1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in SEL
  3. Pop(Corn): Chan Sook Choi
  4. Rapport: Seoul
  5. When Everything You Touch Bursts into Flames: Olivia Rode Hvass at 00.00 Gallery
  6. Embracing Multiplicities: The 2023 Korea Artist Prize Exhibition
  7. On (Be)Holding Life that Pulsates in Overlooked Places: Jahyun Park at Hapjungjigu
  8. Beauty, Transformation, and the Grotesque: Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg on their Exhibition at SongEun Art Space
  9. Presenting Ecofeminist Imaginaries: Ji Yoon Yang on Alternative Space LOOP

E-08++
Summer/Fall 2024


Exhibition September 19th, 2024
PUS In the Dark Every Light is Blinding: Busan Biennale 2024

Exhibition September 7th, 2024
SEL Quick Glances at Frieze Seoul 2024


About ––

    What We Do
    Mission
    Calendar
    Editorial Board
    Contributors
    Contact

Interviews ––

    Selected Archive

Open Call ––

    Policy
    E-08 Seoul

Newsletter ––




Chronological Archive ––

    Selected Archive

Artist Interview November 18th, 2016
AUH Raed Yassin in Abu Dhabi

Editorial March 1st, 2018
AUH Abu Dhabi Is The New Calabasas

Exhibition Listing May 22nd, 2018
DXB Christopher Benton: If We Don't Reclaim Our History, The Sand Will

Artist Interview June 15th, 2018
TYO An Interview with BIEN, a Rising Japanese Artist

Artist Interview July 17th, 2018
TYO Rintaro Fuse on Selfies and Cave Painting

Artist Interview August 28th, 2018
BER Slavs and Tatars: “Pulling a Thread to Undo The Sweater”

Artist Interview September 1st, 2018
NYC Shirin Neshat In Conversation with Sophie Arni and Ev Zverev

Artist Interview September 1st, 2018
PAR Hottest Spices: Michèle Lamy

E-Issue 01 –– AUH/DXB
Summer 2020

August 1st, 2020



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in the UAE
  3. Pop(Corn): Hashel Al Lamki
  4. Tailoring in Abu Dhabi
  5. Rapport: Dubai
  6. Michael Rakowitz From the Diaspora


E-01++
Fall/Winter 2020-21


Artist Interview August 23rd, 2020
LHR/MCT Hanan Sultan Rhymes Frankincense with Minimalism


Artist Interview August 24th, 2020
DXB Augustine Paredes Taking Up Space

Artist Interview August 26th, 2020
AUH Sarah Almehairi Initiates Conversations

Market Interview August 28th, 2020
AUH/DXB 101 Pioneers Ethical and Curious Art Collecting


Exhibition September 1st, 2020
DXB Alserkal Arts Foundation Presents Mohamed Melehi


Market Interview September 4th, 2020
DXB Meet Tamila Kochkarova Behind ‘No Boys Allowed’


Artist Interview September 7th, 2020
DXB Taaboogah Infuses Comedy Into Khaleeji Menswear

Artist Interview September 10th, 2020
LHR/CAI Alaa Hindia’s Jewelry Revives Egyptian Nostalgia

Curator Interview September 14th, 2020
UAE Tawahadna Introduces MENA Artists to a Global Community

Exhibition Review September 24th, 2020
MIA a_part Gives Artists 36 Hours to React


Artist Interview September 27th, 2020
AUH BAIT 15 Welcomes New Member Zuhoor Al Sayegh

Market Interview October 14th, 2021
DXB Thaely Kicks Off Sustainable Sneakers


Exhibition Review October 19th, 2020
DXB Do You See Me How I See You?


