Friday 15 / November / 2024
Muscat: Art and culture lovers in Oman were treated to works that featured contributions from both Italian and Omani artists in a recent exhibition in Muscat.
Italian Contemporary Art Day, which falls on 13 October, was celebrated at the Stal Gallery in the capital where an exhibition titled 'Tangible Monologues - Unexpected Geographies and Self Portraits' was held, being based on Omani and Italian artists' perspectives of their own culture and identity in art form.
The initiative included the Italian artist Gloriamaria Gorreri, winner of the “Artefici del nostro tempo” award, which has been promoted by the Venice Museums Foundation and the City of Venice in connection with the 58’ Venice Art Biennale under the theme 'May you live in interesting times'.
The exhibition also featured emerging Omani artists such as Budoor Al Riyami, Rawan Al Mahrouqi, Ruqaiya Al Balushi, Safa Al Balushi and Sarah Al Aulaqui. The art curator of Stal Gallery, Hassan Meer, has been supporting and promoting Omani talents in the field of contemporary art over the last few years with the Young Emerging Talents Prize.
The Contemporary Art Day is an initiative promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy to celebrate and disseminate the culture of Italian contemporary art abroad. The initiative is also promoted abroad through the Italian embassies as the 'Giornata del Contemporaneo' with events, presentations and exhibitions with the aim of not only highlighting the role of artists and their works, but also the producers, curators, stand fitters, museum directors, critics, art magazines and books.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of Italy, Federica Favi, together with Mattia Agnetti, executive secretary of the Venice Museums Foundation and Maurizio Carlin, director for culture and tourism of the City of Venice, as well as by a number of officials and representatives of the cultural field in Oman, artists and art lovers.
