VCUQatar Gallery Presents ‘Confluence: Photographic-based Work from the Contemporary Middle East’

The Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar is pleased to present ‘Confluence: Photographic-based Work from the Contemporary Middle East,’ an exhibition that brings together for the first time in Qatar the work of Atfal Ahdath, George Awde and Ali Cherri.

The exhibition is scheduled from November 5 to December 24, 2014 with an opening reception and panel discussion on Wednesday, November 5 at 6:00 pm at the Gallery at VCUQatar. The event is open to the public.

The photograph is part of everyday life around the world and is used as a medium to preserve fleeting moments of the mundane, the personal, and the intimate, as well as the monumental, the global and the public. This exhibition of contemporary photography and video installation from across the Middle East demonstrates this thematic diversity. Beyond this, however, it also explores the medium itself – the richness of possibilities, directions and journeys that are open to the artist who uses photography in its broadest sense as a starting point or confluence in his/her work. “Confluence has been a hugely exciting show to curate,” says Exhibitions and Speaker Curator Caitlin Doherty. “Each of the artists use their medium in new and dynamic ways, and explore themes that are relevant to them personally but also to society in a broader sense. In this way they invite us to participate in conversations, and prompt us to challenge previously held notions of what photography is and what it can be.”

George Awde, featured artist and assistant professor of photography at VCUQatar, adds, “It’s an exciting time for photography in Doha – and across the region.  This exhibition is a great opportunity to challenge notions of the medium here at VCUQatar.  It’s also about bringing the broader community into this conversation of the possibilities of photo based practices across disciplines.”

‘Confluence: Photographic-based Work from the Contemporary Middle East’ will be exhibited in the Gallery at VCUQatar from November 5 to December 24, 2014, with an opening reception and panel discussion on November 5 at 6:00 pm.