ABU DHABI (WAM)
The New York University in Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery celebrated ten years since its founding with its spring exhibition, "In Real Time."
Opening February 22, the exhibition will continue to grow and change over the coming months in real-time, complimenting the name.
Executive Director of the NYUAD Art Gallery, Maya Allison, curated the exhibition with a curatorial intervention by Duygu Demir, Curator and Research Assistant Professor who recently joined NYUAD.
The two artists are joining forces to install an entire scenography, to be activated by performers in the next few months.
Allison commented, “Every time I embark on a new curatorial project, I ask the ‘why’ of art. This line of questioning is a bracing, uncomfortable process, but a very rewarding one because the answer changes depending on what is happening in the world. In Real Time emerges in response to a sense of urgency, today: perhaps art can offer something different from the news, from the scroll, and yet not distract us or make us forget.”
“As the show evolves, history unfolds around us. What do we need from a space for art in this particular moment, in this particular part of the world, in a university, in an academic gallery? I hope this exhibition allows for any number of responses,” she continued.
Over the past decade, NYUAD has seen major artist commissions, book publications, and historical research exhibitions from around the world, that contributed to its international recognition and awards.
It also supports the Project Space, an exhibition laboratory, for the academic and regional community, including MFA and undergraduate final projects, faculty-curated exhibitions, and the work of regional emerging artists.
Together, the spaces of NYUAD’s Art Gallery are utilised as a testing ground for curatorial strategies that refresh innovation regarding exhibition practices in the GCC, while maintaining dialogue with the international art scene.