INTRODUCTION

Fluid Form II :

Arab Contemporary Art

The reality of artists from Arab countries and their diaspora is complex and defies common assumptions about what Arab culture is. The issues Arab artists confront are not only how to define their work in the context of their historical relationship to the West - but the perceptions, tempered by upheavals and conflicts, it has of Arab culture.

The vision of contemporary Arab artists presents us with a broader insight to the subtleties and concerns of modern Arab culture. Like artists and cultural practitioners internationally, they interact with networking and digital media enabling them to communicate and receive information instantly and globally through social media.

From this milieu has emerged an art that is potent in concept and expression; as political as it may also be ambiguous and poetic. Art that may embrace myths, life stories, personal experience of defeat and loss, of revolution, of constriction, of belonging and opposition.

Fluid Form II does not seek to categorize Arab art but rather to offer some cultural insight to the human, intellectual and social considerations encompassed in the work of Arab artists. In totality, the contradictory experience of this exhibition may dispense with preconceptions and excite further inquiry as to the nature of contemporary Arab culture and our shared humanity.

Yu Yeon Kim

Guest Curator