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If you’re looking for something to do tonight, Bon Jiri has a small bottom drawer drawing exhibition featuring 7 artists and 14 artworks. Generally the vibe at their small events are very cool so pass by if you feel like doing something. @bonjiri.yakitori
Kuwaiti artist Farah Behbehani was one of seven artists shortlisted for the third edition of Louvre Abu Dhabi ‘Art Here’.
This year ‘Art Here’ explores the theme of ‘Transparencies’ and Farah’s installation titled Hiya (She) is a homage to the 10th-century Syrian Muslim astronomer, Mariam Al-‘Ijliya who changed the face of astronomy by pioneering an early scientific instrument used to measure time and to calculate the position celestial bodies.
Farah’s installation is inspired by the Tughrul tower, a 12th-century brick tomb tower that also functions as an indicator of time. The original brick structure is recreated in colored glass, referencing the tradition of stained glass used in sacred monuments dating back to the Umayyad dynasty. The colors of the 48-paneled glass structure are based on the visible light spectrum, which varies in wavelength across the day. As light permeates the colored glass, it transforms throughout the day, painting its surroundings with a rich interplay of color and light.
Farah Behbehani is also shortlisted for The Richard Mille Art Prize 2023 with the winner taking home a $60,000 cash award.
If you’re in Abu Dhabi anytime in the next couple of months, Art Here 2023 is running till February 18th, 2024.
Last year I visited Riyadh to check out the Noor Festival, the largest light art festival in the world. Noor means light in Arabic and last year they had 44 different light installations spread across Riyadh and some were really epic. This year the festival is going to be even bigger with over 80 artists invited to participate.
Monira Al Qadiri (@moniraism), the Kuwaiti visual artist whom I’ve previously featured on the blog before is one of the artists invited to take part in the festival this year which starts on November 30th and continue till December 16th.
Visiting the different light installations is free and finding them is easy using the festival app.
If you’ve never been to Riyadh it’s a fun road trip if you want to drive down. Any resident of Kuwait can also apply for a Saudi tourism eVisa no matter of your nationality. There is a lot to do in Riyadh in terms of things to see and restaurants to experience. Last year I went for one night only because there were a handful of light installations I wanted to see but it was really hectic and I wished I stayed a night longer. You can do it in just a night if you really want but two nights would be much better experience.
For more information on the festival, visit @noorriyadhfestival or riyadhart.sa/en/noor-riyadh
One of my favorite museums in Kuwait is the Tareq Rajab Museum. I always found the museum interesting since it was packed with a vast variety of objects covering many different subjects. They have an incredible collection of over 30,000 pieces many of which can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Over a year ago, the museum closed for renovations but they’re now finally reopening again tomorrow (Oct 17).
The museum was originally founded in 1980 by Tareq S. Rajab and his wife, Jehan S. Rajab. A couple of years ago their grandson Tareq N. Rajab took over the responsibility of the family museum and started the process of rejuvenating it. He originally started with the website and Instagram account, that was followed by the creation of the new Arms & Armor wing of the museum before being handed the rest of the museum to renovate.
Tareq invited me to visit the museum for a sneak peek and although before visiting I was worried it might have lost its charm with the renovation, I’m pleased to say it hasn’t.
At first glance, the museum’s aesthetics remain largely unchanged, but there have been significant improvements. The displays, previously overcrowded and lacking descriptions, have been completely revamped. They are now curated with clear descriptions for every item. There is also a new and HUGE diorama in the museum depicting the famous “Battle of Hattin”. The diorama is composed of 3,500 tiny soldiers that were hand painted individually by Tareq, his dad and three other colleagues over a period of 14 months. There was clearly a lot of time and passion involved in the museum renovation.
If you’re looking for an interesting place to visit then I can’t recommend this museum enough. The entrance fee is still only 2KD and it also gives you access to the “Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Calligraphy” that’s located in the same neighborhood.
The opening hours are:
Saturday to Thursday: 9AM – 1PM & 4:30PM – 8:30PM
Friday: 9AM – 1PM
The museum is in Jabriya and here is the location on Google Maps.
Found these vintage ANSI art relating to the 1990 Gulf War and thought they were super interesting. I use to love ANSI and ASCII art back in the day and if I remember correctly, my first digital porn image I had was a black and white ASCII drawing sometime back in the 80s which a friend had given to me on a 5.25 floppy. Source
Onus is a glass installation by Kuwaiti visual artist Monira Al Qadiri. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the pictures and read the story behind it.
During the Gulf War, dead birds, fish, and animals regularly lined the coastline and deserts because of the massive toxic clouds fed by hundreds of torched oil wells. When images of these oil-drenched animals were shared in the news, many people thought they were fake and just propaganda. Monira learned of this misconception while she was studying at university in Japan and so Onus is her way of breathing life back into her memories by recreating these oil-drenched birds as glass objects.
If you’re in Berlin, Monira’s work is currently on display at the Koenig Galerie. If you want to see more of her work online, check out her Instagram @moniraism or website moniraalqadiri.com
I was going through some articles about Kuwaiti homes on Architectural Digest when one home caught my attention. The house had a giant bronze pumpkin by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in their courtyard. I recognized the pumpkin because I had previously come across photos of them nearly a decade ago when they were being exhibited outside in a garden at a gallery in London (see below).
So random that one of them ended up here in Kuwait. To get an idea on how much these sell for, Yayoi is considered to be the most expensive living female artist at auction and a smaller version of this pumpkin got sold for a million dollars back in 2017.
To check out all the photos from the house, here is a link to the article on Architectural Digest.
Pinot is a digital artist that was living in Kuwait up till 2014 and is incredibly talented in pixel art and animation using vintage computers. He gained worldwide fame through the service Vine which back before Twitter acquired it, used to allow users to share six-second-long looping video clips. Eventually a digital agency in New York found out about him and offered him a job so he packed up and left Kuwait with his family to work and live there. Since then he’s gotten even more popular with nearly 400K followers on Instagram and even ended up on an MKBHD episode where he showed Marques how to paint on an old Mac.
His Childish Gambino video that went viral
Sadly back in June he suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. Since then he’s been gradually progressing ever so slowly and eventually was taken off life support since he started breathing by himself. He also started making hand gestures and moving one of his arms and legs and is still slowly improving.
Art for Pinot is an initiative from the Indonesian NFT community to help him by inviting fellow creators to donate their artwork as a form of support. If you’re an artist reading this you can help by donating an artwork. For more information visit bit.ly/ArtforPino
If you’re not an artist but still want to help, there is a GoFundMe page.
If you’re just curious and want to check out some of Pinot’s work, his Instagram is @pinot and his twitter (which he posts animations in progress) is also @pinot
If you want to stay updated on his progress, his wife is sharing updates on her Instagram @ditut
If you’re an illustrator you might be interested in this. The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters is asking local artists to share illustrations with the theme of Cosmic Fantasy. There is no prize, it’s not a competition, but the best illustrations will eventually get featured on their Instagram account.
If you’re interested, more details are available here.
One thing to be careful of, according to the rules, they might choose to use your artwork for future campaigns and you won’t be paid for it. So you’d be providing campaign artwork for free which doesn’t seem very fair to the artist.
The Contemporary Art Platform is opening four different exhibitions tonight featuring:
I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi
DIVA! – Organized by the Italian Embassy
The opening is at 7:00PM and is free to attend. Here is the location on Google Maps