Exhibition October 22nd, 2020
TYO James Jarvis Presents Latest Collages at 3110NZ


Exhibition Review October 22nd, 2020
AUH Ogamdo: Crossing a Cultural Highway between Korea and the UAE


Book Review October 28th, 2020
DAM Investigating the Catalogues of the National Museum of Damascus


Exhibition Review November 13th, 2020
DXB
Kanye Says Listen to the Kids: Youth Takeover at Jameel Arts Centre


Exhibition Review November 16th, 2021
DXB Melehi’s Waves Complicate Waving Goodbye


Exhibition Review November 19th, 2020
DXB Spotlight on Dubai Design Week 2020


Exhibition Review November 21st, 2020
DXB 101 Strikes Again with Second Sale at Alserkal Avenue


Exhibition Review
November 23rd, 2020


AUH SEAF Cohort 7 at Warehouse 421


Exhibition Review December 9th, 2020
SHJ Sharjah Art Foundation Jets Ahead on the Flying Saucer


Curator Interview January 25th, 2021
DXB Sa Tahanan Collective Redefines Home for Filipino Artists


Exhibition Review February 21st, 2021
GRV MIA Anywhere Hosts First Virtual Exhibition of Female Chechen Artists  

🎙️GAD Talk Series –– Season 1 2020


November 1st, 2020
1. What is Global Art Daily? 2015 to Now

November 16th, 2020
2. Where is Global Art Daily? An Open Coversation on Migration as Art Practitioners


November 29th, 2020
3. When the Youth Takes Over: Reflecting on the 2020 Jameel Arts Centre Youth Takeover

December 20th, 2020
4. Young Curators in Tokyo: The Making of The 5th Floor

January 27th, 2021
5. How To Create Digital Networks in The Art World?

E-Issue 02 –– NYC
Spring 2021

February 21st, 2021



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in NYC
  3. Pop(Corn): Zeid Jaouni
  4. You Can Take The Girl Out Of The City
  5. Rapport: NYC
  6. Kindergarten Records Discuss The Future of Electronic Music
  7. Sole DXB Brings NY Hip-Hop To Abu Dhabi
  8. Wei Han Finds ‘Home’ In New York
  9. Vikram Divecha: Encounters and Negotiations

E-02++
Spring/Summer 2021

Exhibition Review March 3rd, 2021
DXB There’s a Hurricane at the Foundry


Exhibition Review March 7th, 2021
AUH Re-viewing Contrasts: Hyphenated Spaces at Warehouse421


Curator Interview March 21st, 2021
DXB Permeability and Regional Nodes: Sohrab Hura on Curating Growing Like a Tree at Ishara Art Foundation


Exhibition March 28th, 2021
DXB Alserkal Art Week Top Picks


Exhibition Review April 1st, 2021
DXB A ‘Menu Poem’ and All That Follows


Exhibition Review April 5th, 2021
DXB A Riot Towards Landscapes


Exhibition April 16th, 2021
RUH Noor Riyadh Shines Light on Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Art Strategy


Artist Interview April 26th, 2021
CTU/AUH/YYZ Sabrina Zhao: Between Abu Dhabi, Sichuan, and Toronto


Exhibition Review April 27th, 2021
TYO BIEN Opens Two Solo Exhibitions in Island Japan and Parcel


Artist Interview April 28th, 2021
DXB Ana Escobar: Objects Revisited


Exhibition May 9th, 2021
LDN Fulfilment Services Ltd. Questions Techno-Capitalism on Billboards in London


Artist Interview May 11th, 2021
BAH Mihrab: Mysticism, Devotion, and Geo-Identity


Curator Interview May 20th, 2021
DXB There Is A You In The Cloud You Can’t Delete: A Review of “Age of You” at Jameel Arts Centre

Market Interview May 26th, 2021
TYO Startbahn, Japan’s Leading Art Blockchain Company, Builds a New Art Infrastructure for the Digital Age

Exhibition June 11th, 2021
TYO “Mimicry of Hollows” Opens at The 5th Floor


Exhibiton Review June 20th, 2021
AUH “Total Landscaping”at Warehouse 421


Artist Interview June 30th, 2021
OSA Rintaro Fuse Curates “Silent Category” at Creative Center Osaka


Exhibition Review August 9th, 2021
DXB “After The Beep”: A Review and Some Reflections

