‘Short Circuits’ is Vikram Divecha’s first survey exhibition, retracing the Dubai-based artist’s practice since 2013. 

Developing long-term collaborations with workers, contractors and decision-makers, Vikram Divecha takes an interest in the otherwise invisible structures of planning, construction, demolition and maintenance that shape the cities of the United Arab Emirates and beyond. 

His works, playful and poetic, rely on what he calls “found processes” in which the artist inserts himself, observing how individuals navigate, experiment with and bypass these systems. 

Working with the materials, space and labour available to him, Divecha’s projects manifest as site-specific works, public art, installations, videos, photography and drawings. 

Vikram Divecha is a Beirut-born artist who grew up in Mumbai and is based in the UAE. He holds an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University and was a participant in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study program. His work has been exhibited regionally and internationally at the 57th Venice Biennale’s UAE National Pavilion UAE, the 13th Sharjah Biennial, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Centre of Contemporary Art (Warsaw) and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (New York). He currently teaches as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the New York University Abu Dhabi.

Curated by Art Jameel’s Dawn Ross, Head of Collections, and Lucas Morin, Curator, the exhibition gathers works from the Art Jameel Collection, local and international loans, and new commissions.  

A guide to the exhibition is available for download here.

‘Short Circuits’ will be accompanied by a monograph published in collaboration with Press Works. 

Image: Vikram Divecha, Fee Transfer, 2017, ink on acid free fine grain paper, 21 x 29.7 cm, courtesy the artist and Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde