Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) announced that the next Emirati Expressions exhibition will open on the 19^th of October and will feature the works of art by Emirati photographers collaborating with one of the world’s most renowned photographers, Stephen Shore.

Following its successful debut in 2008 with the theme “The Movement of Thought,” Emirati Expressions 2011 will feature works developed from a series of photography workshops led by Shore that began this May and will run for four months. 

Coinciding with the second workshop, will be the launch of the public programme for the exhibition with a talk by Stephen Shore on Monday, 20 June at 6:30pm at Manarat Al Saadiyat on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi. Shore will present a range of work from his four-decade career, describing the changes of his own style and discussing the relationship between form and content when working with the medium. The talk is complimentary.

Commenting on Emirati Expressions 2011, HE Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of TDIC, said: “Emirati Expressions offers Emirati artists a platform for sharing their work and showcasing their talent. It aims to foster opportunities for them to learn from some of the world’s prominent experts facilitating new work and creative exchange, and it’s great we can involve Emirati artists in all aspects of the exhibition, including the publication, logo design, and museography.”

Discussing his work on the project to date, Stephen Shore said: “It’s a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with artists from the UAE on these workshops and the upcoming Emirati Expressions exhibition and we made excellent progress in the first workshop last month.”

The artists will work with Shore over the course of the summer months to capture the artists’ stories and will play a role in encouraging other Emiratis – and the UAE public at large – to contribute their own visions to public art across the city. The exhibition will run from the 19^th October this year until 28^th January 2012.