*Cultural offerings to provide enriching experience for members of the community
Qatar Museums (QM) has announced that several exhibitions will be presented across its cultural institutions throughout spring 2021, covering a wider range of interests, including contemporary art, natural history and the art of collecting. Opening on March 7 at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Kader Attia: On Silence is a major solo exhibition dedicated to the work of the artist over the last two decades. It is curated by Mathaf director Abdellah Karroum, with Assistant Curator Lina Ramadan.
A silver dagger made by the Dajani family in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, and used in the region in the mid-20th century
The Arabian Gulf is home to the world's second-largest population of dugongs
Jeff Koons: Lost in America will feature 'Balloon Dog (Orange)', 1994–2000, a mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating
A sculpture at Artist in Residence 5 Grey Times
'Chaos+Repair=Universe, 2014' will be on display at Kader Attia: On Silence exhibition. Photo: Axel Schneider
The exhibition will feature all media and include site-specific installations, sculptures, collages, drawings, video, and photography. On Silence explores themes of postcolonial trauma and the ensuing decades of psychiatric ‘repair’ at the social and individual level. The artist’s intention and curatorial approach is to provoke the viewer’s emotional and physical experience while encountering works placed at various levels in the museum galleries, seen from above, from underneath, and from within but rarely straight on. There will be two important commissions featured in connection with Doha.
Mal Lawal 3 will be launched in March at the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ). Following the success of its previous editions in 2012 and 2014, Mal Lawal evolves in 2020-2021 to provide a platform that brings together private collectors and helps support and further establish the practice of collecting in Qatar. The collections showcased in 2020-2021 present the personal stories of the collectors and highlight their passion for art, culture and heritage.
The largest solo survey to date of the work of the American artist Jeff Koons (b. 1955) in the Gulf region, Jeff Koons: Lost in America will be presented on March 28 at QM Gallery Al Riwaq as part of the 2021 Qatar-USA Year of Culture.
Organised by the renowned curator Massimiliano Gioni, it will feature over 60 artworks drawn from the full span of Koons’ four-decade long career, including many of the artist’s major works such as Rabbit (1986), Balloon Dog (1994–2000) and Play-Doh (1994–2014).
In Koons’ paintings and sculptures, everyday objects and industrial materials are transformed into engaging artworks that pose questions about desire and hope, the self and transcendence, individuality and the masses.
Lost in America presents a panoramic view of American culture as seen through Koons’ own autobiography, beginning with his childhood in suburban Pennsylvania.
Accompanied by texts compiled from interviews, statements and quotes collected throughout Koons’ career that guide the viewers through each gallery, the exhibition doubles as an expansive self-portrait. Works from many of Koons’ best-known series like The New (1980–87), Banality (1988), Celebration (1994–), Popeye (2002–2013) and Antiquity (2008–) will be displayed alongside recent works exhibited for the first time.
NMoQ, in collaboration with ExxonMobil Research Qatar, will present a special exhibition on dugongs dubbed as ‘Seagrass Tales, Dugong Trails’ from March 30.These shy marine mammals have inhabited the waters surrounding Qatar's peninsula for more than 7,500 years.
The Arabian Gulf is home to the world's second-largest population of dugongs, after Australia. Recently, the largest herds in the world, comprising between 600 to 700 dugongs, have been recorded in Qatar. Holding both a special cultural and environmental significance, the dugong was chosen as the museum’s official mascot.
QM is also currently showcasing a number of exhibitions such as the Artist in Residence 5 Grey Times, which will run until July 24 at Doha Fire Station Artist-in-Residence’s Garage Gallery.
The exhibition marks the end of the fifth edition of the Fire Station’s Artist in Residence Programme (AIR5) – an annual initiative established in 2015 that nurtures creative talent from across the country and world.
Curated by Dr Bahaa Abudaya and Saida Ali al-Khulaifi, the exhibition showcases artworks created as part of the residency, during which the artists had to adapt to the current pandemic engulfing the world.
Grey Times presents works that were devised during this period of isolation as the artists explored concepts of identity and community, both of which are on uncertain ground in these ‘grey times’. The artists showcasing their works include Aisha al-Muhannadi, Ameera al-Aji, Ebtesam al-Hothi, Hadeer Omar, Haytham Sharrouf, Jaser Alagha, Latifa al-Kuwari, Majdulin Nasrallah, Mariam Rafehi, Maryam al-Maadhadi, Mashael al-Hejazi, Maysaa Almumin, Muna al-Bader, Naila al-Thani, Noor Yousef, Suzana Jouma, Hind al-Saad and Ameena al-Yousef.
A Falcon’s Eye: Tribute to Sheikh Saoud al-Thani, which will run until April 10 at the Museum of Islamic Art, celebrates the outstanding accomplishments of one of Qatar’ greatest collectors who was largely responsible for laying the foundation for Qatar Museum’s world-class collections.
