Hassan Sharif, Copper, 2015

Copper wire, 244 × 530 × 35 cm

Among the first accessions for the Campus Art Collection is a monumental installation by the late Hassan Sharif (UAE, 1951-2016), entitled Copper (2015), currently on view in the NYUAD Conference Center, A6 building.

Hassan Sharif made a vital contribution to conceptual art and experimental practice in the Middle East through 40 years of performances, installations, drawing, painting, and assemblage. As an artist, he pursued a pointedly contemporary vocabulary, drawing on the intermedia of Fluxus and the potential in British Constructionism’s systemic processes of making. Hassan Sharif’s early career included co-founding the Emirates Fine Arts Society. In the 1980s, after Sharif returned from studying art in London, he co-founded an avant-garde group, complete with a manifesto and exhibitions. His early exhibitions generated both excitement and heated public debates. He is now the most eminent contemporary artist from the UAE, and is represented in major museum collections internationally. He is best-known for his laborious textile sculptures, a reference that is here beautifully rendered in copper.

To learn more about the Hassan Sharif, click here.