E-Issue 03 ––TYO
Fall 2021

October 1st, 2022



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in TYO
  3. Pop(Corn): Nimyu
  4. Ahmad The Japanese: Bady Dalloul on Japan and Belonging
  5. Rapport: Tokyo
  6. Alexandre Taalba Redefines Virtuality at The 5th Floor
  7. Imagining Distant Ecologies in Hypersonic Tokyo: A Review of “Floating Between the Tropical and Glacial Zones”
  8. Ruba Al-Sweel Curates “Garden of e-arthly Delights” at SUMAC Space
  9. Salwa Mikdadi Reflects on the Opening of NYU Abu Dhabi’s Arab Center for the Study of Art

E-03++
Fall/Winter 2021-22


Market Interview October 6th, 2021
RUH HH Prince Fahad Al Saud Discusses Saudi Arabia’s Artistic Renaissance


Exhibition October 7th, 2021
RUH Misk Art Institute’s Annual Flagship Exhibition Explores the Universality of Identity


Curator Interview October 15th, 2021
IST “Once Upon a Time Inconceivable”: A Review and a Conversation


Exhibition Review October 16th, 2021
AUH Woman as a Noun, and a Practice: “As We Gaze Upon Her” at Warehouse421



Exhibition Review February 11th, 2022

Artist Interview February 26th, 2022
TYO Akira Takayama on McDonald’s Radio University, Heterotopia, and Wagner Project


Artist Interview March 10th, 2022
DXB Prepare The Ingredients and Let The Rest Flow: Miramar and Zaid’s “Pure Data” Premieres at Satellite for Quoz Arts Fest 2022


Exhibition March 11th, 2022
DXB Must-See Exhibitions in Dubai - Art Week Edition 2022


Exhibition Review March 14th, 2022
DXB Art Dubai Digital, An Alternative Art World?

E-Issue 04 –– IST
Spring 2022

March 15th, 2022



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in IST
  3. Pop(Corn): Refik Anadol
  4. Rapport: Istanbul
  5. Independent Spaces in Istanbul: Sarp Özer on Operating AVTO

E-04++
Spring/Summer 2022


Curator Interview March 21st, 2022

Market Interview March 28th, 2022
DXB Dubai's Postmodern Architecture: Constructing the Future with 3dr Models


Exhibition April 23rd, 2022
HK Startbahn Presents “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality”, an NFT Pop-Up at K11 Art Mall


Exhibition May 6th, 2022
IST
Istanbul’s 5533 Presents Nazlı Khoshkhabar’s “Around and Round”


Artist Interview May 13th, 2022
DXB
“We Are Witnessing History”: Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian On Their Retrospective Exhibition at NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery

Artist Interview June 13th, 2022
DXB “Geometry is Everywhere”: An Interview and Walking Tour of Order of Magnitude, Jitish Kallat’s Solo Exhibition at Dubai’s Ishara Art Foundation


Exhibition June 21st, 2022
DXB Art Jameel Joins The World Weather Network in a Groundbreaking Response to Global Climate Crisis

Exhibition June 27th, 2022
UAE
What’s On in the UAE: Our Top Summer Picks

Curator Interview July 9th, 2022
IST Creating an Artist Books Library in Istanbul: Aslı Özdoyuran on BAS

E-Issue 05 –– VCE
Fall 2022

September 5th, 2022



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in VCE
  3. Pop(Corn): UAE National Pavilion
  4. Rapport: Venice
  5. Zeitgeist of our Time: Füsun Onur for the Turkish Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale
  6. GAD’s Top Picks: National Pavilions
  7. Strangers to the Museum Wall: Kehinde Wiley’s Venice Exhibition Speaks of Violence and Portraiture
  8. Questioning Everyday Life: Alluvium by Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian at OGR Torino in Venice

E-05++
Fall/Winter 2022-23


Market Interview June 28th, 2022
HK
How Pearl Lam Built Her Gallery Between China and Europe


Exhibition November 11th, 2022
TYO
“Atami Blues” Brings Together UAE-Based and Japanese Artists in HOTEL ACAO ANNEX


Exhibition December 2nd, 2022
TYO Wetland Lab Proposes Sustainable Cement Alternative in Tokyo

