Beyond: Emerging Artists is an annual initiative that launched in 2017. The programme provides three emerging artists in the UAE with a platform from which to develop their practice and realise ambitious art projects. The selected artists are chosen by a guest curator each year. They undertake a year-long programme of workshops and studio visits initiatied by the guest curator which leads toward the realisation of a project for the Abu Dhabi Art fair in November. The works remain on exhibition to the public for several months beyond the fair dates.
Hind Mezaina A Performance of Valour, 2020 Video: 8min Courtesy of the artist
Afra Al Dhaheri To Detangle, 2020 Rope, artist’s hair and cotton Courtesy of the artist
Afra Al Dhaheri Tasreeha, 2020 Cotton rope Courtesy of the artist
Afra Al Suwaidi Un-/Sheltered, 2020 Collage and mixed media Courtesy of the artist
“Beyond: Emerging Artists” Curator
“Beyond: Emerging Artists” Curator
Artist
Artist
Artist
Artist
Artist
Artist
Born in Beirut, currently lives in Oxford, UK.
Maya El-Khalil is an independent curator, who for the last decade has been working locally, regionally and internationally with artists, collectors and institutions to develop the identity and ideas that have defined the contemporary art scene in Saudi Arabia. From its inception in 2009 until 2016, she was the Founding Director of Athr, a leading contemporary art gallery based in Jeddah. She is the curator of the 7th Edition of 21,39 Jeddah Arts. El Khalil holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the American University of Beirut. She is currently enrolled in an MA Program in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths University.
Maya El-Khalil is Curator of the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020
Born and works in Dubai.
Hind Mezaina's work delves into themes of collective memory, the notion of heritage, and the representation of Dubai and the UAE in the media. Her work is a continuous development of what she describe as a ‘visual archaeology’ through research, observation, collecting and preserving memories.
Working primarily in photography, and most recently in video and collage, her work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in the UAE and abroad, , including ‘Made in Tashkeel’ (Tashkeel, 2018); Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj (2017); ‘Al Haraka Baraka: In Movement There Is Blessing’ (Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, 2016). She has also worked on various commissioned projects, including ‘The Wedding Project’ (Art Dubai, 2016); ‘In the Meanwhile’ (Global Art Forum, Art Dubai, 2014); ‘Cassette Project’ (Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp, Dubai, 2013) and ‘Mass Medium: Emirati TV on Home Video’, (Global Art Forum, Art Dubai, 2012). Hind curates film screenings for Louvre Abu Dhabi, is the Founder of The Culturist blog and the Co-Founder of Tea with Culture podcast. She participated in the 2016 Autumn Programme residency at Delfina Foundation, supported by Maraya Art Centre. She is a graduate of the 2015–2016 Salama Emerging Artist Fellowship (SEAF) and was selected for A.i.R Dubai 2015, a partnership between Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and Tashkeel.
Hind Mezaina is a commissioned artist for the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020 curated by Maya El-Khalil
Born and works in Abu Dhabi.
Afra Al Dhaheri’s work is rooted in her experiences growing up in Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE – a place of recent and rapid change. Working across various mediums including mixed media, sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, photography, and printmaking, she draws out notions of time and adaptation, rigor and fragility.
With each experiment, there is a new phase, each new phenomenon or actualization plucked from her unique vocabulary of references – repetition acts as a method for prolonging time as much as a tool through which to truly experience or realize each stage of a work.
Born in 1988 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Al Dhaheri obtained her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, USA in 2017 and completed residencies with The Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship, in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014 and Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives, Cornwall, UK (2019). Her first solo exhibition ‘Inevitable Ephemera’ was hosted by T + H Gallery in Boston, USA in 2016. Selected group exhibitions include ‘Avoid Bad Dreams’, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2019); ‘Barcelona to Abu Dhabi’, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2018) and ‘Emirati Expressions’, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2011 and 2015). She works as an Assistant Professor in Visual Arts at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Afra Al Dhaheri is a commissioned artist for the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020 curated by Maya El-Khalil
Born and works in Abu Dhabi.
Emirati artist Afra Salman Al Suwaidi was born in 1992. She specialized in fine arts and received a BA Degree from Zayed University in 2016. Al Suwaidi participated in a number of shows locally and internationally. In 2015 she participated in an exhibition at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center in New York and at Lessedra World Art Print Annual Exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2017 she participated in Imago Mundi in Treviso, Italy. Locally Al Suwaidi presented her work in the French Alliance Art Exhibition In Abu Dhabi and in ‘Guggenheim Abu Dhabi: Do Art Do It Now’, Manarat Al Saadiyat in 2017. Most recently she participated in the 35th Annual Exhibition of the Emirates Fine Arts Society in Sharjah, UAE.
Al Suwaidi is currently participating in the Cultural Foundation Art Residency 2020.
Afra Al Suwaidi is a commissioned artist for the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020 curated by Maya El-Khalil