EXHIBITIONS
SOLO SHOW: ETERNAL RETURN OF THE SAME - CROMWELL PLACE
The fruit of more than one year of investigation and reflection, the exhibition not only deepens AlDowayan’s nuanced interrogation of women’s shifting status within a metamorphosing Saudi society, but also intensifies her exploration of new material. Presented during London Gallery Weekend with IVDE Gallery. London, UK. June 2 -9, 2021.
CONTEMPORARY CERAMIC ART FROM THE MIDDLE EAST - VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
This display brings together for the first time contemporary artists from across the Middle East and North Africa and in diaspora, who work primarily in clay. While historical ceramics from this region are widely known and celebrated, current ceramic practice across the region is still little-known. This display introduces the richness and vitality of this practice.
London, Uk. May - October 17, 2021.
REFLECTIONS: CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA - THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Venetia Porter, Curator of Islamic and Contemporary Middle East Art, looks at how artists of the Middle East and North Africa respond to, and reflect on, issues of gender, identity, politics, history and cultural tradition, through the prism of contemporary art. London, UK. February 11 2021.
https://blog.britishmuseum.org
LIGHT UPON LIGHT: LIGHT ART SINCE THE 1960S - NOOR RIYADH
Light Upon Light includes 30 masterworks of light art divided into four sectional “rays” that survey light as an artistic medium: “Perceiving Light,” “Experiencing Light,” “Projecting Light,” and “Environmental Light.” Each ray blends time and unites established artists of diverse geographic origin. Curated by Susan Davidson and Raneem Zaki Farsi. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. March 18 to June 18, 2021.
https://riyadhart.sa/en/events/light-upon-light/
BREAKING THE MONUMENT (IMAGES OF RESISTANCE) - CENTRO GALEGO DE ARTE CONTEMPORANEA
The power of images, of symbols, of the icon, but also the political representation of history, its manipulations and omissions, are issues that have been abundantly reflected on from the theory and history of art itself. Breaking the Monument is a selection of works from artists from very different backgrounds that, in diverse ways, attack the power of pre-established images, of all those that manipulate and condition us, that limit, condemn, censure and self-censure us.
Santiago, Spain. February 25 - June 27, 2021.
Desert X ALULA - ROYAL COMMISION OF AL-ULA
A commissioned work titled Now You See Me, Now You Don't (2020) was placed ina valley surrounded by mountains for landart project Desert X. Organized collaboratively by desert x and the Royal Commission of AlUla (RCU), Desert X alula is a site-responsive exhibition taking place in the desert of AlUla, an ancient oasis in Saudi Arabia, it brings together a plurality of voices, co-curated by Saudi curators Raneem Farsi and Aya Alireza with Desert X Artistic Director Neville Wakefield. Desert X AlUla is the first site-responsive exhibition of its kind in Saudi Arabia. An exploration of desert culture, the exhibition is a cross-cultural dialogue between artists from Saudi Arabia and its surrounding region and artists from previous iterations of Desert X in California, taking its cues from the extraordinary landscape and historical significance of AlUla. Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia. January 31 - March 7, 2020.
DURATIONAL PORTRAIT - ATHR GALLERY
A series of videos from the If I Forget You, Don't Forget Me (2012) series were selected for this exhibtion. A “New artistic mediums are rare, and by any measure, video ranks among the defining inventions of any kind in the 20th century. Once relegated to alternative spaces because some didn’t believe it could even be called art, video is now seen in museums and galleries across the world and counts as one of the major mediums of our time.” And that is certainly true in the case of Saudi Arabia, where video art is the most widespread medium and plays a critical role in shaping contemporary artistic practices. The lens, screen and its adjunct technological infiltrations, leave us with a set of subjects that speak to an uncharted continuum of histories. Durational Portrait addresses these subjects in Saudi society by following a historic timeline in four movements; Beginnings (1993, 97, 99), Identity (2000-2010), Connection (2011-2015) and Recovery (2016-2020). Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Opening January 29 to April 18, 2020.
I LOVE YOU URGENTLY - 21,39 JEDDAH ARTS
A commisiioned work titled Ephemeral Witness (2020) was the response to curator Maya Khalil's exhibition I Love You Urgently. With this direct and affectionate sentiment, this exhibition demands approaches that are attentive to the world beyond the human. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Opening Jan 28, 2020.
PUBLIC/PRIVATE - SAUDI ART COUNCIL
The video installation And I Had No Wings (2015) was included in an exibition in the hostorical location of Albalad in Jeddah. The exhibition was curated by Turki and Abdulrahman Al-Gazza, known as Bricklab, in colaboration with the Saudi Art Council and Ministry of Culture. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. July 8- 18, 2019.
