Mohammed Kazem on four decades of pushing the boundaries of Emirati art

Résumé détaillé

As his work goes on show at the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi, the pioneering Emirati artist reflects on the influence of mentor Hassan Sharif and his role in shaping the next generation of artists

Hail pellets broke through the awning. They pierced holes in the corrugated green plastic. Sunlight streamed through the holes the following morning, casting facsimile shapes of light in the shade. To the young Mohammed Kazem, the holes looked like eyes. They were on the blinds, in the shadows on the walls and on the ground, enveloping him from above, from below. The eyes changed as the day progressed. They grimaced. They frowned. They squinted as if mid-laugh. The setting and its interconnected state had taken on an anthropomorphic quality. Light and shadow had put on faces.

This was in the winter of 1996. Kazem was in the house of his mentor, the late artist Hassan Sharif. He commented on the faces he saw in the damage and Sharif brought out his camera, encouraging him to capture what he was seeing. Kazem began taking photographs of the awning and its shade. The close-ups resembled portraits. The series was titled Faces to Face. It was exhibited at the Sharjah Art Museum in 1998.

“We were preparing for a portrait exhibition,” Kazem says. “I didn’t have any work ready. Then, as I was looking at the damage to the awning caused by the hail and rain, I realised it looked like portraits. I started getting close, taking pictures with Sharif’s camera.”

Faces to Face will now be presented at the first Frieze Abu Dhabi, in an exhibition that puts old and new works by Kazem alongside those by multidisciplinary artist and curator Alia Zaal.

Taking place within the In Dialogue section, the exhibition is being overseen by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab. It is being presented as a conversation between two generations of Emirati artists. In a way, the presentation expands on a pair of exhibitions that the artists showed in tandem earlier this year at Gallery Isabelle.

In one space, Zaal presented large-scale paintings that depicted ruffled mangrove leaves and shadowy palms with impressionistic vigour. The other showed smaller landscape pieces that Kazem produced in the 1990s.

Kazem regards…

“I…

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