But We Cannot See Them: Tracing a UAE Art Community, 1988-2008

On view from March 02 – May 25, 2017.

The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery invites you to the press preview of But We Cannot See Them: Tracing a UAE Art Community, 1988-2008. This exhibition surveys one of the most important artistic communities in the UAE’s history. Community has played a key role in every modern art historical breakthrough, with artists banding together around manifestos, or turning to one another for support when art institutions rejected their innovations.
But We Cannot See Them focuses on one community of artists, sometimes called “the five”, at an intersection of visual artists, writers, and filmmakers based in the UAE. Its members identified with a “new culture” of encouraging radical, formal and conceptual experimentation.
Artists include: Hassan Sharif, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Abdullah Al Saadi, Mohammed Kazem, Hussain Sharif, Vivek Vilasini, Jos Clevers, and Ebtisam Abdulaziz, with contributions from Cristiana De Marchi, Adel Khozam, Nujoom Alghanem and Khalid Albudoor.
The title of the exhibition is drawn from a poem written by a key member of the community, poet and filmmaker Nujoom Al Ghanem.
The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery will also publish an extensive book of new interviews with members of this community. Together, the exhibition and book begin the process of tracing this pivotal artistic moment.
Press preview:
Date: Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Time: 11:15 a.m.

Some of the artists will also be present at the press preview.

Locations:

The Art Gallery
NYU Abu Dhabi
Saadiyat Campus, Main Entrance