"Regional Delicacies: Alef's Art Mezze", an Alef Magazine, Phillips de Pury and Company, XVA exhibition

House 41

Though often consumed without introspection, food is one is of the most symbolically and culturally significant aspects of everyday life. Food facilitates social situations, binds friendships and family, links individuals to their heritage, and can ease homesickness or alienate strangers. In this exhibition, curated by Alef’s Art Editor Ana Finel Honigman, and organized by Alef, the XVA gallery and Phillips de Pury & Company auction house, Middle Eastern artists, and Western artists gather together to present art in which food is used to express larger concerns, sumptuous sensations and enriching truths.

Artists are:
Abbas Akhavan, Iran
Engin Akin, Turkey
Jay Battle, NY
Malekeh Nayiny, Iran
Will Cotton, USA
Esma Pacal Turam, Turkey
Sara Rahbar, Iran
Amal Saade, France
Pinar Yolacan, Turkey

Curator: Ana Finel Honigman: Alef Arts Editor: New York and London based critic. She writes on contemporary art for fashion and art magazines including Art in America, Artnet.com, Art Journal, ArtReview, Artnews, Time Out, I-D, Dazed & Confused, British Vogue, Grazia, Style.com and Harper’s Bazaar. As Senior London Correspondent for the Saatchi magazine website, Ana contributes exhibition reviews from London, Berlin, New York and elsewhere, as well as a weekly interview series. A Sarah Lawrence graduate, Ana has completed a Masters degree and is currently reading for a D.Phil in the History of Art at Oxford University.

Color Match project by Zayed University

A Color Match Tournament

The Color Match Tournament that has been carried out prior to the Creek Art Fair will be displayed through poster printouts. Ballots will be available to vote for the favorite match. Students will also carry out the Color Match with other visitors to the fair. The Color Match© tournaments had their international launch in 1999 at Art Omi artist residency in Upstate New York. I was able to present an Aesthetic Olympics drawn from 2 artist players from around the world. Since then, Color March© games have been hosted in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami Beach, and Toronto. Recent tournaments were held at Toronto City Hall in conjunction with Janet Bellotto’s 2006 Nature in the Garage project, and at Toronto Nuit Blanche, under the direction of York Emelie Chhungur, and at the fairs in Miami in December 2006.

Tournaments and voting matches will be posted at: www.colormatchgame.com

The Color Match Tournament–College/Art School LeagueA team is composed of 4-8 student players plus a coach or team leader. Each team member selects 1 color from a 100 possible Color Match tiles for a total of 8 colors. Team elects one player to position their color on Color Match board. The opposing team continues with positioning a color tile. The game proceeds, alternating with team moves, until the grid of 9 squares is filled. Competing teams from different schools conduct a tournament by email. Completed games may be judged anonymously by an entire class through ballots. Winning games will advance to finals that will be held at artfairs, such as the new ‘Sightlines’ art fair in the Hudson Valley of upstate New York. The finals take the form of an exhibition, where game prints are on display for the finalvote.

Completed games are prepared by dArt International and emailed back for voting.