2022 | Diotima. 2022 | Euboea. 2022 | Thorium. 2022 | Images courtesy of the artist and Empty Gallery
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15/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // UN MOT SUR TANT DE BOUCHES
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This exhibition, on view at Galerie Anne Barrault (), captures the spare beauty of Stéphanie Saadé’s (.saade) practice, which highlights the mundane, habitual and trivial through found objects such as articles of clothing and household items. The objects embody the artist’s own memories and evoke reminiscences in the viewer, while simultaneously preserving and animating the past.
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'Un mot sur tant de bouches' runs until 25 February
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Images: Stéphanie Saadé. Échiquier. 2022 | Pyramide (t-shirts), 2022 | Aujourd’hui j’ai eu envie d’un changement de perspective. 2022 | Photography by Aurélien Mole | Images courtesy Galerie Anne Barrault
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13/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // ALA TARAF LISAN AL ARD
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Aziz Motawa’s () debut solo exhibition ‘Ala Taraf Lisan Al Ard’, taking place at Sultan Gallery (), brings together a series of photographs documenting the industrialised and natural features of the coastal areas of Doha and Sulaibikhat, Kuwait, where a water desalination plant and causeway comingle with mudflats and a nature reserve.
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Curated by Malak Al-Suwaihel, the photographs also show glimpses of the human body, drawing parallels between the abuse of marginalised peoples and the environment.
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Images: Aziz Motawa. A Trek to Behold Whimsy. 2020 | Cloud Over. 2022 | Gossamer. 2020 | Trance and World Weary. 2020 | Images courtesy of the artist and Sultan Gallery
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09/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // NOW AND FOREVER
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Lorenzo Quinn () is best known for his expressive sculptures of human hands, often considered the most challenging part of the body to recreate. His works symbolise the power of art to bring people together in solidarity -- to rally them to "join hands". His latest exhibition at Leila Heller Gallery () features works never seen before by the public.
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'Now and Forever' runs until 25 February
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Images: Lorenzo Quinn. Together. 2022 | Installation views of 'Now and Forever' at Leila Heller, Dubai | Images courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery
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09/02/2023

Marwan Sahmarani () draws inspiration from the landscape and environment to create his bold, vibrant abstract paintings.

In a collaboration with The Flower Society (), he has produced a new work that merges art and nature, with abstract floral forms made using his characteristically strong gestural marks and vivid tones.

The piece will be printed on 150 limited edition flower boxes.
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Images courtesy of The Flower Society

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08/02/2023

Calling all established artists! The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) invites contemporary artists from or based in the Arab world to enter the Ithra Art Prize. The winner receives USD 100,000 to bring their proposal to life.
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The open call for proposal submissions for the 5th Ithra Art Prize, the region’s largest art grant, closes on April 1, 2023. Visit www.ithra.com.
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Follow Ithra on social media: Facebook (King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture), Twitter () and Instagram ().
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06/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // TUWAIQ SCULPTURE 2023
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Organised by Riyadh Art (), Tuwaiq Sculpture 2023’s accompanying exhibition features new works by 30 international and Saudi artists including Tatsumi Sakai, Bertha Shortiss (), Talal Altukhaes (), Azhar Saeed (.saeed1), Liliya Pobornikova () and Mohammad Al-Faris ().
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The artists were selected from an open call by a jury of experts, consisting of Tuwaiq Sculpture 2023’s curator Marek Wolynski (), Alaa Tarabzouni (), Ali Al-Tokhais, Dr Effat Fadag () and Johannes von Stumm ().
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‘Energy of Harmony’, the theme of this year’s edition, refers to balance, communion and understanding. As a result of 26 days of live sculpting, the works speak to this theme while incorporating the artists’ personal narratives and responses to the local environment.
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Tuwaiq Sculpture 2023 exhibition runs until 10 February
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Images: Tatsumi Sakai. Door of Water. 2023 | Bertha Shortiss. Connection. 2023 | Talal Altukhaes. Continuous Points. 2023 | Azhar Saeed. Permanence. 2023 | Liliya Pobornikova. Ocean Ripple. 2023 | Mohammad Al-Faris. Riyadh’s Eye. 2023 | Images courtesy of Riyadh Art
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02/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // LAND SURVEY
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Recently opened at Tabari Artspace (), Béchir Boussandel’s (.bechir) ‘Land Survey’ invites the viewer to explore strange landscapes populated with motifs such as desert plant life, levitating fruit and everyday objects including hats and umbrellas. Evoking themes of territory, mobility and habitat, the oil and acrylic works on canvas destabilise notions of space and time, public and private.
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‘Land Survey’ runs until 27 February
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Images: Béchir Boussandel. Cloud. 2022 | Le Balayeur. 2022 | Balloon Finder. 2022 | Bateau de papier. 2022 | Flying Watermelon. 2022 | Le vent souffle. 2022 | Images courtesy of the artist and Tabari Artspace
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02/02/2023

CANVAS LISTING // LOOSE THREADS
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Presented by Dubai’s Galloire (), ‘Loose Threads’ is Daniel Canogar’s () first solo show in the region and brings together artworks that draw analogies between textiles and modern-day information technology. The exhibition features a series of ‘dataworks’ that capture the overwhelming amount of information that constantly bombards us, from the news cycle to the stock market.
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‘Loose Threads’ runs until 24 February
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Images: Daniel Canogar. Billow III. 2022 | Chyron. 2022 | Images courtesy of the artist and Galloire
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27/01/2023

CANVAS NEWS // HAWAI‘I TRIENNIAL 2025 CURATORIAL TEAM REVEALED

Hawai‘i Contemporary, presenter of Hawai‘i Triennial, has announced the curatorial team for the exhibition’s 2025 edition: Wassan Al-Khudhairi (), Binna Choi (.binna) and Noelle MKY Kahanu ().
A founding director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Al-Khudhairi is an independent curator and curatorial advisor for the Contemporary Art Museum St Louis and co-curator of an upcoming exhibition at Misk Art Institute. Choi is currently the director of Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Utrecht, and served as co-artistic director of the Singapore Biennale 2022 and curator of the 11th Gwangju Biennale. Kahanu an associate specialist in Public Humanities and Native Hawai‘ian Programs at University of Hawai‘i and previously worked as Counsel to the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

*The word Hawai’i should contain a diacritical mark called an ’ōleo, but it was not possible to include it due to the limitations of the Instagram interface.

Images: Wassan Al-Khudhairi | Binna Choi | Noelle MKY Kahanu | Images courtesy of Hawai‘i Contemporary

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Abu Dhabi Art is back from 16 to 20 November at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Check out the fair for an immersive art experience shaped by renowned curators, talented emerging and established galleries and artists, as well as diverse programming including talks, performances and workshops. Mark your calendars and register for your complimentary tickets today. #AbuDhabiArt #InAbuDhabi

Van Cleef & Arpels collaborates with Alexandre Benjamin Navet, winner of the 2017 Grand Prix Design Parade Toulon Van Cleef & Arpels. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The French artist offers a poetic and imaginary vision inspired by the desert nights and the Frivole flower. For this collaboration, the young talent agreed to reinterpret the Maison’s cherished theme of nature, and to present the Maison’s jewelry pieces in this poetic interpretation of Ramadan nights. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #VCARamadan #VCAFrivole #VanCleefArpels

We will never forget. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 4 August 2020⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Beirut, Lebanon. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #beirut #04082020 #dontstoptalkingaboutbeirut #wewillneverforget #lebanon #4august #august4 #beirutexplosion