Foundry opens five new exhibitions in Downtown Dubai art space

Highlights include an exhibition for Bangladesh Art Week and a solo presentation by Emirati artist Juma Alhaj

'Travel with Rostan' by Melodie Hojabr, on view at Foundry Downtown Dubai. Photo: Foundry

Foundry, an art space located in Downtown Dubai, is presenting five new shows with more than 10 artists beginning this month.

Among its latest presentations is an exhibition by Emirati artist Juma Alhaj, who contemplates the relationship between art and language. Raised between the UAE and US, Alhaj is a Sharjah native.

His meditative and abstract paintings are drawn from the artist’s own spiritual experiences, and his works reference ancient religious texts, as well as personal letters and notes. As such, his pieces can be interpreted from both universal and personal perspectives.

Another highlight is a curated section by Niharika Momtaz for Bangladesh Art Week, which will also have a presentation at Gulf Photo Plus that opens on Wednesday. As part of the event, Bengali artists such as Tayeba Begum Lipi, Ashfika Rahman and Yasmin Jahan Nupur will be featured, highlighting the country's artistic diversity.

Inside Foundry’s The Room, Zihan Karim showcases a video projection installation titled Parallel Expansion. The artist uses Mars as an entry point towards exploring concepts of space, encompassing macrocosms, planets, eclipses and unidentified moving objects.

In another Gallery 8, the private collection of Mojgan Endjavi Barbe, titled Once Upon a Time, will be on view. The group of works crosses various mediums, including calligraphy, photography and hand-sewn textile installations. Embedded are codes and signs from the artists and the visual storytellers included in the work who share their visions of the world.

The final section of Foundry’s new exhibitions is an NFT showcase curated by Morrow Collective. It is a hybrid show of physical and NFT formats with eight artists, centred on a curatorial theme of the circle as a metaphor for movement and speed, hinting at the acceleration of technology in the digital realm.

Titled Into the Revolution, the show features works by Saule Suleimenova, Ruba Salameh, Hazem Harb, Huma Shoaib Bashar Alhroub, Fethi Sahraoui, Abdullah Dhiaa Al-deen and Fink 22.

The shows are now on view at Foundry Downtown Dubai.

More information is at foundry.downtowndubai.ae