Dar Al Funoon opening 30 September 30th 7-9pm

Dar Al Funoon cordially invites you to its 7th Affordable Art Show

The show will feature a rich variety of styles ranging from works on paper, limited editions and originals by local and international young, emerging and established artists.

Opening Tuesday September 30th, 2014 from 7 - 9 pm at Dar Al Funoon, and continuing till Thursday October 2nd, 2014.

See attachment for details.

My new work exhibited tonight at CAP Kuwait

left: 'The one, the two... and the ten thousand things,' right: 'One Thousand and One,'
acrylic on MDF board, approximately 60 cm x 60 cm, 2014

My new paintings will be exhibited at 'TALK LOVE … ACT PEACE' opening Sunday, September 21st, 6:30-9:30pm at Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait. The charity art exhibition showcases diverse art from around the world to help fund children in Gaza, in collaboration with Gassan Kanafani Foundation, and to fund Kuwait's Child Rights Association. Hosted by the extraordinary Amira Behbehani and in celebration of Global Peace Day and Peace One Day - Kuwait. Hope to see you there tonight!  ‪#‎capkuwait ‬‪#‎peaceoneday ‬ ‪#‎peaceonedaykuwait ‬ ‪#‎kuwait‬. 

Charity art exhibition opens Sept. 21 at CAP Kuwait

Dear friends, 

You are invited to the charity art exhibition "Talk Love... Act Peace" opening on Sunday, September 21 from 6:30-9:30pm. A number of AUK students and faculty, including Najd Al Taher, Sundos Al Bulushi, Prof. George Bauer,  Prof. Maryam Hosseinnia and myself will be exhibiting artwork (see below for more info). The show will also be up for two weeks if you miss the opening night!

Hope to see you at the exhibit!

IVAN: The Reconstruction of Narcissism

IVAN: The Reconstruction of Narcissism, a debut composition by POWERHOUSE, explores the notion of using architecture and design as a vehicle for self-transformation by holding the design philosophy : “We are products of our products, therefore our products must reflect and encourage our own self development.” Rather than taking the approach from a conventional design perspective, POWERHOUSE brings artistic motivations to the fore, thus reconstituting the traditional role of the viewer from audience member to user.

Narcissism, as it is defined today, is a surrounded by a stigma of shallow self-obsession, discouraging true objective introspection. However, in their retelling of The Myth of Narcissus, POWERHOUSE imparts new potentiality on the ‘narcissistic condition’, expanding it to a state of revelation rather than one of self-infatuation. In this re-imagined, revelatory state, the water reflects a transcendent and transformed Narcissus, one free from external and internal compunction. This reconstruction presents narcissism as the acme of the human experience and as a product of complexity, rather than superficiality and obsession.

Each of the pieces encourage a stage of development through their individual characteristics, from form to function. The pieces Dither and Mull embolden the reconstructive process of narcissism, facilitating the users potential to develop. Adamantine and N+ stimulate the final stages of reconstruction, assisting the user’s culmination in this evolutionary process. The central piece of the environment, Ivan, serves as a division, or barrier of consciousness, by separating the pieces; urging the user to advance and progress. Together, the pieces serve to vitalize, and ease the user through the stages of this reconstructed narcissism.

The environment created is magnified by the implementation and focus on texture, specifically of those materials re-examined from the Kuwaiti industrial market. POWERHOUSE reintroduces outdated materials, which are the majority of what is currently available in this market, to create a hyper modern aesthetic while maintaining the practicality of function. Echo, an encompassing soundscape by Chicago’s The-Drum, completes the environment of IVAN – an experience which beseeches the viewer to seize the opportunity to reflect, to reverberate within one’s own interior long enough so that eventually, the deep, muddled desire to reconstruct our own reality grows as clear as our mirrored image.

POWERHOUSE is a composition initiative.

Nanu Al-Hamad (Al-Hamad Design) Kuwait / New York

Max Ketant (MEGA.DOPE.POP) Haiti / New York

Nanu Al-Hamad

Nanu Al-Hamad is an award-winning industrial designer and artist.  His work as founder and Director of Design of the Al-Hamad Design Studio, a design firm focusing on high-end furniture, lighting, object design, and custom made pieces, is shaping a new movement in design.  He was awarded the 2012 A’ Design Award in Furniture for his modular Gibbous chair and ottoman.  Working between west and east, Al-Hamad has shown work in Kuwait and New York. Additionally, Al-Hamad is a member of the arab gulf GCC art collective, who are showed this past fall at Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany, Sultan Gallery in Kuwait, Project Native Informant in London, and Gallery Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin.

