Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists. 

My guest today is Ebtisam Abdulaziz. Ebtisam is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. She explores issues of identity and culture through installation, performance, mixed-media, painting and works on paper. She has exhibited extensively and internationally including the 53rd Venice Biennale as part of the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi Pavilions. Her installations, paintings, works on paper and videos are held in numerous public and private collections.Her video work Autobiography from 2007 was purchased for the Guggenheim Museum collection in Abdu Dhbai. Additionally Abdulaziz was named as one of 100 Powerful Arab Women of 2013. She has been living and working  in Washington, D.C. since 2014. 

In our conversation, Ebtisam explains her art-making as a mix of meditation, play and practicality. We discuss her drawings, her mentor Hassan Sharif, her daily practice, how her practice relates to her audience, how she judges ideas only after they are complete, and so much more. Enjoy the show!

About Ebtisam Abdulaziz: 
 
Combining the scientific with the arbitrary, Abdulaziz draws from her training in science and mathematics, methodically exploring subconscious states and the expansiveness of daily life. She creates codes, systematic structures, graphic language, and performative gestures to force viewers to question their assumptions about rules in the natural and formulaic world. The intimate juxtapositions of these concepts center awareness on our surrounding environment and the issues that perplex and shape us. 

In addition to the Venice Biennale, Ebtisam Abdulaziz's work has been exhibited at the 7th and 10th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Dubai Next, Basel; The Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France; The Kunst Museum, Bonn, Germany; The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Benin Biennial 2012, Kora Centre, Benin; FotoFest Biennial, Art in Houston, Texas; Cara Gallery; Smack Mellon gallery in New York; NYUAD Art Gallery;  Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts; Tampa; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center.  In 2014, her work was part of the touring exhibition of Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates, which took place across several American cities and is included in international collections. Her installations, paintings, works on paper and videos are held in numerous public and private collections. 

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host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: Ebtisam Abdulaziz
www.artistebtisamaziz.com
insta: @ebtisamabdulaziz

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.