Dubai Weekend In Review: CITY WALK Launches Weekend Art Market and More

Tribeca Celebrates 1st Year Anniversary

Memories were made en masse as the hautest of the haute celebrated Tribeca’s first year anniversary at an exclusive party. The glitterati were out in full-force, with VIPs, media, musicians, bloggers, fashionistas, models and loyal customers sharing a joyous evening. The crowd celebrated while dancing to the musical stylings of Live DJ CN Williams, dining and enjoying cocktails.

“We have had a very exciting year at Tribeca, we have successfully launched several events including several music orientated nights that promote local talent and our very own successful Night Market. We continue to entertain our guests with different offerings including movie nights, comedy nights and live music and feel that we have added a unique dynamic to the social scene in Dubai. This year we are launching our new organic Paleo Menu and also our home delivery and catering menu. We are extremely pleased with our first year and look forward to many more to come,” said Vesna Vrankovic, Creator Director at Tribeca Kitchen & Bar.

The evening was a true representation of Tribeca’s presence in Dubai’s social scene – great environment, happy vibes and lots of good food and drinks.

CITY WALK Launches ‘Art at CITY WALK’

Creativity was alive and well as CITY WALK, the dynamic outdoor destination by Meraas, launched ‘Art at CITY WALK,’ a weekend art market dedicated to unique and unusual art.

The only one of its kind in the Middle East, ‘Art at CITY WALK’ is a platform for emerging artists and photographers to showcase their work. Held every Friday and Saturday from 11:00am to 10:00pm across the promenade, visitors at CITY WALK can marvel in some of the best pieces created by upcoming artists in the region.

With new artists taking over the stands every month, on display through the month of January include works from Indian artist Alakananda Ray, an impressionist who uses the alias Aloka for her work, capturing emotions of love, joy and freedom created with acrylic, oil, soft pastels and water color paints.

Also on exhibit is the work of Russian artist Maxim Kochereshchenko, an impressionist whose work embodies the influence of Modigliani, John Singer Sargent combining the effect of Japanese superflat movement artists Yoshitomo Nara and Aya Takano and manga artists like Taiyō Matsumoto and Masaaki Yuasa.

Egyptian artist, Laila El Hefnaoui is a Dubai based artist, who studied and practiced architecture but fell in love with art. Her paintings capture the different aspects of popular, urban and natural sites across the globe. She presents her work at ‘Art at CITY WALK’ throughout the month of January.

Located in the central district of Al Satwa, between the city’s original luxury residential communities and Dubai’s latest plush developments, CITY WALK houses over 50 refined retail and culinary options across the asset, with a fine blend of global brands and original home-grown and regional concepts.

CITY WALK’s relaxed outdoor ambience, friendly cafes, and inviting al fresco dining set against a backdrop of scenic views of the Dubai skyline make it an ideal destination for meetings and get-togethers. CITY WALK is a chic destination, which will evolve to become a city within a city.

Design Space Draws Creatives From Around The Globe

Professionals from around the world gathered at Design Space to take part in a one-day creative conference titled “Contemporary Heritage and Its Place In Art.” Regional and international professionals from various specialisations in the creative industry discussed what heritage is, and what their views are on implementing it within their work.

The event, which consisted of discussions, talks, and workshops around the topic of contemporary heritage, gave the attending professionals the opportunity to connect with the public in attendance as open discussions took place after the presentations.

The day’s action-packed agenda offered a range of interesting and diverse perspectives on the topic of cultural heritage. Following a short introduction, Australian artist and designer Gemma O’Brien gave a talk on “The rise of hand lettering in the digital age.” Following directly after O’Brien will be Austrian graphic designer and illustrator Verena Michelitsch, who will present on the topic of: “Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.”

Following the talks and a short break, the Creative Panel will be convened, which will be moderated by Mobius Design Studio’s Hadeyeh Badri. The networking and portfolio reviews will follow from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, after which Verena Michelitsch and Gemma O’Brien will once again be taking centre stage with their respective “Create abstract store posters” and “Hand lettering” workshops.

Al Barari Debuts Wellness Week

Al Barari, the green heart of Dubai, launched its exclusive Wellness Week from January 17-23, 2016. Wellness Week is a week-long initiative created to encourage individuals to lead a well-balanced lifestyle and make healthy, informed choices for the body, mind and soul.

Photo Credit: http://www.albarari.com/events/al-barari-wellness-week

The workshops took place at Heart & Soul spa, Body Language health club, The Farm, and Al Barari’s Showcase Gardens. “Wellness Week is a platform for the UAE community to experience the best in health and wellness in an accessible way. By delivery a holistic approach to living well, we want to help people enhance their health and happiness, and improve their quality of life using the information they learn at our wellness workshops. What better way to start the year than with educational sessions and hands-on demonstrations to help you towards your wellness goals?” says Maria Haggo, General Manager at Heart & Soul spa and the creator of Al Barari’s Wellness Week.

The workshops focused on a variety of topics including weight loss, holistic nutrition, hypnotherapy, Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), meditation, Yoga, wellness careers, healing, skincare and fitness, to name just a few. There were over 50 different informative sessions that aim to educate, empower and inspire guests to kick start the New Year with a positive and healthy outlook.

Leila Heller Gallery Dubai Opens “Zaha Hadid” Exhibition

Leila Heller Gallery Dubai is featuring “Zaha Hadid”, a mid-career exhibition of the oeuvre of internationally renowned architect Dame Zaha Hadid. Spanning the breath of Hadid’s product designs from the early 80s – on the cusp of the architect’s emergence onto the global stage – to the 2015 Liquid Glacial Collection furniture range.

From the MAXXI Museum in Rome to the London Olympic Aquatics Stadium, from the Guangzhou Opera House to the Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi, over the last 30 years Hadid has engaged with architecture as a form of landscape painting, transforming the hard-geometry of 20th century vertical aspirations into a site specific horizontal reflection of multi-perspectival design, heralding a new era along the way. For this exhibition, the hallmarks of these large scale building projects and grand architecture reveal themselves in the architect’s use of a new spatial paradigm at all scales, and in a myriad of materials resulting in a multitude of forms of domestic reverie.

On the occasion of this exhibition Hadid presents over 30 bodies of design work, exemplifying her transition after the 1990s from an ‘early semi-tectonic’ into her ‘later semi-liquid’ phase. The architect’s transposition of the vertical and horizontal can be seen in the angular Seoul Desk (2008), composed in high gloss fiberglass. Hadid’s ethic of deep environmental and physical inter- connectedness is exemplified in the Tau vases (2015), whose intricate pleats seek to portray the formal complexity of natural growth systems. As the body of architecture transposes itself onto the architecture of the body in Hadid’s continuous exploration of scale and spatial relations, the intimate constructions of her jewellery collections present multi-faceted lattice pieces, portraying intricate yet extremely strong cellular structures within nature.