Max Ketant

Max Ketant is a New York based conceptual designer and creative director fusing elements of magic realism, mythology and graphic design. His work through MEGA.DOPE.POP. focuses on the use of fantasy narrative to resolve the contradiction between dream and reality. His most recent show SVN: Hi Fi created a new discourse in the art experience where he reimagined a living space as a movie set where in which viewers became active participants in the exhibition. With his iconographic art house MEGA.DOPE.POP. he intends to translate quantum mechanics into an aesthetic media that will create a global discussion on contemporary mythology through the use of design.

"Aesthetic Afterlife" opens at the Haggerty Museum of Art on January 22

Aesthetic Afterlife, an exhibition by the Chipstone Foundation, opens at the Haggerty Museum of Art on January 22 and includes artwork by William Andersen, Niki Johnson, Yevgeniya Kaganovich, Heather McCalla, Jason Ramey, and Hongtao Zhou. Four exhibits will be opening that evening with Brian Ulrich lecturing at 6:00PM as part of the opening.

For more info click here and here.

Global Nomad Chic, 2008-10, traditional Kuwaiti clothing made with faux

Takashi Murakami’s LV cloth, approximately 178 x 163 x 31 cm

Global Nomad Chic, 2008-10, traditional Kuwaiti clothing made with faux

Takashi Murakami’s LV cloth, approximately 178 x 163 x 31 cm

Mierwaqi (Milwaukee in Pinyin Chinese) Electric Chainsaw, 2005-07, acrylic 
and oil enamel on Milwaukee Electric Tool chainsaw, 21 x 77 x 26 cm

Mierwaqi (Milwaukee in Pinyin Chinese) Electric Drill, 2005-07, acrylic 
and oil enamel on Milwaukee Electric Tool drill, 8 x 25 x 20 cm

Mierwaqi (Milwaukee in Pinyin Chinese) Electric Grinder, 2005-07, acrylic 
and oil enamel on Milwaukee Electric Tool grinder, 16 x 57 x 21 cm

Don't miss this!

"Muhawwil" is a four-channel video installation based on Islamic figurative murals painted on electric power stations in Kuwait. These murals mark a transformation in religious discourse within Gulf societies: where once only calligraphic depictions of this nature were allowed, today’s pop-culture and mass-production of images have forced conservative entities to reconsider this tradition and take up a mutated technique to convey moral advice - wall paintings. This project reconstructs these paintings into animation, so as to highlight the dilemma of representation that exists between the ancient and the modern.

This project was produced with the support of The Arab Fund for Arts & Culture (AFAC).

About the artist:

Monira Al Qadiri is a Kuwaiti artist born in Senegal and educated in Japan. In 2010, she received a Ph.D. in inter-media art from Tokyo University of the Arts. Her research is focused on the aesthetics of sadness in the Middle-East, and her works explore the dysfunctional gender roles in Arab societies, as well as the displacement of cultural and religious identities. She has held solo exhibitions in Japan & Kuwait, and participated in collective exhibitions and screenings in Dubai, Beirut, New York, London, Berlin, Paris & Shanghai among others. She is also a member of the artist collective GCC.

For more information please go to:

 www.moniraalqadiri.com 

Gallery opening hours:

Opening 21st January 7-9pm

22nd until 28th January 6-9pm

(closed on Friday & Saturday)

Student Recycled Art Competition @ The Avenues

The next phase of AUK students' participation in the REUSE competition will take place at the Avenues from January 9-11, 10am-10pm. The public will be able to vote for their favorite artwork made from recycled materials. Twelve winners of AUK's own REUSE Exhibition will have their artwork compete against artwork from other local university students. Attached is the poster for the REUSE Recycled Art Competition @ The Avenues, in English and Arabic.  

Further information: http://bit.ly/1hqeaoI

Please come and support the our participating students!

REUSE Exhibition Opens 28 November 12 noon!

On behalf of the AUK Department of Art and Graphic Design and AUK Library, you are cordially invited to attend the REUSE Exhibition that opens tomorrow, November 28th, at 12pm noon.  

Student artwork made from scrap / recycled materials will be displayed in this exhibition that promotes environmental sustainability while creating a platform on which aspiring young artists can share their work. Winning artwork from this event will later be exhibited with student artworks from other educational institutions and will compete with each other for the best works made entirely out of scrap / recycled materials. This student exhibition is part of 'The en.v Initiative", an organisation promoting social responsibility in the Arab world. 

The show runs through December 8th, 2013 and will be held in the AUK Library.

AUK Library Hours

Regular working hours 

Sunday - Thursday	8:00am-9:00pm
Friday	Closed
Saturday	12:00pm-6:00pm

Exhibit Opening on Monday, 28th October

Dar Al Funoon Gallery: Hussein Baalbaki Posted: 13 Oct 2013 12:22 AM PDT Opening on Monday, 28th October, 2013 at 7pm. Born in 1974 in Beirut, Lebanon, Hussein Baalbaki is a contemporary artist...

