Muscat: The Bait Al Zubair International Residency Programme will commence at the end of November and provide artists based outside the Sultanate of Oman with the opportunity to work in Muscat.
Three artists from Japan, Australia and the UK will each come to Bait Al Zubair for one month over the winter season to explore their artistic practice, create, exchange and showcase a wide variety of art genres and styles.
The Residencies are non-prescriptive and process-based, allowing visiting artists to develop projects in response to their new environment, or to conduct research benefiting from Bait Al Zubair's resources.
The first artist to arrive is Tetsuro Kano from Japan. He graduated from Tokyo Zokei University majoring in design and received his Masters in Fine Art from the same university. In his recent work Tetsuro, he has been creating new landscapes by combining ready-made objects and plants such as seeds and fruits, creating installations which, in his world, objects and space are deviated from their original purposes and meanings. For the audience their sense of value and recognition hangs in the air for questioning.
In the New Year, Australian artists Damon Kowarsky will join Bait Al Zubair. Damon studied printmaking at VCA and Glasgow School of Art and Advanced Figure Drawing with Godwin Bradbeer at RMIT. The recipient of numerous prizes and awards including the Toyota Community Spirit Artist Travel Award, and Australia Council Asia-Australia Creative Partnerships Grant, Damon has travelled extensively in South Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
One of Damon's many mediums of expression is charcoal with architecture and the colours of earth and sky inspiring much of his work.
To complete the season British artist Amanda Agyei will spend a month in Muscat in March 2015. Amanda graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2012 having specialised in printmaking. Since graduating she has been lucky enough to be an art resident, technician and art teacher at The Owl barn Residency and The Nelson's Trust in Gloucester.
A year after graduating she co-founded a 10-day artist residency in Atina, Italy with its main premise being collaboration.
Amanda has long worked with found objects. She also reuses her older pieces of work as physical material for newer ones. She feels she is an artist that works with the rediscovery and potential of materials and ideas. She works with narratives created when different individual elements (be that objects and/or people) are brought into one space to be read as one complete piece.
Paul Doubleday, director of Bait Al Zubair said, "Early in the residency, visiting artists are asked to present their practice in an informal evening of talks attended by artists, art professionals and the general public. Other activities, such as visits to art studios and special events at Bait al Zubair, can also be organised on an individual artist basis. These events encourage discussion of the work and serve as an introduction with the potential for the visiting artists to make useful contacts."
He added, "All residencies culminate in an Open Studio where the artists show the work produced during their time in Oman. Open Studios will run for three days and offer an opportunity for Omani audiences to see international work. Unlike exhibitions, Open Studios focus on process and feedback as they often present works in progress and encourage interaction and dialogue between the artists and the audience."
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