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/568349
YOUR VOICE MATTERS - MUSEUM ARNEHM
In line with the national commemoration of 100 years of women's suffrage in the Netherlands. The discussion about the role of women and male-female relationships in society is more current than ever. Women around the world stand up for their rights and demand recognition. The right to drive, equal wages for men and women, protection against sexual violence and the recognition of the female line in history are just a few examples. Your Voice Matters places the debate about the role of women - in social, historical and contemporary sense - in a broader, international context. Arnhem Museum, Netherlands. Opening March 8 - May 12, 2019.
THE NOBEL MUSEUM - COMISSION
Two art works were commissioned to respond to Nobel Prize winning laureates books: Midaq Alley By Nagiub Mahfouz and The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexavitch. Opening February 3 - March 3, 2019.
WATCH BEFORE YOU FALL - SOLO SHOW
Sabrina Amrani Gallery is pleased to present Watch Before You Fall, a solo show by Manal AlDowayan. In this exhibition, AlDowayan looks at symbolism found in books written about women’s bodies, using soft sculpture, ceramics, and fabric. AlDowayan describes this exhibition as “a space that stands between fear and activism; the artworks are symbols of the resilience and fragility of both the context and the artist”. In Watch Before You Fall, AlDowayan attempts to fragment these symbols and reconstruct them to create a new form, a room full of ‘healing totems’ that alter perceptions and corrects memory. These totems will be permanent memorials to stand against the attempt to reduce the complex into simple symbols. The forms AlDowayan developed for this project are meant to initiate an internal and external dialogue about symbolism and feminism in the context of religion, politics, and media. Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, Spain January 12 - March 30, 2019.
WHAT IS AND WHAT HAS BEEN - SOLO SHOW
This exhibition surveys a series of works that looks at AlDowayan's production over the past fourteen years. This exhibition narrates the context of AlDowayan's current exhibition Watch Before You Fall showing in Sabrina Amrani's Gallery in Carabanchel. Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, Spain January 12 - February 12, 2019.
CRUDE at the JAMEEL ART CENTER
The inaugural exhibition of the Jameel Art Centre, 'Crude' is an exhibition that features the works of contemporary artists that engage with the oil industry’s murky archives and histories, narrating an alternate and episodic material history of modernity in the region. Dubai, UAE. Nov 11 - March 30, 2019
LECTURES AND TALKS
THE ARTIST AND THE ARCHIVE - SHAIKH IBRAHIM CENTER
As part of a series of talks hosted by the Shaikh Ibrahim Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa Center for Culture and Research in Muharraq Bahrain, Manal AlDowayan will give a talk at the Bin Matar House about the reltionship of the artist to the archive. Bahrain, January 22, 2020.
https://shaikhebrahimcenter.org/en/
UNIVERSITY LECTURE SERIES - PIET ZWART INSTITUTE AND ArtEZ BEAR INSTITUTE
In conjunction with an exhibition at the Arnhem Museum exhibtion, Manal AlDowayan delivered two student lectures followed by a series of critique sessions in both Arnhem and Rotterdam. Netheralnds, March 14, 2019
ZONES OF CONFLICT - RESPONDING TO REALITIES - ART BASEL CONVERSATIONS
War, national and transnational conflicts, as well as socio-political systems of imbalance and injustice have been part of everyday discourses for decades. Recent political tensions in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as discriminatory practices towards minorities are also affecting the cultural sphere. Artists from different cultural backgrounds, all of them originating form regions of conflict, will reflect upon the situation in their respective places of origin and how they incorporate it in their works. How do they mediate conflict, dislocation, and discrimination in their practice? To what extend have war and injustice had repercussions on them? And how do they evaluate their impact as artists on these issues? Manal AlDowayan, Artist, Dubai Otobong Nkanga, Artist, Antwerp Javier Téllez, Artist, New York City Moderator: Pelin Tan, Sociologist and Art Historian, Mardin Friday, June 14, 2019, 5pm to 6pm. Filmed on site at Art Basel in Basel 2019.
https://www.artbasel.com/basel/conversations-show
PUBLICATIONS
Lost Moments Captured (2021) - AlDowayan, Manal, The British Museum Magazine, Issue99, pp. 5.
Islamic Art: Past, Present, Future - Edited by Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair - July 16, 2019 - ISBN: 9780300243475 - Distributed for the Qatar Foundation, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar.
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Manal AlDowayan - Now You See Me, Now you Don't (2020)