Naima Morelli

For anyone who has spent time at Alserkal Avenue, The Third Line needs little introduction. Since opening in 2005, at a moment when Dubai’s cultural infrastructure was still tentative and often viewed with skepticism, the gallery has become one of the most consistent presences in the city’s art ecology.

I saw the show and wrote a review for ArtAsiaPacific

Here is the link to the piece

Gigantic rulers and compasses appear throughout Ala Younis’s practice—as literal objects in some works, and as symbolic motifs in others. With these tools, the multimedia artist draws unexpected connections between competing imaginaries.

In her midcareer retrospective “Past of a Temporal Universe,” which traced nearly two decades of her career, little was immediately evident as Younis’s artistic language draws from academia, architecture, and archives. Instead, the show was conceived for slow and attentive engagement.

I have reviewed Ala Younis’ exhibition at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery for ArtAsiaPacific.

Here is the link to the review

During Paris Art Week I have interviewed Moroccan/Italian/French artist El Mehdi Largo, an artist plays with Orientalist perceptions. His work reveals the humanity and the sacred underlying national, religious, and ethnic differences.

Here is the link to the interview

What if a spoonful of rice could heal our aching hearts? This unconventional remedy—plov, Uzbekistan’s ubiquitous rice dish—was the solution that, according to legend, philosopher and physician Ibn Sina gave to a prince unable to marry the daughter of a craftsman.

This myth inspired the theme of the inaugural Bukhara Biennial: Recipes for Broken Hearts. Running until November 20, it unfolds across the restored caravanserais, madrasas, and public courtyards of this historical city.

Curated by Los Angeles-born Diana Campbell and Dubai-based Wael Al Awar, and commissioned by Gayane Umerova for the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, the event proposes a form of exhibition-making that responds to the spirit of the place: through collaboration with local artisans, the use of regional materials, and the activation of Bukhara’s architectural heritage.

I wrote the story for Hadara.

Here is the link to the article

I have reviewed the contemporary art fair and event “la Mer” by 74Arts, which took place last week in Marseille for Le Quotidien de L’Art.

Here is the link to the article

It was a pleasure to contribute three pieces to the new issue of HADARA, a very stylish and elegant magazine from the Gulf. I wrote a piece on the Islamic Biennale, I spoke with the design studio Karim+Elias, and investigated the work of the young promising artist Mariem Abu Taleb.

You’ll find the magazine in newstands and the pieces online here.

My piece on the Islamic Biennale

The article on the design studio Karim+Elias

A piece on artist Mariem Abu Taleb

Across Paris, contemporary Vietnamese artists have also been making their presence felt, represented by galleries such as Galerie BAO and A2Z Art Gallery and showing at art fairs like Asia Now (Europe’s only fair focused on Asian artists). Taken together, these various presentations point towards a cultural conversation between the two countries that stretches back to colonial times. 

I have written a piece on Vietnamese art during the Paris Art Week for Plural Art Mag.

Here is the link to the article

My second article for the Art Newspaper France is “Gérôme in Qatar: an updated look at Orientalism.”

With the exhibition “Seeing is Believing: The Art and Influence of Gérôme” at the Mathaf – Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar is positioning itself as the bridgehead for a new chapter in the history of Orientalism.

Here is the link to the piece

It’s always good to be published on paper! My latest piece for the literary magazine Mekong Review is a piece on contemporary art in Bali beyond tourism, featuring Satya Cipta, Marco Cassani, Citra Sasmita, CushCush Gallery and more.

Get a copy of the magazine here

For Palestinian artist Rana Samara, intimacy is not just about love and sex, but is rather a mixture of connection, comfort and feeling at home, as her latest exhibition at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai in 2022, Inner Sanctuary, aptly demonstrated. I spoke with her for The Markaz Review.

Here is the link to the interview

Finally we are in that part of the year where we start looking back and planning for the future. As everyone who has been around me lately knows too well, this year I went all in into the reviewing and the planning. Never was I so serious about it – I guess because it’s so much fun for me!

The reflecting phase started already from the 1st of December. I had just came back from a swirlwind of trips in end of October beginning of November – Paris, Budapest, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh literally one after the other – and even had to say no to two more, very enticing press trips to Khazakistan and Qatar. But I was exausted. I had to stop and digest all my experiences. So as soon as I put my suitcase on the parquet of my home in Pigneto, Rome, I de-installed the social media from my phone, and decided to go full into the reviewing/planning process.