Project Managed Exhibitions
421 Artistic Development Program
Hana El-Sagini “Counting Fingers”
11 February - 28 April, 2024
In this major solo exhibition, Hana El-Sagini presents a newly commissioned large-scale installation rooted in the instability and fragility of the human experience. The installation showcases over 200 fantastical ceramic objects, culminating in surreal sculptures and structures that replicate and reimagine healthcare spaces, such as medical waiting rooms, hospital corridors, and doctors' offices. These spaces, typically perceived as sterile and stoic domains, are transformed into dreamlike sites that are bizarre, eerie, and amusing. Taking over Gallery 1, the showcased work immerses visitors in the artist's deeply personal world.
421 Artistic Development Program
Asma Belhamar “Solid Void”
October 22 – January 15, 2024
In this new solo exhibition, artist Asma Belhamar presents works inspired by the UAE’s architectural history. The structure captures the tensions between shifting natural geographies and dynamic urban environments, resulting in a sensitive technical approach to the fusion of form. The exhibition is footnoted by the artist’s reflections on culture and national identity in flux.
421 Artistic Development Program
Nassir Nasallah ”Poetic of Machines”
18 May - 27 August 2023
‘Poetic of Machines’ is Nasir Nasrallah’s new solo exhibition resulting from the 2023 edition of the Artistic Development Exhibition Program in collaboration with 421. Nasir presents a mythical exploration of the relationship between humans and machines. With over 30 new artworks, including intricate drawings, paintings, textiles, publications, and installations, it creates a world of mechanical creatures in an unknown space and time. The exhibition showcases detailed drawings and paintings of various robotic figures presented in groups that suggest a community of machines. Nasir explores the communication and interaction between these machines and how they can affect our daily lives, inviting us to consider the impact of machines on our relationship with them.
421: Artistic Development Program
Mahshid Rafiei “Of Mythic Proportions”
05 February - 8 May 2023
‘Of Mythic Proportions’ is the first institutional solo exhibition by Mahshid Rafiei, resulting from 421’s Artistic Development Program, a partnership between The Institute for Emerging Art and 421. Rafiei's work is based on extensive research in areas such as language, conservation practices, and the relationship between heritage and nationhood. The exhibition explores the myth of origin and aesthetic processes of conservation. The works are about language and the difference between allegory, symbol and metaphor as they materialize in concrete forms. She attempts to redefine the nature of representation and offers that it can be held in the viewer's mind.
421: Artistic Development Program
Mohammed Khalid “Let Me Tell You Something”
09 October 2022
‘Let me tell you something’ is the first institutional solo exhibition by UAE-based artist Mohamed Khalid, resulting from 421’s Artistic Development Program, a partnership between The Institute for Emerging Art and 421. The exhibition examines the materiality of everyday objects and coaxes out their metaphoric potential, exploring the connectivity of the artist's subjects and their frangible correlation to human beings.
421: Artistic Development Program
Exhibition: Jill Magi, “The Weft In Pencil”
21 May 2022
Jill Magi’s first solo exhibition “The Weft in Pencil” is a body of work resulting from the Artistic Development Program, a partnership between The Institute for Emerging Art and 421. Magi presents works which are rooted in grid or matrix formations, the intersection of wrap and weft. The works are inspired by an encounter Magi had when she fortuitously discovered images of North African indigo textiles in a university library book.
421: Artistic Development Program
Exhibition: Ammar Al Attar, “Out of Range”
27 February 2022
The first solo exhibition by Ammar Al Attar resulting from the Artistic Development Program held in partnership with 421 Al Attar presents an all new body of work in performance and video, questioning the extent to which people accept the repetitive, stagnant situation and their indifference to change speaking to this position of comfort that makes individuals like machines without a soul.