Jowhara Alsaud's New Year. Courtesy of the artist.
Bringing a fresh, new voice and perspective to the mainstream art circuit at Art Basel Miami Beach, ZOOM Contemporary Art Fair featured a cohesive perspective of exhibitions, styles, media, and genres permeating the burgeoning contemporary arts scene of the Middle Eastern Diaspora.
The response to Middle Eastern Art has been fantastic,” said Rifko Meier Director of Witzenhausen Gallery (New York/Amsterdam) who sold seven artworks by Saudi Arabian artist Jowhara Alsaud at the ZOOM debut. Alsaud’s work explores the language of censorship and anonymity; line drawings on the photograph omit faces and skin, keeping only the essentials although the viewer can interpret the action, spirit, and sense of mood and space. Jowhara started working with this subject after noticing commercial photos altered in Saudi Arabia, seeing “skirts lengthened and sleeves crudely added with black markers in magazines or blurred out faces on billboards.” She then applied the censors’ language to her personal photographs.
Exploring an unconventional framework, ZOOM’s Selection Committee was comprised of curators Sam Bardaouil (Art Reoriented) and Shamim M. Momin (Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and formerly the Whitney Museum), who together with Director Angeliki Georgiou produced an intimate collection of 20 exhibitions showcasing artists by non-profit organizations and galleries from 11 countries.
Meier said of the first showcase in America, “You have to understand, collectors here are not used to many Middle Eastern exhibitions in the past, so everything coming now is maybe received first time, holding back and seeing what the quality is – or seeing what the subject is. But then viewing the art fair where the standard was very high in curators, big collectors, and the galleries present – collectors were very pleasantly surprised and happy that they saw magnificent art.”
Indeed those selected represent the crème de la crème and most ambitious spaces dealing in Middle Eastern Art today, including commercial experts like the 15-year-old Green Art Gallery of Dubai and New York’s LTMH Gallery – which feature a stable of well known and emerging artists of Middle Eastern descent – and the prominent non-profits like Sharjah’s Barjeel Art Foundation and Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery.
The inaugural opening night welcomed an array of visitors including Director Glenn D. Lowry of The Museum of Modern Art, internationally acclaimed Iranian artist, Shirin Neshat, the Jewish Consulate, and Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Gongora.
Director of ZOOM Art Fair Angeliki Georgiou stated, “With the growing visibility of Middle Eastern artists throughout the international art community and the art market alike, ZOOM aims to take a closer look at the diverse art trends currently pervading the region. Georgiou also added, “we wanted to be inclusive and not follow politics – this was about the art and the artists. We concentrated on all the regions including the wonderful Israeli organization Artis(New York/Tel Aviv) which brings a lot to the table.” Artis, an independent non-profit that supports and promotes the Israeli contemporary art community throughout the world was one of ZOOM’s Exhibiting Partners that also included partners: Townhouse (Cairo), Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah), Artist Pension Trust (Global), Artis (NYC/Tel Aviv), Outlet Independent Art Space (Istanbul), ArteEast (NYC), LTMH Gallery (NYC) and AYYAM Gallery (Dubai).
Georgiou was first approached by South Seas Hotel owners to develop an art fair and in the beginning, “I was very hesitant, in fact, because it’s a lot of work and there were already enough art fairs. However, after paying attention to what was going on in the Middle Eastern Diaspora…we thought to introduce this genre under one fair in the United States. It’s different to do a Contemporary Middle Eastern art fair here especially when you bring together countries like Beirut, United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, or Egypt. We wanted to debut the concept in Art Basel Miami because it still remains the most important art fair in the United States and there is a large untapped market of Latin American collectors of Arab descent. For America it’s necessary, and under this auspice we can show art and open the possibilities of language, dialogue, perception.”
William Wells, Founder of The Townhouse Gallery Cairo and ZOOM Exhibiting Partner, said, “One of the reasons I agreed to participate, although I would never organize a fair with a focus on contextualizing an artist from a region is I believe in America it’s still needed. I am so amazed at the lack of information when I sometimes hear discussions that are taking place in America. The information that people, for example, receive on CNN is so much different then the CNN the International community receives. Yes, so I think it was important to participate in this fair – I have had so many interesting conversations and discussions over the last couple days.”
Accompanying the exhibitions was a series of performances and debates hosted at The Bass Museum aimed at fostering an interconnected discourse and enlightening guests on this geographic configuration fragmented within the broader context of the international art fair. " It’s the beginning in trying to pave the way of education,” says Georgiou.
In addition, discussions continued in and around the South Seas Hotel and to foster a sense of community, ZOOM had everyone stay at the hotel for accommodations including the galleries, artists, non-profits, and debate panelists like Jessica Morgan Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art Tate Modern, and Susan Cotter, Curator of Exhibitions, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
“Being in hotel has its positives and its negatives but we took a different approach in terms of creating a small art fair. So it’s not just the fair but it’s waking up in the morning and having an opportunity to have breakfast and a discussion.”
Jennifer Doran, of Robischon Gallery, who sold, Halim Alkarim Urban Witness 1 at the new fair, said, “Everyone that came felt like they were in a different kind of fair ‘experience’ and were touched by the artworks. I mean people stayed for a long time, they asked questions, they took it in…collectors were really struck and intrigued by the quality of artwork. Alkarim’s artwork is not a Middle Eastern issue but a human issue and right away he takes you into the work—it’s beyond any one nation.”
“For an introductory fair, I am very pleased and considering it’s the first fair of this genre, we sold 14 pieces and the galleries were pleasantly surprised.” Georgiou stated. Edge of Arabia Director Stephen Stapleton representing Saudi Arabian Artist Dr. Ahmed Mater, stated, “We sold a few pieces, ‘Edition of the Evolution of Man’ to New York collector Jerome Stern, and an Edition of the Yellow Cow prints to a University of Minneapolis collector.” Mater is one of Saudi Arabia’s most celebrated young artists. The King of Saudi Arabia officially opened his last solo exhibition and Libyan Princess Alia Al-Senussi is a fan. Not only an artist, but also a medical doctor, ZOOM hosted Mater’s first US book launch and the artist was present for book signings.
Jowhara Alsaud, Fan, 2010, Courtesy of the artist.
