Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi’s whimsical multidisciplinary works are the subject of a major solo exhibition opening this week at the Sharjah Art Foundation. The show explores the Gulf’s rapid development and its impact on culture and society. Also at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Chilean artist Jorge Tacla presents paintings that capture the aftermath of tragedy and destruction. Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, a new government-backed support scheme aims to lure more collectors to the capital.
Titled after a line from a T.S. Eliot poem, Time the destroyer is time the preserver explores how enduring truths can be excavated in the aftermath of tragedy and destruction. Divided into eight chapters and curated by Her Highness Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, with Abdulla Aljanahi, the foundation’s curatorial assistant, this largest solo presentation to date by Chilean Jorge Tacla confronts the hierarchies of human suffering, the blurred lines between victim and actor, and the violence that connects seemingly unrelated incidents.
Amid contemporary visual culture dominated by machine vision, Tacla’s poignant paintings reassert the urgency of human memory in navigating the complexities of representation and interpretation.
