Samia Halaby

Seeing through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection
Samia Halaby’s 'Yellow Spiral' (1970) a seminal work inspired by the artist’s admiration for Arabic architecture and calligraphy will be on display at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s pre-opening exhibition Seeing through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection, at Manarat Al Saadiyat. The exhibition will introduce the future museum’s curatorial vision through a theme-based collection presentation. 
 
Comprising 19 artworks acquired specifically for Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection, as well as two key loans from its partner institution, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Seeing through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection examines the theme of light as a primary aesthetic principle in art. 
 
While the exhibition begins chronologically in the 1960s (which aligns with the start date for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection), it quickly blends time and mixes established and mid-career artists, as well as assembling a diversity of media within each section. From immersive environments that visitors can move around in and even through to video, painting, and sculpture, one will be able to experience light in all of its spatial, sensory, and perceptual phenomena.
5 November 2014 – 26 March 2015