A new space in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) will be inaugurated tonight with a group exhibition by 13 GCC artists tackling the subject of pearl diving from a contemporary angle.
Cube Arts, a joint venture between Lulwah Al Homoud, Safa Al Hamed and Princess Reem Al Faisal, will, according to the founders, address a gap in the market.
"We are not opening a space to compete with all the others," says Homoud, the curator of the exhibition and an artist in her own right. "We are filling the gaps by promoting regional artists on an international level." The exhibition, Deep, is inspired by the region's history, which is forgotten, says Humoud, but it also has another meaning. The women, she says, want to change the image of artists from the Gulf, which is currently not authentic. "Reem and I have a mission," she says. "We are making a statement about who we are and where we belong. To understand our culture properly you have to go deep."
Cube Arts began as an initiative in London in 2010 and they organised a group show from 23 Saudi artists at the Shanghai World Expo that year. Nabatt: A Sense of Being was at the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art and an important international introduction for the fledging initiative. Humoud also curated a show at the Menasa Art Fair in Beirut in 2011 and finally decided to move to Dubai from London at the beginning of this year to set up Cube Arts.
The space will not only be a gallery but a three-storey, multifunctional centre hosting workshops, poetry recitals and film screenings.
Follow us
[ @LifeNationalUAE ]
