Aisha Alabbar Gallery is delighted to welcome summer with Press Print!, a group exhibition featuring work by 8 UAE-based artists: Azim Al Ghussein, Brian Gonzales, Diego Mendoza, Hala El Abora, Ji-Hye Kim, Khalid Mezaina, Safeya Sharif, and Salama Nasib.
Press Print! highlights printmaking practices in the UAE, demonstrating the inherent experimental potential and various techniques available to artists working today. Looking at the multitude of contemporary approaches, the artists explore a variety of subjects and create space for ideas, technology, and process. There will be an active public programme that includes a reading group, a series of talks about each artists’ work and collecting practices. Unique to the exhibition is a Print Exchange, a collection of limited edition prints by each of the 8-participating artists available for purchase.
Dubai-based illustrator and printmaker, Azim Al Ghussein experiments with image making methods and materials outside the conventional studio. Made using linocut, tetrapak drypoint and risograph techniques, Azim’s prints are thoughtful explorations of the capacity for sharing (and caring), distribution, and hospitality. UAE-based American printmaker and lecturer, Brian Gonzales presents a new series of CMYK screenprints depicting irrational compositions and vibrant colour schemes. The abstract prints that mark the artist’s sixth year in the UAE belong to Brian’s wider narrative unraveling endless enigmas. In a new series of etchings and screenprints, Diego Mendoza explores culture induced concepts of masculinity by layering multiple image transfer methods to create pattern compositions of overlapping imagery. With visual references to mythological, current, and cross-cultural representations of the subject, Diego portrays changing spectrums of measuring masculinity. Hala El Abora takes an experimental and interdisciplinary approach to materialise her printmaking process beyond the surface. Inspired by archiving practices, Hala’s work explores acts of preservation, merging the real and imaginary into permanent objects facing the test of time. Ji-Hye Kim conveys the question of self-identity by reflecting on the properties of the UAE’s rocky mountains against natural occurrences, such as rain and wind. In new large-scale monoprints, the artist traces the textures of these mountains as if recalling their memories and transformation overtime. Emirati artist Khalid Mezaina presents a new body of mixed media prints on paper and fabric, drawing from his research on regional and historical talismanic practices. In these works, Khalid repetitively uses simple shape stamps to compose images of movement rituals, such as dancing. Safeya Sharif explores the concept of selective memory in a new series of embossed and linocut prints. By isolating selected scenes of her signature endless hallways, Safeya highlights the correlation between memory and imagination. Salama Nasib presents a new series of prints as part of her continued exploration of memory. In this playful series, Salama looks at childhood desires to play, collaging a print illustration of her family home’s slide against screenprinted backdrops of the past.
