Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist
Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates
In the making for several years, this landmark retrospective will include Hassan Sharif’s diverse body of work from the early 1970s to 2016. On view in Al Mureijah Square and Bait Al Serkal, Arts Square, the exhibition will encompass Sharif’s early newspaper caricature and comic strip drawings, ‘semi-system’ works, performances, paintings and ‘urban archeology’ objects. The exhibition will also feature artworks specifically commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi.
This retrospective is the culmination of Sharif’s long and storied history with the Emirate of Sharjah, where he first began staging interventions and exhibitions of contemporary art. He pursued this interest in earnest when he returned to the UAE from London after graduating from The Byam Shaw School of Art in 1984. Moving between roles as an artist, educator, critic and writer, Sharif not only sought to encourage Emirati audiences to engage with contemporary art in exhibitions but also on the page, through his Arabic translations of historical art texts and manifestos.
His work also included the founding or co-founding of the Emirates Fine Arts Society, Sharjah (1980); Al Mareija Art Atelier, Sharjah (1984); Art Atelier in the Youth Theatre and Arts, Dubai (1987) and The Flying House, Dubai (2007)—all organisations that have supported interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary art in the Emirates through mentorship and exhibition.