29.11.2022 — 14.05.2023
Dr. Omar Kholeif, guest curator and Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE.
Hrair Sarkissian is one of the leading conceptual artists working primarily with photography. His professional career began in his father's photographic studio in Damascus, ‘Dream Colour’, which was also the first colour photo lab in Syria. He later would study in France and the Netherlands, graduating with a Bachelor of Photography from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, in 2010. Today, the artist lives and works in London. Sarkissian’s painterly images continue to emerge through his practice of large-format photography. Since then, his practice has evolved to encompass moving-image, installation and sound.
Sarkissian's work has been included in various solo and group exhibitions and is represented in the collections of Bonnefanten (Maastricht, NL), The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas, US); Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, US); Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan); Tate Modern (London); Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah, UAE); Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena (Modena, Italy); Fondazione Carispezia (Italy); The Khalid Shoman Collection (Amman, Jordan); and The Farjam Collection (Dubai, UAE). Sarkissian's awards include the Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai (2012), and a Steenbergen Stipendium, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (2010).
Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence is a collaboration between the Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah, UAE), Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm, Sweden) and Bonnefanten. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif, Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Dr. Theodor Ringborg, Artistic Director of Bonniers Konsthall and Stijn Huijts, General Manager and Artistic Director of Bonnefanten.
Publication Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence. Foto: Bonniers Konsthall.
The exhibition is accompanied by the first extensive monograph on the artist, Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence, edited by Dr. Omar Kholeif and Dr. Theodor Ringborg, and published by Bonniers Konsthall in collaboration with Lenz Press. The publication features original scholarly essays and texts by Stijn Huijts, Hoor Al Qasimi, Hannah Feldman, Marianne Hirsch, Omar Kholeif, Vali Mahlouji, Todd Reisz and Theodor Ringborg. The publication is available in English at the Bonnefanten museum shop: Price €45, ISBN: 9791280579010.
The exhibition is organised with:
This exhibition is made possible by: