Ahmad Saeed Al Areef (born 1988, Al Ain, UAE) is an Emirati multidisciplinary artist. He acquired his Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from the College of Arts and Sciences at the American University of Sharjah (2012). The artist then pursued his Masters in Art History and Museum Management at Paris-Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi (2017). Over the past decade, Al Areef’s multidisciplinary artistic practice has become synonymous with conceptual photography, and he has recently broadened his scope of artistic mediums to include digital art, video installations, photo manipulation, oil on canvas and illustration, specifically ink on paper. He embeds historical symbols through contemporary mediums to represent and convey the significance of past cultures and heritages. He has been showcased both locally and abroad at numerous galleries and museum exhibitions. His recent exhibitions include: ‘Portrait of a Nation’, Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF), Abu Dhabi, 2016; ‘Portrait of a Nation’, ME Collectors Room Berlin/Olbricht Foundation, Berlin, 2017; ‘UAE Design Stories: The Next Generation from the Emirates’, Milan Design Week, Milan, 2018; ‘UAE Design Stories: Objects of the Past: Today’, London Design Fair, London, 2018; ‘UAE Design Stories’, UAE Cultural Week, Galerie Nikki, Paris, 2018; UAE ‘Design Stories: Design for Littles: Us, Ours, & Others’, Dubai Design Week, Dubai, 2018; ‘Beyond: Emerging Artists’, Abu Dhabi Art, Abu Dhabi, 2018; ‘Colour Bar: Colour, Space and Bits per Pixel’, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, 2019; Common Ground, Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi, 2020; Common Ground 2, Al Qattara Arts Centre, Al Ain, 2021. Al Areef is also an employee at the National Archives and similar to his art, his role reflects a desire to safeguard the UAE’s heritage and to enable it to flourish.
Ahmad Saeed Al Areef is a recipient of the Cultural Foundation Art Residency 2019.
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Working primarily with photography, video and performance, Farah Al Qasimi examines postcolonial structures of power, gender and taste in the Gulf Arab states.
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As Edward T.Hall said, “The relationship between man and the cultural dimension is one in which both man and his environment participate in molding each other”
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Sarah Alagroobi is a multidisciplinary artist and educator with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London.
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Mohammed Kazem (born 1969, Dubai) lives and works in Dubai. He has developed an artistic practice that encompasses video, photography and performance to find new ways of apprehending his environment and experiences.
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Khalid Mezaina graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2006 with a BS in Visual Communication.
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Aisha Al Ahmadi, born in 1997, and raised in Abu Dhabi, UAE, is an artist, writer, and aspiring curator.