ABDUL ABDULLAH

The first gallery from Southeast Asia with a permanent presence in Australia, Yavuz Gallery Sydney will continue the strong curatorial program established by the gallery in Asia since 2010.

This new chapter aims to provide a platform to showcase Southeast Asian artists while broadening and continuing the gallery’s existing ties to Australia and New Zealand.

Yavuz Gallery Sydney represents the fulfilment of the long-held dream of founder Can Yavuz to return to the city that has inspired him for more than twenty years. Since late 2013, the gallery has participated in every edition of Sydney Contemporary, Australia’s premier art fair, building and widening its network across Australia and New Zealand. Over the past six years, the gallery has showcased art from Asia in Australia and vice versa ¾ presenting Australian and New Zealand artists across numerous exhibitions in Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta and Shanghai. Yavuz Gallery now represents leading Antipodean artists such as Abdul Abdullah, André Hemer, Julian Meagher and Caroline Rothwell in Asia.

Yavuz Gallery Sydney’s inaugural exhibition, which opened on 14 September, presents new works by critically-acclaimed artist Abdul Abdullah. Entitled Contested Territories, the solo exhibition presents large-scale paintings and embroideries that examine the concept of ‘the journey’ as an obstacle to be overcome on the way to an ultimate destination. This new body of work explores the aspirations of those traversing from where they are to where they want to be, and speak to an imagined utopia and the difficulties and challenges the disenfranchised face along the way. Whether a journey of personal or societal development, or the physical journey of a boat across an ocean, Contested Territories examines the shared resilience and common desire to live a fulfilled life. The exhibition is on view until 31 October 2019.

As a seventh-generation Muslim Australian of mixed ethnicity who grew up in suburban Perth, Abdullah’s multi-disciplinary practice is motivated by a longstanding concern with the complex feelings of displacement and alienation associated with histories of diaspora and migration. Providing a voice to these often overlooked topics, he creates carefully crafted political commentaries that speak of the ‘Other’ and the experiences of marginalised communities. While the fraught dynamic of Muslim experiences has provided the initial framework, Abdullah has consciously expanded his practice to include a broader sense of marginalisation. Intersecting between popular culture, contemporary conflicts and personal experience, Contested Territories embodies the trajectory of his works that renegotiate histories and create space for alternative possibilities and new conversations. Grounding his outlook with an expansive cultural geography that belies reductive boundaries of nationality, Abdullah represents a new face of emerging artists from the Asia-Pacific region.

Abdullah was recently awarded the inaugural 2019 Australian Muslim Artists Art Prize, supported by the Islamic Museum of Australia and La Trobe University. He will also be participating in the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, titled Monster Theatres, at the Art Gallery of South Australia.