Artist Interview December 9th, 2022
DXB Navjot Altaf Unpacks Eco-Feminism and Post-Pandemic Reality at Ishara Art Foundation

Artist Interview January 8th, 2023
TYO Shu Yonezawa and the Art of Animation

Artist Interview January 19th, 2023
NYC Reflecting on Her Southwestern Chinese Bai Roots, Peishan Huang Captures Human Traces on Objects and Spaces

Exhibition Review February 9th, 2023
DXB Augustine Paredes Builds His Paradise Home at Gulf Photo Plus

Artist Interview February 22nd, 2023
DXB Persia Beheshti Shares Thoughts on Virtual Worlds and the State of Video Art in Dubai Ahead of Her Screening at Bayt Al Mamzar

E-Issue 06 –– DXB/SHJ
Spring 2023

April 12th, 2023



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in the UAE
  3. Pop(Corn): Jumairy
  4. Rapport: Art Dubai 2023
  5. Highlights from Sharjah Biennial 15
  6. Is Time Just an Illusion? A Review of "Notations on Time" at Ishara Art Foundation
  7. Saif Mhaisen and His Community at Bayt AlMamzar









DXB Christopher Joshua Benton to Debut Mubeen, City as Archive at The Third Line Shop in Collaboration with Global Art Daily

E-Issue 07 –– AUH
Winter 2023-24

January 29th, 2024



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in Abu Dhabi/Dubai
  3. Cover Interview: Shaikha Al Ketbi on Darawan
  4. Rapport: Public Art in the Gulf and a Case Study of Manar Abu Dhabi
  5. Hashel Al Lamki’s Survey Exhibition Maqam Reflects on a Decade of Practice in Abu Dhabi
  6. “You Can’t Stand on a Movement”: Michelangelo Pistoletto Interviews Benton Interviewing Pistoletto

E-07++
Winter/Spring 2024


Exhibition Review July 16, 2024
PAR See Me With Them Hands: Reviewing Giovanni Bassan’s “Private Rooms” at Sainte Anne Gallery

Curators Interview May 14, 2024
AUH Embracing Change through an Open System: Maya Allison and Duygu Demir on “In Real Time” at NYUAD Art Gallery


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Mark



6. Michael Rakowitz From the Diaspora


By Daniel H Rey

Published on August 1, 2020

        Iraqi, and Jewish, and Arab, and American. When it comes to Michael Rakowitz, the list probably goes on. I write this with a degree of admiration. I resonate with fellow artists who hail from multiple places and negotiate overlapping identities. Myself, living in latitude 25º north (UAE), raised in latitude 25º south (Paraguay), coming from a multi-ethnic Colombian household with Christian-Jewish traditions, I have something to say: Michael, you get me.





Myself, living in latitude 25º north (UAE), raised in latitude 25º south (Paraguay), coming from a multi-ethnic Colombian household with Christian-Jewish traditions, I have something to say: Michael, you get me.






Rakowitz, one of my favorite artists, has incubated most of his practice from a diaspora standpoint. With all the identities I mentioned, and maybe others that remain less obvious, I relate to Rakowitz's work on a personal level. Rakowitz responds to politics, questions about overlapping identities, and long-standing inequalities from his place as an artist but also as a concerned citizen. As I move through his work and get my friends to confirm how much I follow his artistic journey, I grapple with the question: to what extent do artists get to talk about realities that they or their families no longer inhabit? 

At a first glance, it’s all about revisiting traditions and framing the unexpected. I learned about Rakowitz’s work in college by way of his Enemy Kitchen project. In it, US Army Veterans formerly deployed in Iraq serve Iraqi food from a food truck in Chicago. I then learned about his piece Dar Al Sulh, in which Rakowitz hosts a dinner serving his grandmother’s Iraqi Jewish dishes –the project’s own Arabic name celebrates the coexistence of faiths in Iraq and the broader Arab world. The projects, as I see them, were not about the food just “becoming art” or about calling something art for the sake of it. It was about their framing. If one masters the art of framing an experience with the identities, stories, and resources available, one is most certainly making art. In fact, Rakowitz shows that art comes to life no matter the physical distance between the artist and the places his work evokes.

