On view: March 15–April 27, 2014
Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards St. Houston, Texas 77007
Spring Street Studios, 1824 Spring St. Houston, TX 77007
Winter Street Studios, 2101 Winter St, Houston, TX 77007
Williams Towers, 2800 Post Oak Blvd. Houston, TX 77056
Installation view of Lalla Essaydi's photographs in the FotoFest 2014 Biennial View From Inside at FotoFest. Photo courtesy of Nash Baker.
The FotoFest 2014 Biennial, the much-acclaimed Fifteenth International Biennial of Photography in Houston, Texas, closed on April 27, 2014. The 2014 Biennial exhibition, VIEW FROM INSIDE: Contemporary Arab Video, Photography and Mixed Media Art , was an unprecedented presentation of 49 leading Arab artists from 13 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab program has been received enthusiastically locally and abroad, referred to as “perhaps the largest exhibition to date of contemporary Arab photography and mixed media” art by Al Jazeera America, and was covered significantly by international media outlets.
Alongside FotoFest’s own Arab exhibition, FotoFest organized 36 varied and dynamic programs featuring Arab art and artists, including; a day-long Conference on Contemporary Arab Visual Art; a Forum on Arabophobia; the Meeting Place Portfolio Review for artists; a multi-week Film Program with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the International Fine Print Auction; a Collectors Weekend; Arab music concerts; Poetry Events; an Educational Curriculum; and Tours for adults and students.
The six-week Biennial, and its 125 participating exhibitions and associated programs at museums, commercial art galleries, non-profit arts organizations, commercial and corporate spaces, attracted over 275,000 visitors from across the region, the country, and abroad, asserting itself again as the United States’ largest and longest-running international photography event.
The FotoFest 2014 Biennial has been lauded for both the Arab exhibition, and its work to foster cultural exchange and advance the recognition of the region as a rising cultural center. FotoFest brought prominent Arab scholars, publishers, gallerists, including Biennial Lead Curator Karin Adrian von Roques and 17 of the 49 featured Arab artists, to Houston for the opening festivities and conferences in March. FotoFest worked with a number of prominent galleries and cultural centers in the Middle East and around the world including: Athr Gallery (Jeddah); Ayyam Gallery (Dubai/London); Berloni Gallery (London); Cuadro Gallery (Dubai); Edge of Arabia (London); Edwynn Houk Gallery (New York); Empty Quarter Gallery (Dubai); Galerie L’Atelier 21 (Casablanca); Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Hamburg); The Third Line (Dubai); Rose Issa Projects (London); and Taymour Grahne Gallery (New York).
The artists featured in the 2014 Biennial Central Exhibition include:
Ebtisam AbdulAziz (UAE)
Khalil Abdul Wahid (UAE)
Ammar Al Beik (Syria)
Manal Al Dowayan (Saudi Arabia)
Shadia Alem (Saudi Arabia)
Reem Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia)
Sadik Alfraji (Iraq)
Tarek Al-Ghossein (Palestine/Kuwait)
Boushra Almutawakel (Yemen)
Khalifa Al Obaidly (Qatar)
Jowhara AlSaud (Saudi Arabia)
Sama Alshaibi (Iraq)
Karima Al Shomely (UAE)
Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Bin
Ahmad Al-Thani (Qatar)
Sami Al-Turki (Saudi Arabia)
Tammam Azzam (Syria
Lara Baladi (Egypt)
Hicham Benohoud (Morocco)
Ayman Yossri Daydban (Saudi Arabia)
Shady El-Noshokaty (Egypt)
Ayman El Semary (Egypt)
Lalla Essaydi (Morocco)
Mounir Fatmi (Morocco
Lamya Gargash (UAE)
Abdulnasser Gharem (Saudi Arabia
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Lebanon)
Khaled Hafez (Egypt)
Hassan Hajjaj (Morocco)
Rula Halawani (Palestine)
Nermine Hammam (Egypt)
Hazem Harb (Palestine)
Hazem Taha Hussein (Egypt)
Georges Fikry Ibrahim (Egypt)
Noel Jabbour (Palestine)
Ahmed Jadallah (Palestine)
Mohamed Kanoo (Bahrain)
Mohammed Kazem (UAE)
Huda Lutfi (Egypt)
Maha Malluh (Saudi Arabia)
Ahmed Mater (Saudi Arabia)
Hassan Meer (Oman)
Samer Mohdad (Lebanon)
Youssef Nabil (Egypt)
Ayman Ramadan (Egypt)
Steve Sabella (Palestine)
Faisal Samra (Saudi Arabia)
Wael Shawky (Egypt)
Camille Zakharia (Lebanon)
ADDITIONAL VIEW FROM INSIDE BIENNIAL PROGRAMS
FotoFest’s Arab exhibits are accompanied by six weeks of Arab programs, including artist roundtables, forums, academic symposia, Arab films, musical concerts, poetry readings, informal discussions between artists and curators, and programs on Arab culture for schools. FotoFest is partnering with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH); the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the Humanities Research Center at Rice University; and the Arab-American Cultural and Community Center of Houston on a number of these programs.
