Dis[Locating] Culture: Contemporary Islamic Art in America

Photo above: Sandow Birk, 2010, Ink and Gouache on Paper

EXHIBITION
Opening Reception on Friday, April 15, 2011 at Michael Berger Gallery; Exhibition continues through July 30, 2011
30 South Sixth Street, South Side, Pittsburgh; Free & Open to the Public

SYMPOSIUM
on Saturday, April 16, 2011 from 1:00–6:00 pm; Keynote by Reza Aslan at The Andy Warhol Museum Theatre; Reception in Entrance Gallery
117 Sandusky Street, North Side, Pittsburgh; $35/$25 for members & students

Photo: Oil Barrel #7, Shiva Ahmadi, 2009, Oil on steel

Michael Berger & Reem Alalusi, Co-Curators, will present at Michael Berger Gallery this timely & important exhibition in association with the Pittsburgh Middle East Institute.

“We are living in a time of binary thinking and exclusionary conclusions. Based on manufactured boundaries between cultures, these barriers lead to ever more fear & mistrust. Mistaken notions about one another travel far and wide, sometimes carried by political & religious subtexts that inform both popular & ‘high’ culture.” — Reem Alalusi, co-curator

Dis[Locating] Culture: Contemporary Islamic Art in America will showcase some of the finest American Islamic artists—whether Muslim by faith or not. Dis[Locating] Culture aims to problematize stereotypes & challenge notions of cultural & religious homogeneity. This exhibition is designed to build bridges of intercultural understanding via the universal language of art. Some of the artists included come from the Islamic world but do not live there; some neither live nor have roots in the so-called Islamic world, but yet their works are classified under the Islamic umbrella as a result of their political, social, or even technical choices. Islamic art is conventionally thought of as a separate category from Western art, but these artists blur the categories. These works are neither Islamic by nature nor Western, per se; this is Contemporary Art.

Additionally, a symposium to explore the issues suggested by the exhibition will be hosted by Michael Berger Gallery, the Pittsburgh Middle East Institute, & The Andy Warhol Museum and will be held at the Warhol Museum Theater. By exploring contemporary Islamic art’s boundaries & borders—whether religious, cultural, or social—and asking participants which are to be respected, and which disrupted & dislocated, the symposium aims to upend the traditional narrative of civilizational collision in favor of the dialogue of collusion.

The symposium is keynoted by renowned scholar Reza Aslan.

Michael Berger Gallery is located at 30 South Sixth Street, on Pittsburgh’s historic South Side.
Open Wednesdays, Fridays, & Saturdays from noon to 5pm & by appointment.

For further information, contact Joy Robison, Gallery Manager or call the gallery at 412.441.4282.
http://michaelbergergallery.com/

Source: Press Release