Celebrating five years of its multidisciplinary space Concrete, Alserkal Avenue is presenting a rare solo presentation of work by artist Rana Begum. This will be the artist’s largest solo exhibition in the region to date and will include works that have not been shown in the region before. Begum’s work will explore the interaction of light, colour and form in dialogue with OMA’s Concrete, responding to the building’s architectural conversation with light and form, captured in its minimalist lines.The exhibition is curated by Dr Cliff Lauson.

Concrete was launched in 2017 and is the first OMA-designed building in the UAE. Since its opening, the brutalist structure has hosted numerous group exhibitions showcasing a rich and diverse programme, in partnership with arts institutions, such as the Atassi Foundation, Samdani art Foundation, Victoria and Albert Museum London, and Hayward Gallery, among others. To celebrate five years of Concrete’s legacy in the arts, Alserkal Avenue has chosen to work with Rana Begum, who is known for using industrial materials, repeating geometric patterns and colours that interact with the surrounding architecture. The artist has a long-standing relationship with the region, being represented by Dubai-based gallery The Third Line and having completed a commission for a show at Concrete in November 2019.

The unmissable works on display will include No. 1228 Mesh (2023) a large-scale suspended mesh ‘cloud’, and No. 1079 Painting Large (MG) (2021), an epic ten-meter wide colour-field canvas. Several wall-based works use different materials and forms to reveal the interplay of light and space, while others, including No. 1227 Net (2023) and No. 1229 Wall Drawing (2023), will be site-specific installations, responding to the architecture around them. Also included is No. 1080 Forest (MG) (2021), Begum’s first video installation, a time-lapse study of natural light as it falls through the forest canopy. No. 694 Hyetal(2016) is the artist’s only work to combine artificial illumination and movement in a dynamic interplay will be featured, after having been recently included in Uncombed, Unforseen, Unconstrained, an exhibition presented alongside last year’s Venice Biennale. The exhibition will also feature spectacular outdoor commission in the yard, the latest iteration of the artist’s sculptural compositions comprised of colourful tessellated mesh panels.

Speaking on the exhibition’s iteration in Concrete, Begum said: “This show means a lot to me, bringing together the varying strands of my work in a narrative that continues to inform and push my practice. In each touring location, Dappled Light has transformed to create a new experience, a new narrative. I am so excited to bring it to Concrete and see how it responds to the vast architecture. The geometric brutalism reflects my exploration into urban form while providing a stark backdrop to the more nebulous surfaces of colour and soft, dappled light.”

Drawing inspiration from the urban landscape, the precision of geometry, and traditional Islamic art and architecture, Begum’s work is grounded in light as a catalytic element that produces an experience for the viewer that is both temporal and sensorial.

Vilma Jurkute, executive director of Alserkal Initiatives, said: “Bringing Dappled Light to Concrete, the very first artist solo exhibition in the space, solidifies our commitment to artistic production with artists connected to our region. We could not imagine a better way to mark five years of OMA’s Concrete than bringing Rana Begum’s works to inhabit and respond to the space.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme of talks and tours that will take place over the course of Alserkal Art Week and the duration of the exhibition. This year’s Alserkal Art Week will feature a comprehensive programme of thought-provoking exhibitions from Alserkal Avenue’s contemporary art galleries and curator-led tours as well as the much-loved regular fixtures of Majlis Talks. More details will follow in February as the programme is finalised.

Rana Begum: Dappled Light is organised and toured by the Mead Gallery, University of Warwick UK. The exhibition is generously supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.