The exhibition showcases more than 300 outstanding artworks from prehistoric fossils and Egyptian antiquities to Orientalist paintings and masterpieces of the history of photography in a spectacular display following the concept of ancient (Renaissance) “cabinet of curiosities” reflecting Sheikh Saoud’s fascination with both natural history and the art world.
Splendours of the Ancient East: Antiquities from The al-Sabah Collection is set to conclude on February 3 at NMoQ. Drawn from the extraordinary holdings assembled in Kuwait by Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah and Sheikha Hussa Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, this landmark exhibition made up of more than 170 objects offers a sweeping overview of the artistic and material culture of the ancient world, while also revealing new insights into the roots of Islamic art.
Objects range in date from the third millennium BCE to the fifth century CE and include jewellery and adornments, household furnishings, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines and ritual objects, decorative elements and carved gemstones and seals.
The largest solo survey to date of the work of the American artist Jeff Koons (b. 1955) in the Gulf region, Jeff Koons: Lost in America will be presented on March 28 at QM Gallery Al Riwaq as part of the 2021 Qatar-USA Year of Culture.
Organised by the renowned curator Massimiliano Gioni, it will feature over 60 artworks drawn from the full span of Koons’ four-decade long career, including many of the artist’s major works such as Rabbit (1986), Balloon Dog (1994–2000) and Play-Doh (1994–2014).
In Koons’ paintings and sculptures, everyday objects and industrial materials are transformed into engaging artworks that pose questions about desire and hope, the self and transcendence, individuality and the masses.
Lost in America presents a panoramic view of American culture as seen through Koons’ own autobiography, beginning with his childhood in suburban Pennsylvania.
Accompanied by texts compiled from interviews, statements and quotes collected throughout Koons’ career that guide the viewers through each gallery, the exhibition doubles as an expansive self-portrait. Works from many of Koons’ best-known series like The New (1980–87), Banality (1988), Celebration (1994–), Popeye (2002–2013) and Antiquity (2008–) will be displayed alongside recent works exhibited for the first time.
NMoQ, in collaboration with ExxonMobil Research Qatar, will present a special exhibition on dugongs dubbed as ‘Seagrass Tales, Dugong Trails’ from March 30.These shy marine mammals have inhabited the waters surrounding Qatar's peninsula for more than 7,500 years.
The Arabian Gulf is home to the world's second-largest population of dugongs, after Australia. Recently, the largest herds in the world, comprising between 600 to 700 dugongs, have been recorded in Qatar. Holding both a special cultural and environmental significance, the dugong was chosen as the museum’s official mascot.
QM is also currently showcasing a number of exhibitions such as the Artist in Residence 5 Grey Times, which will run until July 24 at Doha Fire Station Artist-in-Residence’s Garage Gallery.
The exhibition marks the end of the fifth edition of the Fire Station’s Artist in Residence Programme (AIR5) – an annual initiative established in 2015 that nurtures creative talent from across the country and world.
Curated by Dr Bahaa Abudaya and Saida Ali al-Khulaifi, the exhibition showcases artworks created as part of the residency, during which the artists had to adapt to the current pandemic engulfing the world.
Grey Times presents works that were devised during this period of isolation as the artists explored concepts of identity and community, both of which are on uncertain ground in these ‘grey times’. The artists showcasing their works include Aisha al-Muhannadi, Ameera al-Aji, Ebtesam al-Hothi, Hadeer Omar, Haytham Sharrouf, Jaser Alagha, Latifa al-Kuwari, Majdulin Nasrallah, Mariam Rafehi, Maryam al-Maadhadi, Mashael al-Hejazi, Maysaa Almumin, Muna al-Bader, Naila al-Thani, Noor Yousef, Suzana Jouma, Hind al-Saad and Ameena al-Yousef.
A Falcon’s Eye: Tribute to Sheikh Saoud al-Thani, which will run until April 10 at the Museum of Islamic Art, celebrates the outstanding accomplishments of one of Qatar’ greatest collectors who was largely responsible for laying the foundation for Qatar Museum’s world-class collections.
The exhibition showcases more than 300 outstanding artworks from prehistoric fossils and Egyptian antiquities to Orientalist paintings and masterpieces of the history of photography in a spectacular display following the concept of ancient (Renaissance) “cabinet of curiosities” reflecting Sheikh Saoud’s fascination with both natural history and the art world.
Splendours of the Ancient East: Antiquities from The al-Sabah Collection is set to conclude on February 3 at NMoQ. Drawn from the extraordinary holdings assembled in Kuwait by Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah and Sheikha Hussa Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, this landmark exhibition made up of more than 170 objects offers a sweeping overview of the artistic and material culture of the ancient world, while also revealing new insights into the roots of Islamic art.
Objects range in date from the third millennium BCE to the fifth century CE and include jewellery and adornments, household furnishings, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines and ritual objects, decorative elements and carved gemstones and seals.
