Landmark exhibition of Dubai-based artist trio opens at The NYUAD Art Gallery
The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery today opened its Spring 2022 exhibition titled Parthenogenesis: Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian. Comprising several major new bodies of work, Parthenogenesis marks the artist trio’s first solo show at a UAE institution.
Ramin, Rokni, and Hesam, originally from Iran, have adopted the UAE as their home. They are known for their immersive, surreal projects, performances, paintings, and animations, which have exhibited internationally, at multiple biennials and major museums (including Liverpool, Sydney, and Toronto biennials, and Kunsthalle Zurich, ICA Boston, MACBA Barcelona, and a forthcoming project at the Hayward Gallery, London).
Speaking together about their practice, the artists said, “Our work is about generosity and celebration, to embrace other people as an answer to the challenges of the world in which we all live. In a way, this is about decentering yourself, allowing a hollowness to make space to appreciate others.”
That relationship to others plays a major part in this exhibition, which includes a “call and response” with a list of others with whom they work or respond to in this way, through poetry, video, and imagined architecture always serving an inception (a parthenogenesis) of new artwork. The works in this exhibition were made with the participation of Homa Farley, Lamya Gargash, Nazli Ghassemi, Christopher Lord, Minnie McIntyre, Mohammed Rahis Mollah, Sara Saghari, Jaleh Shaditalab, and the refugees and asylum seekers of the Danish Red Cross project in Traveling with Art at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark). Their collaborators on several of the projects include Vahid Davar, Kiori Kawai, Mandana Mohit, and Pirouz Taji.
Commenting on the exhibition, Executive Director of The NYUAD Art Gallery and University Chief Curator, Maya Allison, said, “Today marks a very important milestone in The NYUAD Art Gallery’s chapter, and we are honoured that the artists are working with us on their first institutional solo exhibition in the UAE. We look forward to welcoming our community to discover the radical rethinking of artistic practice by Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian, who have found inspiration in their art community of the UAE. We are committed to championing this region’s artists and documenting the journey that led us to this moment, and these three artists are proof of the vibrancy that exists today as a direct result of the region’s rich heritage and the forces that shape each new artistic creation.”
In addition to the Spring exhibition, Allison is curating the National Pavilion UAE at the Biennale Arte 2022 in Venice, which opens to the public on 23rd April. Meanwhile, Fall 2022 will see the launch of Khaleej Modern – the first comprehensive survey of Modern art in the Gulf, curated by Dr. Aisha Stoby, who is also curator of the first Oman Pavilion to the Venice Biennale 2022.
WAM