Other Biennial programming features FotoFest’s famous International Fine Print Auction and the sixteen-day international Meeting Place portfolio review for artists. One hundred independently organized art exhibitions and events will take place at spaces across the city, including: the MFAH, the Menil Collection, Holocaust Museum Houston, and the Station Museum of Art.
A new program in 2014 is the Collectors Weekend, a three-day event featuring two panels on collecting with international experts, exhibition tours with Arab artists, and a visit to the MFAH’s photographic print collection with MFAH photography curator Anne Wilkes Tucker and her newly appointed successor Malcolm Daniel. Attendees also receive reserved seats at the Biennial Fine Print Auction, with Sotheby’s Vice President Denise Bethel as auctioneer.
In addition to its partnerships with the MFAH and Rice University, FotoFest is working closely with prominent Arab organizations, regionally and nationally, particularly the Arab American Cultural and Community Center in Houston (ACC); the Middle Eastern Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin; and two New York-based art groups, ArteEast and Alwan for the Arts. FotoFest is collaborating with the MFAH film program and Alwan for the Arts on the Biennial’s Arab Film Program.
ADDITIONAL BIENNIAL PROGRAMS
The Meeting Place Portfolio Reviews for Artists, March 15 - April 2, 2014, is the largest program of its kind in the world, bringing together over 500 artists from 34 countries, and over 150 international professional decision-makers (curators, gallery directors, editors and others) for one-on-one meetings over the course of 16 days. The system established by the FotoFest Meeting Place has become the model for portfolio review programs globally, influencing portfolio review events in over 30 cities around the world. ArteEast and FotoFest will provide scholarships for U.S.-based Arab artists to participate in the Meeting Place.
Among the artist Workshops open to the public are: Inside the Collector’s Mind, with well-known New York-based photography collector and consultant, Alice Zimet, March 19, 2014; and Artist Books and Books on the Internet, with well-known San Francisco artist and founder of Malulu Editions, Luis Delgado and Steve Woodall, Director of the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago, March 24, 2014.
Accompanying the exhibitions, FotoFest and Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam published a 340 page, full-color book on Arab art, View From Inside, featuring work by all of the featured artists, along with essays by acclaimed Arab art scholars and curators: Karin Adrian von Roques (2014 Biennial Lead Curator); Dr. Claude Sui (Chief Curator of Photography, Reiss-Engelhorn Museum); Samer Mohdad (2014 Biennial Exhibiting Artist and co-Founder of the Fondation Arabe pour L’Image, Beirut); and Mona Khazindar (Director General, Institute du Monde Arabe). The essays examine the history of photography in the Middle East and North Africa, the evolution of the medium’s usage in the region and the current state of contemporary art in the Arab world. FotoFest Co-Founder and Artistic Director Wendy Watriss have written the introduction. The book is seen as the first serious reference on Contemporary Arab photography and video, and is being welcomed by researchers, scholars and curators. The View From Inside book is distributed by Ingram in North America, and Thames & Hudson overseas.
FotoFest’s Literacy Through Photography Education Program’s Biennial Curriculum is available free of charge online and will continue to be made available to interested educators. This curriculum uses the artists and artwork from the exhibitions to teach students grades 3-12 about art, writing, and the Arab World and its cultures.
THE CURATORS
KARIN ADRIAN VON ROQUES
For the past twenty years, Karin Adrian von Roques’ professional focus has been modern and contemporary art from the Middle East. Upon finishing her studies of Islamic Art in Bonn, Germany, she became interested in modern and contemporary art from Arab countries and pioneered academic exploration and exposure of outstanding artists in this field. She began a series of strategic programs to bring concepts central to the works of contemporary Arab artists to the attention of a broader public by means of museum and gallery exhibitions. Aware that contemporary art from Islamic countries takes place within a wider socio-political context and dialogue, Ms. von Roques has organized and participated in seminars, interviews, publications, and auctions throughout the world to generate intercultural dialogue on the subject of Arab culture.
