CULTURE
Farah Al Qasimi’s Art Basel display included three of the photographs acquired by the Legacy Purchase Program as well as the wallpaper: “Southern Winds Café.”
WINNING ARTIST THOUGHT SHE WAS BEING PRANKED By Paul Scicchitano
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rooklyn-based visual artist Farah Al Qasimi was celebrating an achievement by a fellow artist when she got the call from gallery owner Helena Anrather telling her that she too had something to celebrate.
Farah Al Qasimi
Photo courtesy of Andrew J.S.
“I was at a dinner celebrating my dear friend, Maia, who had just won the Gold Art Prize. It was totally unexpected when Helena FaceTimed me to share the news,” Qasimi remembered. “I couldn’t hear her, but I could see that she was happy. I made her repeat it five times because I didn’t believe it.” Qasimi’s work: “Plant Market/Stray Flowers in Swimming Pool/Still Life with Sample Text and Piña Coladas” had been chosen by Miami Beach residents from among three finalists to be purchased as part of the Art in Public Places permanent collection. The selection was made through a vote on social media in the city’s annual Legacy Purchase Program between Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2021. Born in Abu Dhabi in 1991, Qasimi is no stranger to success in the art world. In 2019, she was named by Forbes Magazine to the “30 Under 30 in Art and Style.” Her artistry has also been featured in The New York Times, Financial Times and The New Yorker among other publications while her work has been displayed in the collections of the Guggenheim in New
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MB magazine | Spring 2022
York and Abu Dhabi, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona. The Miami Beach acquisition includes multiple images that range from a still life of flowers to an outdoor plant market, lush greenery, colorful tulips, a swimming pool and a series of ornate hookahs. The images are meant to represent an earthly fabrication of paradise with a caustic eye toward commercial fantasies. The work will be on permanent display in the east wing of the Miami Beach Convention Center. Qasimi told MB she wants people to come away feeling that escape may be within their grasp, but it is not always necessary. “The photographs all speak to the idea of paradise in different ways. One of them was shot at a plant market in my hometown of Abu Dhabi,” she said. “I was interested in how many people turned to gardening during the pandemic, and how we had to reformat our ideas of paradise to fit our most immediate surroundings. That return to caring about the land was a sense of comfort to me and to so many people I know.” Her career as an artist came somewhat by accident. “I was originally studying to become a musician, and then became an art major
