Today announced the inaugural Guggenheim Abu Dhabi exhibition, Seeing Through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection, opening on 5 November 2014 at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Presenting for the first time in the capital artworks acquired for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection, the exhibition will feature the work of 18 artists from the 1960s to the present who work in multiple countries and regions around the globe and whose work encompasses a variety of media. Seeing Through Light remains on view until 19 January.

The exhibition introduces Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s curatorial vision through a theme-based collection presentation that explores the concept of light. In conjunction with the exhibition, public programmes, film screenings, adult and youth workshops, and performances by several leading contemporary artists whose works are now part of the permanent collection of the museum will be presented.

Maisa Al Qassimi, Programmes Manager in the Museums Department for the Culture Sector of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, says:" Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s collection offers various perspectives and narratives on the artworks acquired thus far by the museum. The richness and flexibility of this exhibition’s theme—and the collection in general—has particular relevance across cultures and time periods.  More specifically, diverse meanings and associations—from the physical to the intellectual and from the spiritual to the scientific—will be explored through the artworks on display in Seeing Through Light, offering visitors insight into what they will experience when the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opens.”

Seeing Through Light follows the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi: Talking Art Series organised in 2013, a programme that introduced to the public a number of the curatorial narratives that are structuring the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s collection, such as Popular Culture and the Mediated Image; System, Process, Concept; and History, Memory, Narrative. The programme featured, among others, artists Hassan Sharif, El Anatsui, Chant Avedissian, Feng Mengbo, Youssef Nabil, James Rosenquist, Heinz Mack, and Marwan, who spoke in depth about their art, and specifically about their work that has become a part of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection.

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will promote the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art, architecture, and other manifestations of modern and contemporary visual culture. The museum will develop a curatorial programme that will offer a transnational perspective on art and visual culture since the 1960s, with a strong focus on art from the Middle East exploring the specific identity derived from the cultural traditions of Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. 

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