Pivotal works by Amar Kanwar to feature at Dubai’s Ishara Art Foundation

Ishara Art Foundation and The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery have opened exhibitions featuring solo projects by the critically acclaimed contemporary artist Amar Kanwar. The parallel presentation across two institutions will allow audiences in the UAE to fully explore Kanwar’s artistic practice through compelling multi-media installations.

Ishara Art Foundation, a non-profit institution dedicated to contemporary art from South Asia, will showcase the feature-length film installation ‘Such a Morning’ (2017) until 20 May, while The NYUAD Art Gallery, the university’s academic museum-gallery, is showing ‘The Sovereign Forest’ (2011) until 30 May.

Smita Prabhakar, Chairperson at Ishara Art Foundation, commented: “At Ishara Art Foundation we are committed to enriching the cultural sphere in the UAE, with insightful contemporary works of global relevance. We are thrilled to collaborate with The NYUAD Art Gallery on this exhibition, allowing both our organisations to make extraordinary works by a leading contemporary artist accessible to UAE audiences.”

Maya Allison, Chief Curator at NYU Abu Dhabi and Executive Director of The NYUAD Art Gallery, added: “The subject matter of both projects is complex, framed within deeply beautiful studies of their worlds. Presenting these two projects in parallel puts them into dialogue and allows us to reflect on the underlying themes that drive Amar Kanwar’s work. Together, these two projects offer a kind of call and response, along the themes of crime and grieving, and injustice and compassion, exploring new positions from which to respond.”

Still from Such A Morning

Such a Morning
Photo: Cathy Carver, Courtesy: Marian Goodman Gallery New York

The Sovereign Forest, 2012-2017
Photo: John Varghese, Courtesy: NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery