Authorities say Jean-Luc Martinez helped facilitate the Louvre’s purchase of objects illegally pillaged during the Arab Spring.
United Arab Emirates
UAE Sentenced a Palestinian Artist to Death for Drug Possession
The artist maintains she was framed after an Emirati police search found half a kilogram of cocaine in her Dubai apartment.
Parthenogenesis: Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian
This exhibition marks the artist trio’s first institutional solo show in the UAE, on view at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery until June 12.
The NYUAD Art Gallery Shows Rare Collection of Work From 1960s Iran, Turkey, and India
On view in Abu Dhabi until February 5, 2022, the paintings and sculptures in Modernisms shed new light on artists like Parviz Tanavoli, Fahrelnissa Zeid, and M.F. Husain.
First-ever Exhibition of Israeli Artists in the UAE Faces Calls for Boycott
“Opening the first exhibition of Israeli artists in the region is yet another attempt to popularize normalization.”
Palestinian Artist Pulls Out of Sharjah Exhibition Over UAE-Israel Diplomatic Agreement
“I could not have a relationship with a regime that is now officially complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestinians,” said Mohamed Badarne, a Berlin-based artist.
Adjaye Associates Is Building a Mosque, a Church, and a Synagogue in Abu Dhabi
The Abrahamic Family House, designed by Sir David Adjaye’s architecture firm, will be located on Saadiyat Island, not far from the new Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery Presents Speculative Landscapes
Artists Areej Kaoud, Ayman Zedani, Jumairy, and Raja’a Khalid probe questions of the United Arab Emirates’s landscape with a series of conceptual meditations on modern life in the UAE. On view through December 7, 2019.
Guggenheim and British Museum Refuse to Work with Human Rights Groups on Abu Dhabi Projects
Many reports have emerged of harsh labor conditions during the construction of museums on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, but the cultural institutions involved are showing no interest in discussing these violations with leading human rights groups.
Artist Imprisoned in Abu Dhabi Over Facebook Post
An artist was imprisoned in Abu Dhabi this week, but not for political activism, or any other reasons you might expect.
60 Art World Luminaries Pressure UAE on “Chilling Precedent” Set by Recent Bans
The directors of some of the world’s most important art institutions, including the Tate and MoMA, have written a letter to UAE-affiliated art organizations asserting that “artists and academics should be allowed free passage to conduct research and work that is done in a peaceful and productive manner.”
As Third Member Is Refused Entry to UAE, Gulf Labor Renews Pressure on Guggenheim
The news that a third member of the Gulf Labor Artist Coalition was barred from entering the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has many people wondering what this means for the future of the Gulf nation’s growing art community.