Christie’s Middle Eastern Contemporary Art Exhibition at DIFC, Dubai

Iconic artworks and installations from the Arab and African world are on display at Christie’s, DIFC, Dubai. The public exhibition is open till September 24^th, 2022 and is curated by Ridha Moumni, deputy chairman, Christie’s Middle East and North Africa and Meagan Kelly Horsman, Managing Director, Christies Middle East. This diverse collection of artworks is part of Christie’s forthcoming modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art auction to be held online in October and live in November.

Showcased among them are masterpieces by Lawrence Stephen Lowry, Mohammed Melehi, Monir Farmanfarmaian and Etel Adnan along with emerging and established artists from the region such as Ali Cherri, Dana Awartani, Ahmed Mater, and YZ Kami.

“We are bringing some stellar sale highlights to the region. The opportunity to appreciate these works in person and discuss collecting trends with our specialists are among the benefits of Christie’s presence in the market,” said Ridha Moumni, Deputy Chairman, Christie’s Middle East & North Africa.

As part of the exhibition visitors and collectors get to view Iraqi American artist Hayv Kahraman’s The Interpreter, 2016, oil on wood, Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s reverse glass mosaic Mirror Ball from the 1970s, a lightbox from Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed Mater entitled Evolution of Man (2010), Palestinian artist Hazem Harb’s Hollyland (2019) which layers acrylic lettering spelling out ‘Hollyland’ in Hollywood’s ubiquitous squared lettering over an archival photograph of Jerusalem as well as British art patron and philanthropist Robert Devereux’s Sina Jina Collection. Robert Devereux has supported the arts and artists since the 1980s and began acquiring works for his Sina Jina Collection in the early 2000s. Taking its name from Swahili, ‘sina jina’ means a place with no name, a phrase associated with Devereux’s house on the island of Lamu, Kenya.  Among the African works being shown are Ibrahim El-Salahi’s The Tree, an abstract geometric composition, part of a series referencing the native Haraz tree and Nigerian photographer Samuel Fosso’s The Chief: The One Who Sold Africa To The Colonists

Late British artist LS Lowry’s celebrated work Going To The March, 1928, also gets a special display wall. Estimated to be worth $ 5.7 m to $9.25 m, it captures the scene of a rugby match and depicts minute diversities of a crowd.