Tag: CAP

10
Apr

Third Identity – Al Dahkel

Posted by / arte, fotografia, installazione, pittura

The majority of native Palestinians were dispersed, uprooted or exiled after the Nakba of 1948; as a result, their common history was fragmented between Al Dakhel Palestinians and the diaspora. Those who stayed–or could return home – came of age in a system where their culture and immediate past were erased. Their cultural education was further unique in the region, as it reflected the influences from western and eastern Europe of the newly emigrated people. This slowly changed after the 1970s, when the second generation started to claim their roots post-Nakba and question their unequal status in society. In parallel, artists such as Abed Abdi and Asad Azi, were working on the reconstruction of a local Palestinian collective memory. Therefore, the identity of Al Dakhel artists is suspended between citizenship, Israeli education, occidental influences, belonging to Palestinian culture and a strong attachment to their land.

Questions related to displacement, belonging, native culture and fragmentation recur in the work of Al Dakhel artists. By addressing these personal and highly specific questions within the context of a complex society, the artists touch upon more universal questions: who are we, and how does identity evolve when challenged?

THIRD IDENTITY explores the artistic (re)construction of the Al Dakhel identity and its evolution through three generations of artists. It is conceived as a journey through time that outlines common themes and concerns such as memory, post colonialism, hybridity, minority, and both the absence and cross-fertilization of cultures. It shows the richness and the diversity that flourished despite the traumas and “schizophrenic” living conditions, as one artist put it. This exhibition aims to shine a light on this group and give it its rightful place within the regional Arab culture.

Artists Bio
Six emerging and established artists of Al Dakhel, meaning Palestinians of the Interior. Al Dakhel sub-groups include Muslim Arabs, Christian Arabs and Druze, all whose roots are traced to historic Palestine and who live today on / close to their land, as both Palestinians and citizens of Israel. It is the first time that Al Dakhel artists will be shown in the Arab World.
Rula Alami is a Palestinian-Lebanese art collector and curator, based in Beirut and involved with the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit. She invited Valerie Reinhold, an art curator and advisor based in Amsterdam, to tell the story of these artists.

Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait
Industrial Shuwaikh, Block 2, Street 28
Life Center (same building as Eureka), Mezzanine
T: +965 2492 5636

Third Identity – Al Dahkel
08/03/2017 – 22/04/2017
Contemporary Art Platform / Main Exhibition

Third Identity is available in CAP till the 20th of May

gallery report by amaliadilanno

20
Mar

Hani Zurob. Zeft

Posted by / arte, pittura

Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) is pleased to announce the opening night of Zeft exhibition and is proud to present the first Kuwait solo exhibition of Paris based painter Hani Zurob taking place on Wednesday the 22nd of March 2017 at 7pm. The exhibition continues until the 22nd of April 2017.

Yasmina Reggad writes, “Hani Zurob has been a firsthand witness to recent critical events that have shaped his subjectivity. He eschews widely circulated media imagery in favour of using the medium of tar that is per se highly charged with contemporary narratives on atrocity that go beyond the personal experience of the artist in Palestine. Besides serving to interrogate the medium of painting, the tar could be the “piece of evidence” that provides “a reservoir of the real”(Peter Geimer, op., cit., p. 31) for the  viewers to activate their personal archive of imagery.“

Hani Zurob is a Palestinian artist, born in 1976 in Rafah camp (Gaza). In 1994 he moved to Nablus where he graduated in 1999 with a B.A. of Fine Arts at the University Al-Najah. He then settled in Ramallah until 2006, where he received a grant that allowed him to reside in Paris at the Cité Internationale des Arts. Hani was unable to return to his homeland. Today he lives in France, creating works that explore the state of exile, waiting, movement and displacement. His work presents Palestine through a personal perspective and conceptual context that transcends borders and geography—concepts that remain close to the painter’s heart.

“Hani’s practice provides an important voice in contemporary Palestinian culture, as well as a significant contribution to the creation of an Arab aesthetic. Ultimately though, while Zurob’s art gives powerful expression to the Palestinian collective experience, it can also be seen in the context of more universal themes of personal identity and embraces humanity beyond the Palestinian context”.
Black Dog Publishing, London 2012.

In Palestine, Hani had staged many solo exhibitions and he was a finalist in the A. M. Qattan Foundation Young Artist Award 2002, Ramallah. In 2009 Zurob was granted the Renoir price (Bourse et Prix Renoir). His work is found in private and public collections including in the Arab American National Museum (AANM), Dearborn, Michigan; WAH center (Williamsburg Art & Historical center), New York; Association Renoir, France; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Mairie de Paris, Hôtél de Ville, Paris; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Contemporary Art Platform (CAP), Kuwait; A. M. Qattan Foundation, London-Ramallah; Birzeit University Museum, Birzeit, Palestine; Ramzi Dalloul Collection, Lebanon, and George Michael Al Ama Collection, Palestine.

A monograph tracing the development of his work, “Between Exits: Paintings By Hani Zurob” by Kamal Boullata was published by Black Dog Publishing, London, November 2012.

Continue Reading..

15
Gen

Ghadah Alkandari. UNTIL

Posted by / arte, installazione, pittura

Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) is pleased to announce the opening night of “UNTIL” exhibition by Ghadah Alkandari taking place on Wednesday the 11th of January 2017.

About the exhibition

Two years ago I constructed my first origami polyhedron. I was unaware that this one object would be instrumental in shaping many paintings and stories to come. And many, many polyhedra to follow. But such is the pattern that plays itself out in my life as an artist: creations are influenced by both the banal and the important in life, not imitating art but mirroring it.

As I prepared for this exhibition, the mood of my work kept shifting from purpose to purpose. Until love, until peace, until I’m settled in a place I want to be. Always waiting for the big Until.

About the artist

Ghadah Alkandari is a Kuwaiti artist born in Delhi in 1969. In 1992 she received a BA in Mass Communications from the American University in Cairo. But it was a six-week painting course at the School of Visual Arts that “shaped my current painting style, which was also influenced early on by both classical painters: Cezanne, Matisse, Schiele, Modigliani and Klimt, and comic books: Mad Magazine, Archie and Asterix.”

Her body of work ranges from large-scale acrylic paintings, primarily figurative, exploring the wide spectrum of human emotion and familial complexities, to smaller intimate pen and ink surreal drawings detached and focused on everyday happenings.

The artist had numerous solo exhibitions in Kuwait, and has participated in several group exhibitions locally and internationally, including the Arab Culture in Diaspora exhibition in Kuwait, Femmes Artistes Du Koweit at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (2006), Approaches to Figurative Practices at the Third Line Gallery, Dubai (2007), and JAMM Contemporary Art Auction in Kuwait (2010).

Since 2009, Ghadah Alkandari uses her blog ‘prettygreenbullet’ as a platform to display her work on a daily basis.Continue Reading..

02
Dic

CAP Kuwait: Amira Behbehani. Fifteen-Year Journey – Precious Fragments by an Iranian Group of Artists

Posted by / arte, disegno, fotografia, pittura

Two exhibitions at CAP Contemporary Art Platform:
1_Amira Behbehani. Fifteen-Year Journey
2_Precious Fragments

1_Hosted under the patronage of His Excellency the French Ambassador Mr. Christian Nakhlé.

Contemporary Art Platform is honored to invite you to the opening of A Fifteen-Year Journey: The Art of Amira Behbehani
Time: 7:00 – 9:00pm
Exhibition dates: 10/11/2016 – 21/12/2016
Location: Contemporary Art Platform / Main Exhibition Space

Amira’s first solo in seven years is an exhibition curated by Simindokht Dehghani that promises to take it’s visitors on a voyage that started off as an homage to the awakening of all her feelings and senses then transpired into a celebration of trials and errors. One of the most interesting aspects of Amira Behbehani as an artist, aside from her autodidacticism, is her unyielding engagement in the production of her art and her bravery in its presentation and exhibition. We all draw and paint as children without giving any thought to how our work develops, how it is received or perceived.

2_Contemporary Art Platform is honored to invite you to the opening of Precious Fragments by an Iranian Group of Artists:

Exhibition dates: 10/11/2016 – 13/12/2016
Location: Contemporary Art Platform / Art room

Precious Fragments are memories;
Memories of the past recalled because of an experience in the present;
Precious Fragments are spontaneous;
They are accompanied by surprise
They are involuntary;
Precious Fragments can’t be thought;
They can only be experienced;
Precious Fragments are sometimes pleasant;
And sometimes they are not;
But they are always a way through to another memory.

Precious Fragments is an exhibition of seven contemporary artists from Iran. Each work recalls an experience of the past; a mother; a poem; a resistance; an artwork, a building or a sign.

Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait
Industrial Shuwaikh, Block 2, Street 28
Life Center (same building as Eureka), Mezzanine
T: +965 2492 5636

report by amaliadilanno

01
Dic

Tagreed Darghouth. Ain’t nowhere to hide

Posted by

Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) is pleased to announce Tagreed Darghouth’s first exhibition in Kuwait called AIN’T NOWHERE TO HIDE

Exhibition is available till Saturday the 3rd of December 2016

About the exhibition

The human-less war

In 2011, Tagreed Darghouth presented Canticle of Death[1]. This solo exhibition at Agial Art Gallery in Beirut, consisted of two series of paintings, apparently independent and ultimately linked by the idea of death: nuclear weapons and skulls. Skulls are not something especially new in art history. In the 17th century, French, Spanish, Flemish and Dutch still life masters applied their virtuosity to depict these anatomical shapes inside compositions that included a multiplicity of objects related to arts, science and wealth. These were the vanities, symbolic artworks taking their name from a verse in the Ecclesiastes:

Vanitas vanitatum dixit Ecclesiastes vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas

The Vanitas allege that everything, except the love of God, is futile. In opposition with these sophisticated accumulations, Darghouth’s skulls do not cohabit with anything. They float over an abstract pattern composed of flowers, stars, leaves or dots. Their sinister and frightening presences convey a fundamental menace towards humanity and should be seen in accordance with what (or who) the young artist previously painted. In 2010, Darghouth showed Fair and Lovely, a series of portraits of domestic maids. Fair and Lovely also included pictures of women having been subject to plastic surgery. These were already the main topic of Mirror, Mirror! in 2008. From Mirror, Mirror! to Fair and Lovely, Darghouth was revealing the Lebanese society through its extremes: foreign workers – let’s not say slaves – who only exist to serve their masters, and plastic surgery, very popular among the same masters of these workers. We have a confrontation between the inexistent body and the transformed body that attempted to defy time and death. In this perspective, the Vanitasis an absolute and definitive response.

[1] Tagreed Darghouth, Canticle of Death (Beirut: Agial Art Gallery), 2011. Essays by Joe Tarrab and Myrna Ayad.

About the artist

Tagreed Darghouth was born in 1979. She received a Diploma of higher education in Painting and Sculpting from the Lebanese University’s Institute of Fine Arts, and did a year of graduate studies in Space Art from at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Paris in 2003. She won the Boghossian Foundation Prize, in the catagory of painting, in 2012. She has held a number of solo exhibitions, including Vision Machines: Shall You See Me Better Now?, 2015,Rehearsals, 2013, Canticle of Death, 2011, Fair & Lovely, 2010, and Mirror, Mirror!, 2008, all at Agial Art Gallery, Beirut. And she has participated in various group exhibitions, including “Thin Skin: Six Artists from Beirut,” Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, 2015; “Insondable Surface,” French Cultural Center, Beirut, 2013; “Re-Orientations I,” Rose Issa Projects, London, 2012; and “10th Anniversary of Kasa Art Gallery,” Kasa Gallery, Istanbul, 2010.

Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) is a non-profit private organization dedicated to developing and supporting the arts in Kuwait and throughout the region. CAP is one of the largest exhibition spaces in the region and since its founding in 2011 by art collector Amer Huneidi. The gallery space has presented exhibitions of established and international artists, as well as emerging and local artists through collective, thematic shows mainly curated by Arab and international curators.

CAP’s mission is equally committed to its extensive education program which offers a variety of opportunities to the community. Workshops are held regularly in the Studio Space, where youth and children are invited to learn from local and visiting artists. Artist talks and panel discussions are presented in conjunction with exhibitions, exhibition tours are offered to school groups and film screenings are shown twice a month. CAP’s library holds over two thousand titles and is the largest public art book library in Kuwait. These resources have positively impacted local contemporary art appreciation and understanding. As the only institution of its kind, CAP has played a principal role in establishing Kuwait as a contributor to the global art world and fostering the next generation of art lovers in the region.

Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait
Industrial Shuwaikh, Block 2, Street 28
Life Center (same building as Eureka), Mezzanine
T: +965 2492 5636

02
Nov

Tagreed Darghouth. Ain’t nowhere to hide

Posted by / arte, pittura

Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) is pleased to announce Tagreed Darghouth’s first exhibition in Kuwait called AIN’T NOWHERE TO HIDE

Exhibition is available till Saturday the 3rd of December 2016

About the exhibition

The human-less war

In 2011, Tagreed Darghouth presented Canticle of Death[1]. This solo exhibition at Agial Art Gallery in Beirut, consisted of two series of paintings, apparently independent and ultimately linked by the idea of death: nuclear weapons and skulls. Skulls are not something especially new in art history. In the 17th century, French, Spanish, Flemish and Dutch still life masters applied their virtuosity to depict these anatomical shapes inside compositions that included a multiplicity of objects related to arts, science and wealth. These were the vanities, symbolic artworks taking their name from a verse in the Ecclesiastes:

Vanitas vanitatum dixit Ecclesiastes vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas

The Vanitas allege that everything, except the love of God, is futile. In opposition with these sophisticated accumulations, Darghouth’s skulls do not cohabit with anything. They float over an abstract pattern composed of flowers, stars, leaves or dots. Their sinister and frightening presences convey a fundamental menace towards humanity and should be seen in accordance with what (or who) the young artist previously painted. In 2010, Darghouth showed Fair and Lovely, a series of portraits of domestic maids. Fair and Lovely also included pictures of women having been subject to plastic surgery. These were already the main topic of Mirror, Mirror! in 2008. From Mirror, Mirror! to Fair and Lovely, Darghouth was revealing the Lebanese society through its extremes: foreign workers – let’s not say slaves – who only exist to serve their masters, and plastic surgery, very popular among the same masters of these workers. We have a confrontation between the inexistent body and the transformed body that attempted to defy time and death. In this perspective, the Vanitasis an absolute and definitive response.

[1] Tagreed Darghouth, Canticle of Death (Beirut: Agial Art Gallery), 2011. Essays by Joe Tarrab and Myrna Ayad.

About the artist

Tagreed Darghouth was born in 1979. She received a Diploma of higher education in Painting and Sculpting from the Lebanese University’s Institute of Fine Arts, and did a year of graduate studies in Space Art from at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Paris in 2003. She won the Boghossian Foundation Prize, in the catagory of painting, in 2012. She has held a number of solo exhibitions, including Vision Machines: Shall You See Me Better Now?, 2015,Rehearsals, 2013, Canticle of Death, 2011, Fair & Lovely, 2010, and Mirror, Mirror!, 2008, all at Agial Art Gallery, Beirut. And she has participated in various group exhibitions, including “Thin Skin: Six Artists from Beirut,” Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, 2015; “Insondable Surface,” French Cultural Center, Beirut, 2013; “Re-Orientations I,” Rose Issa Projects, London, 2012; and “10th Anniversary of Kasa Art Gallery,” Kasa Gallery, Istanbul, 2010.Continue Reading..

10
Ott

Mohammad Al-Hemd. INDULGENCES: REBORN

Posted by / arte, installazione, video arte

CAP Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait
INDULGENCES: REBORN
Installation by Mohammad Al-Hemd

Opening september 21, 2016

History repeats itself in similar cycles no matter how long those cycles are; whether they are days, years, decades, centuries, or even millenniums. We may not notice these repetitions as they occur because of the changes in time or the new pattern that they may take, yet we only notice them once they become part of history. This installation attempts to relate what is happening now in the Middle East to what was happening in the past. In particular, this installation emphasizes the similarities between the current events in the Middle East and the events in Europe during the dark ages. During the dark ages, Catholic priests had the ultimate power. They preyed on the trust of the common man, which was hindered by the spread of illiteracy. Priests promised sinners salvation for a levy. In a similar fashion, some groups are misusing the name of religion in the Middle East, where poverty and paucity of the good education are also ubiquitous.

In this installation, the similarity between both periods is underscored. In particular, the video highlights the dark ritual elements in a suicide bombers’ preparation. Furthermore, the insertion of elements from a catholic sacramental service underlines the twisted notion that religion can be used to justify the commitment of cruel actions.

The suicide vests are the contemporary equivalent to the indulgences from the dark ages. Both are utilized by the so-called religious men and marketed as the key to salvation and god’s forgiveness. Moreover, this installation can be seen in two perspectives. First, it explains to non-Muslims that the current violence is the fruit of abusing religion and following a false path and in some ways, it’s a revival of the indulgences. Second, it warns Muslims that they are living in their own dark age and they need an awakening.

Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait
Industrial Shuwaikh, Block 2, Street 28
Life Center (same building as Eureka), Mezzanine
T: +965 2492 5636

image: installation view, 2016 ph.amaliadilanno

report by amaliadilanno

 

 

18
Set

Quentin Carnaille. ATTRACTION

Posted by / arte, installazione, scultura

ATTRACTION by Quentin Carnaille

CAP Contemporary Art Platform in Kuwait

extended until the 28th of October 2016

Two systems separated by a void: one dives from on high, the other emerges from the earth, going towards one another, without ever meeting. Controlled by an invincible mutual attraction, each one is looking for the other, but cannot find it, in a common effort to bridge a distance that keeps them apart.

This work evokes the difficulty of meeting through the experience of a painful separation, an unceasing effort to meet, but in vain. An impossible object of desire still ardently coveted, the unhappy but visible union implicitly reveals an unseen connection, one of the strongest, through which the subjects develop the hope of an encounter.

“Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.” William BlakeContinue Reading..

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