4 exhibits opening Sunday 27 October

Nice to see so many art exhibits opening in the little art world of Kuwait, but why do they all have to be on the same night and in different parts of the city?

AL Mashreq Gallery: Let’s Start With Love by Afaf Al Essa Posted: 24 Oct 2013 01:36 AM PDT Opening is on Sunday, 27th of October, 2013 at 7pm With her keen eye for vibrant colors she uses her...

FA Gallery: Artists from Bahrain Posted: 24 Oct 2013 01:26 AM PDT Opening is on Sunday, 27th of October, 2013 at 7 pm Artists from Bahrain : Ahmad Anan, Mohammed Al Mahdi,...

Gallery Tilal: Art Syria Posted: 24 Oct 2013 01:19 AM PDT Opening is on Sunday, 27th of October, 2013 at 6 pm Exhibition features works of six artists from Syria. Exhibition... There is also an exhibition at the Kuwait Arts Association on Sunday @7pm as part of the International Conference of Contemporary Art  2013.  Not much info but see this: KUNA : Arts Association hosts int''l contemporary art conf. Oct 27 - Arts & Culture - 21/10/2013 www.kuna.net.kw

art exhibit Oct. 4-5 for the benefit of Zamboanga!

Makulay's first ever group exhibition for the benefit of Zamboanga in the Philippines! October 4-5 at Galleria 2000!

GCC exhibit opening TONIGHT!

A Space for National Achievement
Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
October 1st – 31st 2013

Achievements are marked by and created through awards and ceremony. The combination of object and event creates a spectacle intended to impose specific impressions onto individuals, groups and even the nation as a whole. Within our region the individual stands in for their family, and subsequently the nation. Although we are often hailed as part of a cohesive whole, our individual actions-and as a consequence our achievements-become the defining factor of a broader social and political structure. A Space for National Achievement calls into question the accumulation of superlatives, and asks us to contend with the disconnect between a lavish award and the achievement it recognizes. This relationship becomes a way to manage image and control perception. In our societies awards merely reinforce what already exists, rather than mark material gains. This symbolic power is actualized in this exhibition, which asks us to consider how national achievement is situated. In fact, these discourses are part of a systematic framework that organizes our existence.

About GCC:

The basic objectives of the GCC are to effect collaboration, transformation and inter-connection between Artists in all fields in order to achieve unity between them: Being fully aware of the ties of special relations, common characteristics and similar systems founded on the creed of Art which bind them; and in conformity with the Charter of the Federation of Gulf Artists which calls for the realization of closer relations and stronger bonds; and having the conviction that coordination, cooperation, and integration between them serve the sublime objectives of the GCC; and,
In order to channel their efforts to reinforce and serve Gulf and Artistic causes.

www.gccdomain.com

Continuum 2013: CLOSING RECEPTION this Friday 5 -8 pm, September 27, Gallery Talk, 5:30pm

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Continuum 2013: A retrospective exhibition of work by Denis Sargent and selected work of former students

EXHIBITION DATES: August 30 through September 27
CLOSING RECEPTION: Friday 5 -8 pm, September 27, Gallery Talk, 5:30 pm

Arts Center Gallery is located at 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd., above the Theatre lobby. 

Beginning 09/04/2013, Gallery hours are:

Wednesday 10:00am - 6:30pm
Thursday 10:00am - 6:30 pm
Sunday 1:00pm - 5:00 pm

Professor Denis Sargent retired in May 2013.

Continuum 2013: In Retrospect celebrates Denis’ significant contributions to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts, and the Department of Art and Design with an exhibition of Denis’ artwork and the selected work of his former students.

If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Art and Design office by telephone at (414) 229-4200 or e-mail at art-continuum@uwm.edu.

In the AUK News!

A group photo for AUK faculty and staff (from Left): Raymond Farrin, Associate Professor of Arabic; Asmaa Al Kanan, Library Director; Antonia Stamos, Assistant Professor of Art History; Pellegrino Luciano, Assistant Professor of Anthropology; William Andersen, Assistant Professor of Studio Arts / Graphic Design; and Stephanie Cheng, Assistant Professor of Music

Click on the link to AUK: News

As part of Kuwait's celebration of Global Peace Day, an exhibition entitled 'In the Name of Peace' is showcasing interpretations of 'peace' by local and international artists. The exhibition is being held at the Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) and is featuring pieces by AUK Graphic Design Professors Maryam Hosseinnia and William Andersen, as well as pieces by AUK alumnus Faisal Mohammad. 

