Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist, 2020

Hoor Al Qasimi, ed.
Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist
2020
Catalogue, 320 pgs, 250 illustrations; 17 x 24 cm
Courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation and Koenig Books
Photo: Todd Bradway

Overview

The major Hassan Sharif monograph I Am The Single Work Artist, published by Sharjah Art Foundation and Koenig Books, London, is now available in UAE bookstores and online. The publication can be purchased online on Amazon and Jamalon.com, as well as in major cultural spaces and bookstores, including Art Jameel Shop, Booktopia, Jashanmal, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Kinokuniya and Tashkeel. It is available in the Sharjah Art Foundation shops in Al Mureijah Art Spaces, Al Mureijah Square; Arts Square; and The Flying Saucer. Co-publisher Koenig Books is fulfilling international orders through its website and bookstores, while DAP New York is handling distribution in North America, and Sharjah Art Foundation is the MENA distributor of the book.

Edited by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, the publication presents the Foundation’s research into Sharif’s multidisciplinary practice and includes images of lost works, original translations from his journalistic and experimental writings, and archival materials from ephemeral exhibitions as well as dialogues and reflections by Sharif’s contemporaries in the UAE. I Am The Single Work Artist is not a typical exhibition catalogue or chronology but an experimental work that reflects Sharif’s practice and weaves a personal narrative from the various threads of his career. The publication serves as a vital resource for scholarly and curatorial interest in contemporary art practice and as a reference for the ways in which cultural ideas travel and, in the process, are transformed.

Since 1993, Sharif’s work has been exhibited in eight Sharjah Biennials, most recently in Sharjah Biennial 12 (2015). His work was also shown in 1980–Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, UAE Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale (2015), which was curated by Al Qasimi. Over 90 of Sharif’s most significant works have been acquired for the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, and the Foundation is also the custodian of Sharif’s studio and personal archives.