Dis[Locating] Culture: Contemporary Islamic Art in America April 15, 2011

Michael Berger Gallery will showcase some of the finest American Islamic artists—whether Muslim by faith or not. Dis[Locating] Culture aims to problematize stereotypes and challenge notions of cultural and religious homogeneity. This exhibition is designed to build bridges of intercultural understanding via the universal language of art. Some of the artists included come from the Islamic world but do not live there; some neither live nor have roots in the so-called Islamic world, but yet their works are classified under the Islamic umbrella as a result of their political, social, or even technical choices. Islamic art is conventionally thought of as a separate category from Western art, but these artists blur the categories. This timely exhibition is neither Islamic art by nature nor Western, per se; this is Contemporary Art.

Additionally, a symposium to explore the issues suggested by the exhibition will be hosted by Michael Berger Gallery, the Pittsburgh Middle East Institute, & The Andy Warhol Museum and will be held at the Warhol Museum Theater. By exploring contemporary Islamic art’s boundaries & borders—whether religious, cultural, or social—and asking participants which are to be respected, and which disrupted & dislocated, the symposium aims to upend the traditional narrative of civilizational collision in favor of the dialogue of collusion.

“We are living in a time of binary thinking and exclusionary conclusions. Based on manufactured boundaries between cultures, these barriers lead to ever more fear & mistrust. Mistaken notions about one another travel far and wide, sometimes carried by political & religious subtexts that inform both popular & ‘high’ culture.” — Reem Alalusi, co-curator.

Michael Berger & Reem Alalusi, Co-Curators, will present at Michael Berger Gallery this timely & important exhibition in association with the Pittsburgh Middle East Institute.

Exhibition continues through July 30, 2011.
Michael Berger Gallery is open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 12-5pm and by appointment.

30 South Sixth Street, South Side, Pittsburgh, 15203
Free & Open to the Public
412-441-4282