'In the Name of Peace' was launched on September 15th and will run through to mid-October. Part of the proceeds collected from sold items will be donated to Khair Al-Kuwait, a non-profit foundation devoted to the concept of volunteerism, and Loyac, a non-profit organization working towards the overall development of the youth. The celebration of Global Peace Day also includes live music and activities for children, which will be held at the CAP Kuwait Warehouse on September 21st, starting at 5:30pm, as well as a 'Global Peace Ride' by the Kuwait Riders and Phoenician Riders from Costa Bedai on September 20th at 4:00pm. 

The AUK Art and Graphic Department invites you to participate and contribute....in the name of peace. 

TONIGHT Global Peace Day MUSIC & KIDS!

As part of Kuwait’s celebration of Global Peace Day, an exhibition entitled ‘In the Name of Peace’ is showcasing interpretations of ‘peace’ by local and international artists. The exhibition is being held at the Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) and is featuring pieces by AUK Graphic Design Professors Maryam Hosseinnia and William Andersen, as well as pieces by AUK alumnus Faisal Mohammad.

‘In the Name of Peace’ was launched on September 15th continues through mid-October. Part of the proceeds collected from sold items will be donated to Khair Al-Kuwait, a non-profit foundation devoted to the concept of volunteerism, and Loyac, a non-profit organization working towards the overall development of the youth. The celebration of Global Peace Day also includes live music and activities for children, which will be held at the CAP Kuwait Warehouse on September 21st, starting at 5:30pm, as well as a ‘Global Peace Ride’ by the Kuwait Riders and Phoenician Riders from Costa Bedai on September 20th at 4:00pm.

The AUK Art and Graphic Design Department invites you to participate and contribute…in the name of peace.

أساتذة و خريجو الجامعة الأمريكية يلتقون "باسم السلام"

يشارك اساتذة الفن التشكيلي و التصميم الجرافيكي بالجامعة الامريكية في الكويت بالمعرض الفني الذي تقيمه قاعة كاب للفنون تحت عنوان "باسم السلام"، و الذي يأتي ضمن احتفالات اليوم العالمي للسلام. و قد قدم كل من الاستاذة مريم حسينية و الاستاذوليام اندرسن أعمالهم الفنية التي تعبر عن مفاهيم السلام، كما يشارك في المعرض خريج الجامعة الامريكية، فيصل محمد، ضمن كوكبة من الفنانين التشكيليين المحليينو العالميين.

تم افتتاح المعرض يوم 15 سبتمبر و يستمر على مدار شهر، حيث يتخلله عدةفعاليات ترفيهية و ثقافية تقام على هامش المعرض.  و يذكر أن جزء من عائد المعرضسوف يتم تخصيصه لدعم منظمات انسانية وخيرية كما هو الحال سنوياً بجميعفعاليات  "يوم السلام "  في مختلف انحاء العالم. 

GLOBAL PEACE RIDE TODAY!

As part of Kuwait’s celebration of Global Peace Day, an exhibition entitled ‘In the Name of Peace’ is showcasing interpretations of ‘peace’ by local and international artists. The exhibition is being held at the Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) and is featuring pieces by AUK Graphic Design Professors Maryam Hosseinnia and William Andersen, as well as pieces by AUK alumnus Faisal Mohammad.

‘In the Name of Peace’ was launched on September 15th continues through mid-October. Part of the proceeds collected from sold items will be donated to Khair Al-Kuwait, a non-profit foundation devoted to the concept of volunteerism, and Loyac, a non-profit organization working towards the overall development of the youth. The celebration of Global Peace Day also includes live music and activities for children, which will be held at the CAP Kuwait Warehouse on September 21st, starting at 5:30pm, as well as a ‘Global Peace Ride’ by the Kuwait Riders and Phoenician Riders from Costa Bedai on September 20th at 4:00pm.

The AUK Art and Graphic Design Department invites you to participate and contribute…in the name of peace.

أساتذة و خريجو الجامعة الأمريكية يلتقون "باسم السلام"

يشارك اساتذة الفن التشكيلي و التصميم الجرافيكي بالجامعة الامريكية في الكويت بالمعرض الفني الذي تقيمه قاعة كاب للفنون تحت عنوان "باسم السلام"، و الذي يأتي ضمن احتفالات اليوم العالمي للسلام. و قد قدم كل من الاستاذة مريم حسينية و الاستاذوليام اندرسن أعمالهم الفنية التي تعبر عن مفاهيم السلام، كما يشارك في المعرض خريج الجامعة الامريكية، فيصل محمد، ضمن كوكبة من الفنانين التشكيليين المحليينو العالميين.

تم افتتاح المعرض يوم 15 سبتمبر و يستمر على مدار شهر، حيث يتخلله عدةفعاليات ترفيهية و ثقافية تقام على هامش المعرض.  و يذكر أن جزء من عائد المعرضسوف يتم تخصيصه لدعم منظمات انسانية وخيرية كما هو الحال سنوياً بجميعفعاليات  "يوم السلام "  في مختلف انحاء العالم.