Taymour Grahne Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition Zineb Sedira: Present Tense. The exhibition marks the internationally acclaimed artist’s first solo presentation in New York. Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, it features a number of seminal works, ranging from photography and video to installation and sculpture.

The exhibition Zineb Sedira: Present Tense features a first-time adaptation of The End of the Road (2010), one of Sedira’s most elaborate multimedia installations comprising a two-channel video. In discussing the work, Sedira said: “The curators originally commissioned the work for Told, Untold Retold, the inaugural contemporary art exhibition of Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha. I was happy to conceive an adapted version on the occasion of my solo show in New York.” Other works in the show include Registre du phare (2011) and Museum of Traces (2013), two archive-based photographic series about Lighthouses that have survived from times of French colonial rule in Algeria. Finally, some of Zineb Sedira’s earlier works will also be on view, such as her iconic The Lovers I (2008) from the series Death of a Journey,depicting a ship graveyard situated in Nouadhibou, Mauritania, and Broken Lens(2011), as well as the more recent works Sugar Silo I and II (2013) and the sculptures Sugar Routes II - 1 and 2 (2013).

In explaining the curatorial concept for the exhibition, Bardaouil and Fellrath stated:

“This selection of works highlights the way in which Zineb Sedira explores the anxieties underlying the current moment. In doing so, she uncovers the persistent historical struggles of a fading past. While it may refract the past, her work is primarily concerned with the present; one that reveals an ongoing tension.”

Zineb Sedira was born in Paris to Algerian parents. She is based in London since 1986, and works between Algiers, Paris, and London. Her work is included in International Museum collections such as Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne in Paris, Tate Modern and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Museum Moderner Kunst (Mumok) in Vienna, Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha and the Sharjah Art Foundation in Sharjah. Zineb Sedira is the founder and director of aria, artist residency in Algiers, Algeria. She is shortlisted for the 2015 Marcel Duchamp Prize that is awarded by the Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l'Art Français (ADIAF).

About the Curators

Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are the co-founders of Art Reoriented, a multidisciplinary curatorial platform based in Munich and New York. Some of their recent exhibitions include Mona Hatoum: Turbulence at Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha (2014), Songs of Loss and Songs of Love at the Gwangju Museum of Art in South Korea (2014), and I Spy With My Little Eye... at the Mosaic Rooms in London and Casa Arabe in Madrid and Cordoba (2015). In 2013, Bardaouil and Fellrath were the curators of the Lebanese Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, and of the comprehensive retrospective Paul Guiragossian: The Human Condition at the Beirut Exhibition Center. They also curated Mathaf’s inaugural contemporary art exhibitionTold Untold Retold (2010–2011) and the critically acclaimed international traveling exhibition Tea with Nefertiti (2012–2014). Their upcoming projects include the Sydney Biennale in March 2016, where they are part of the Biennale’s team of curatorial attachés. In September 2016, they will open the first major museum exhibition dedicated to Surrealism in Egypt at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, followed by other international museum venues in 2017.