Ms. von Roques has been an art advisor and art historian to numerous museums and has worked as a special consultant for Islamic exhibitions such as From Bagdad to Isafahan — Islamic Manuscripts and Miniatures, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, 1994–95. In 1997 she became the Founding Director of the Hesse Museum in Lugano, Switzerland focusing on programs about ethics and intercultural dialogue. She has curated more than twenty international museum and gallery exhibitions, among them: Written Cosmos — Arabic Calligraphy and Literature throughout the Centuries, Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt, Germany, 2004; Languages of the Desert — Contemporary Arab Art from the Gulf States, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Kunstmuseum) Bonn, Germany, 2005 (traveled to the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France, 2006; the Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2007; and Galleria Metropolitana, Barcelona, Spain, 2006); The Present Out of the Past Millennia — Contemporary Art from Egypt, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Kunstmuseum) Bonn, 2007; and The Art of Writing — Contemporary Calligraphy from Three Cultures, Art Forum, Kurhauskolonnaden, Wiesbaden, May 2011.
Among Ms. Von Roques’ writings and publications are: The Situation of Contemporary Arab Art, catalogue essay for the exhibition Languages of the Desert, Dumont Verlag Cologne, 2005; The Present Out of the Past Millennia — Contemporary Art from Egypt, catalogue essay for the exhibition of the same title, Wienand Verlag Cologne, 2007; and Perfect Harmony — The Calligraphy of Khaled Al Saai, catalogue essay for the retrospective of Khaled Al Saais work at Centre Culturel Francais de Damas, Syria, 2009.
WENDY WATRISS
Wendy Watriss is a Co-founder of FotoFest and has served as Artistic Director and Senior Curator since 1991. She has developed over 60 international exhibits for FotoFest, including path-breaking exhibits on Photography from China 1934-2008; AMERICAN VOICES - Latino photographers in the U.S., Photography from Latin America 1865-1994; photography from Central Europe; contemporary Mexican photography; the visual history of Kurdistan with Susan Meiselas; contemporary Korean photography; early 20th century and contemporary Russian photography; multi-media/new technology installations; and subjects such as the Global Water Crisis, The Global Environment, Guantanamo; Artists Responding to Violence; and Contemporary U.S. Photography. In 2009, she was the invited curator for international exhibitions of the Guangzhou 2009 Photo Biennial at the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China. From 1970-1991, Wendy Watriss worked as an award-winning international photojournalist and independent documentary photographer. She won the World Press Photo Award for Feature Stories and the Oskar Barnack Award - Leica in 1982; Interpress Photo in 1983; and Mid America Arts/National Endowment for the Arts in 1985.
2014 BIENNIAL SPONSORS
Generous funding for this publication, exhibition, and related programs is provided by:
The Brown Foundation Inc.; The Cullen Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; JP Morgan Chase Foundation; The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Houston Endowment, Inc.; Doubletree Hotel by Hilton Houston Downtown; The Wortham Foundation; FotoFest Board of Directors; Judith and Gamble Baldwin; Mary Lawrence Porter; Texas Commission on the Arts; Sidley & Austin LLP; Salient Partners; Chris Olsen; HexaGroup; iLand Internet Solutions; The Deal Company; Brookfield Office Properties; Williams Tower Gallery.
ARAB SPONSORS
FotoFest has received significant funding from Arab organizations in the Middle East, Europe, and Houston: ART JAMEEL
- Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives (Lead Sponsor); Middle East Trading Inc.; Ayyam Gallery; Athr
Gallery; The Levant Foundation (Houston); Edge of Arabia; The Crane Foundation (Houston); Tamer (SA’AID & The
Community); Berloni Gallery; Nijad and Zeina Fares (Houston).
Special support for the FotoFest 2014 Biennial Catalogue and the FotoFest Book on contemporary Arab photo-related art is provided by The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation in Houston.
2014 BIENNIAL ARAB PROGRAMMING SPONSORS
Athr Gallery; ArteEast (New York); Edge of Arabia; Ayyam Gallery; Contemporary Practices, Visual Arts from the Middle East; Arab Cultural and Community Center of Houston; Arab-American Educational Foundation (Houston); Inprint (Houston); Menil Collection (Houston); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Rice University (Houston); Rothko Chapel (Houston); and Aperio, Music of the Americas (Houston).
ART JAMEEL - Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives (Lead Sponsor); Middle East Trading Inc.; Ayyam Gallery (Dubai/London); Athr Gallery (Jeddah) ; The Levant Foundation (Houston); Edge of Arabia (London); The Crane Foundation (Houston); Tamer (SA’AID & The Community); Berloni Gallery (London); Nijad and Zeina Fares (Houston).
Media partners for the 2014 Biennial and the Arab programs are: Art in America Magazine, Contemporary Practices Magazine and Houston Public Media.
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