Announcing a “Gallery Takeover” by Gallery 1957 at Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai
20 January – 3 March 2018
Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai announces a “Gallery Takeover” by Gallery 1957 from Accra, Ghana. The initiative, which runs from January to March 2018, is the first of its kind in the Middle East and emulates current trends for younger galleries to develop their programmes internationally through the pooling of resources.
“Sharing our space with another gallery for a period of time is experimental. It’s exciting for us and the local audience who will be presented with something fresh” says Asmaa Al-Shabibi co-director of Lawrie Shabibi. “Next year we aim to expand this into the whole Dubai gallery community inviting other international galleries into local spaces”.
The takeover exhibition, titled The Displaced, presents a solo show of new works from Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey.
Serge Attukwei Clottey shows a new series of pastel drawings on paper, depicting disjointed figures and faces - not unlike the visions of nude women under Cubism, a European movement which drew heavily from traditional African tribal sculpture. Introducing colour, the pieces mark a departure from Clottey’s previous charcoal works. Also on display are Clottey’s wall-based sculptures created from yellow gallon containers - bold assemblages that act as a means of inquiry into the languages of form and abstraction. Alongside these sculptures and drawings, Clottey presents a video installation, The Displaced, enacting the trade and migration story of the Clottey family; together with his performance collective GoLokal, Clottey embarks on a symbolic journey of remembrance on Labadi Beach, Accra.