Abu Dhabi: A landmark exhibition that delves into the evolving artistic landscape of the GCC is set to open at the NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery on October 1. Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial features 21 artists and collectives from across the region, including the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. Set to recur every five years (a “quinquennial”), it captures key moments in the GCC’s arts scene since 2019, showcasing works across the fields of visual arts, architecture, and design, featuring painting, video, installation, and sculpture that reflect the region’s unique cultural and environmental landscapes.

Running until December 8, the launch of this quinquennial marks the Art Gallery’s 10th anniversary. Since its opening in 2014, the Art Gallery has played a key role in NYUAD’s emergence as a cultural destination on Saadiyat Island. By spotlighting both emerging and established voices that are shaping the region's vibrant arts scene, alongside artists from across the globe, the Art Gallery has fostered a rich and diverse cultural dialogue across the Gulf and on the global stage.

Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial is co-curated by Executive Director of the NYUAD Art Gallery Maya Allison and Art Gallery Curator and Research Assistant Professor Duygu Demir. Their work evolved out of dialogues with artists and curators from across the region, in particular four that became their curatorial interlocutors: Abdullah Al Mutairi, Ali Ismail Karimi, Aseel AlYaqoub, and Ayman Zedani. Rather than a comprehensive survey, this exhibition reflects on significant moments within the field of visual production from the last five years.

Featured in the exhibition are works by Alia Ahmad, Abdulrahim Alkendi, Mohammad AlFaraj, Noor Al-Fayez, Afra Al Dhaheri, Mohamed Almubarak, Sophia Al Maria, Mariam M. Alnoaimi, Christopher Joshua Benton, Sarah Brahim, Vikram Divecha, Faissal El-Malak, Hazem Harb, Aziz Motawa, Mohammad Sharaf, Shaima Al Tamimi, Ayman Zedani, and Bu Yousuf, as well as collaborative work, including by Civil Architecture (Hamed Bukhamseen and Ali Ismail Karimi); by Aseel AlYaqoub, Asaiel Al Saeed, Saphiya Abu Al-Maati, and Yousef Awaad Hussein; and by Camille Zakharia and Ali Ismail Karimi.

Commenting on the 10-year anniversary and the launch of this quinquennial, Allison said: “In the first decade of the NYUAD Art Gallery and Project Space, alongside our own development as a cultural institution, we have seen a proliferation of artists—thanks in part to the support of new initiatives across the Gulf—who are producing complex, nuanced, and provocative work, alongside their more seasoned peers. Expanded beyond a national arts landscape, this exhibition brings together and makes visible a larger shared ecosystem.  A distinct chapter has opened in the region, and on the global stage.”

Demir added: “The title of the first iteration, ‘Between the Tides,’ reflects the Gulf’s deep connection to lunar rhythms and a sense of time shaped by natural patterns. The exhibition showcases a wide variety of artistic styles, from emerging voices to well-known figures, and explores important themes like urban growth, environmental change, heritage, identity, and representation. During the research phase of this show, our conversations with the curatorial interlocutors, as well as the exchanges with the artists were immensely educational.”

Over the past 10 years, the gallery has presented a diverse program, including exhibitions featuring global artists alternating with explorations of the art and art history of the Gulf. Notable past exhibitions that focused on the Gulf included But We Cannot See Them (2017), a twenty-year survey of the UAE’s avant-garde art scene; Speculative Landscapes (2019), featuring four rising UAE-based artists; and Khaleej Modern (2022), which surveyed the emergence of modern art in the GCC.

-Ends-

About The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery 

www.nyuad-artgallery.org 
Established in 2014, the NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery is among the only university galleries in the region with a program of scholarly and experimental museum exhibitions. Supporting the progress made by other arts institutions within the UAE, the NYUAD Art Gallery and the projects it supports serve the local arts community as a testing ground for new and innovative curatorial approaches that nourish the dialogue around exhibition practice in the Gulf. The program is recognized for mapping new territories and ideas, presenting exhibitions by internationally established artists, curators, and scholars. A regular book publication program is a core part of its curatorial frame within its academic mission. In addition, its auxiliary venue, the Project Space is an exhibition laboratory for UAE-based artists and curators. Situated within NYU Abu Dhabi, the community of which hails from over 125 countries, the Art Gallery, the Project Space, and the Art Gallery's Reading Room collectively open up artistic opportunities and initiate regional and global dialogue. 

About NYU Abu Dhabi

www.nyuad.nyu.edu
NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. Times Higher Education ranks NYU among the top 30 universities in the world, making NYU Abu Dhabi the highest-ranked university in the UAE and MENA region. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective undergraduate curriculum across the disciplines with a world center for advanced research and scholarship. The university enables its students in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and arts to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from over 120 countries and speak over 100 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.