This episode of The Misk Art Library Podcast explores Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan and pioneering Emirati artist Hassan Sharif. The conversation highlights AlDowayan’s evolving practice, the challenges of documenting art histories, and the pioneering experimentation of Hassan Sharif. Together they reflect on how archives sustain artistic legacies and how intergenerational dialogue enriches the contemporary art landscape.
Their work is celebrated in the Misk Art Library volumes Manal AlDowayan: Participatory Acts and Hassan Sharif: Woven.
00:00 Introduction
00:33 The Importance of Preserving Archives
01:55 AlDowayan's Early Journey
03:22 Catherine David on Hassan Sharif
05:43 Sharif’s Studies and Experiments
12:53 Themes in AlDowayan’s Work
14:00 Through Lines in Sharif’s Practice
18:23 Re-educating Audiences on Arab Art
22:10 Closing Thoughts
Hassan Sharif (1951-2016) is considered a pioneering conceptual artist and a leading figure in contemporary art in the Gulf region. Best known for his sculptural installations using everyday materials, his oeuvre also includes performance, painting, drawing, and weaving, covering themes such as the critique of mass consumption and industrialisation. Sharif was an influential educator, mentor, and critic who wrote prolifically and translated many critical texts to Arabic to make them accessible to people in the Emirates. He cofounded several platforms for artists to convene and to learn, encouraging innovation and experimentation in artmaking.
Catherine David is a French art historian, curator and museum director. From 1982 to 1990, she was Curator at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou and from 1990 to 1994 Curator at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris. From 1994 to 1997, she served as Artistic Director for documenta X in Kassel, Germany (1997), and from 1998 she has been Director of the long-term project Contemporary Arab Representations which began at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona. Between 2002 and 2004, she was Director of the Witte de With Center of Contemporary Art in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She currently works as Deputy Director of Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris.
Contemporary Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan (b. 1973, Dhahran) embraces themes of invisibility, active forgetting, archives, and collective memory with a focus on the condition of Saudi women and their representation. Through photography, sculpture, textiles, and participatory installations, she explores the spatial and social dynamics of public and private spheres. The artist thus expresses personal experiences and observations of time and space in order to resonate with a potentially broader audience.
Connect with Manal AlDowayan 👉 https://instagram.com/manaldowayan
Hosted by Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://instagram.com/mikey_mu
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