With the right framing, art can inspire others to do their own personal research. After learning about Rakowitz’s work, I organized a party called Racha (short for sriracha and colloquial Spanish for “luck”). I covered my wall with the history of Huy Fong Sriracha sauce as a commentary on war, asylum, and my ancestors’ (Latin) American dream. The menu was only potato and cassava chips with Sriracha sauce. In the spirit of my troubled identity, the evening’s playlist featured “unexpected” mixes of Finnish reggae, Cambodian son and merengue, Angolan-South African EDM, and more. The party was a statement to having left my homes, having fallen in love with new places, and continuing to make sense of each of them. Living in diaspora(s) reminds us that there are places in our memories that we will likely never get to escape but merely recreate. Michael Rakowitz seems to know that a bit too well, and today, we get to see a sizable body of his work closer to the very region that, by embracing as a research subject, has made him art-world famous.

Some of Rakowitz’s works currently live in the Arab World even if he is not currently in the region himself. Earlier this year, he premiered his first solo show in the Middle East and Asia. His namesake exhibition runs until November at the Jameel Arts Centre.  It is deeply historical and displays finished works along with the process notes for many of them. The pieces oscillate between pop culture and thorough research about historical reparations, trauma and collective identity. We see works about housing projects in the United States, aboriginal resistance in Australia, temporary solutions for homelessness, a sculptural survey of Armenian architecture in Istanbul, and even a radio room and mini-gallery that unravels historical parallels between the Beatles and the Pan-Arab movement.


1. Michael Rakowitz, piece from The invisible enemy should not exist. On view at Jameel Arts Centre.


Beyond that, the namesake exhibition also reminds us of the value of reconstructing the material history of our ancestors’ lands. From the current show, the works that hooked me the most are The invisible enemy should not exist and Lamassu. In them, Rakowitz engages with ancient artifacts that have been destroyed or looted during times of unrest in Iraq. He reconstructs them and covers them in food packaging that is apparently common to Middle Eastern diaspora households in the United States: Puck cream cheese, canned date syrup, Maggi seasoning, and others. Through these works, Rakowitz becomes a pro-tempore historian who relies on his Iraqiness as an access point into the politics of reconstruction, reparations, and remixing identity post-violence. Using everyday packaging as the material for these artifacts injects a new, migrant, and consumerist dimension into Iraqi historical reconstruction as he sees it. The packaging also reclaims the shared histories of artifacts whose crafts, labor, symbologies, and former witnesses cannot be fully recreated nor brought to life. Somehow, the work brings to light how diasporas get to outlive their artworks, their glories, and, needless to say, their own irreversible ruins. With this, Rakowitz reminds us that it is always possible to make art from home and about home, even if ‘home’ lives in each person’s subjective memory.

As I continue to digest the depth and complexity of Rakowitz’s artworks and plan my next visit to the exhibition, I reach some realizations. Nobody but ourselves can determine how we explore our identities. Nobody but ourselves can rewrite the politics of history and reconstruction. Even the most collective of historical traumas carry individual, contemporary repercussions. And beyond that, nobody but ourselves can determine the scope and depth of our explorations as artists, historians, and members of diaspora(s). With these lessons in mind, I hope that one day I get to explore the Colombian conflict, the Paraguayan dictatorship, the Crusades, and the migratory dreams of my ancestors as deeply and impactfully as Rakowitz has explored his own intrigues. Thank you, Michael Rakowitz, for showing me that it is possible to have multiple identities, multiple questions therein, and tell a story with every single one of them. After many more of our individual and visceral explorations, I hope that we meet again soon. 



2. Michael Rakowitz (left) and Daniel H Rey.



Daniel H Rey is a member of Global Art Daily’s Editorial Board and member of the Youth Assembly at the Jameel Arts Centre. These words are his own and do not represent any institution nor were they requested by any third party.

Unless otherwise stated, photos were taken by the author of this article.

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