Aug. 30 saw the opening of a new exhibition, Community and Critique, at Warehouse 421. This exposition was the culmination of a year’s work by the 2015-16 cohort of the Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship.

A project of Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, the Fellowship brought together over a dozen young artists based in the UAE, both Emirati and long-term residents of the UAE. The yearlong Fellowship is a collaboration between the Foundation and the Rhode Island School of Design, in which the artists selected are given studio space and support while also receiving instruction and critique from the Rhode Island School of Design’s faculty.

Entering the space of the exhibition, one is guided into the first room by the ethereal photographs of Fatima Yousef al Yousif, which depict her grappling with ideas of death and rebirth, particularly the death of her older sister, and the naming of a younger girl in her honor. The photographs, mounted onto the wall with pins and no frames, show bodies and rooms covered in plastic which, while melancholic, are supposed to remind us of the delicate nature of life.

Moving further into the space, themes of self-representation are played out. Both Tala Worrell and Ahmed Mohamed play with this idea through anthropomorphic figures — a chameleon and a bunny, respectively — across vastly different mediums. Worrell uses a more traditional oil painting to convey her concepts while Mohammed, who was originally an illustrator, uses mixed media and found objects.

Manager of Arts, Culture and Heritage at the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, Khulood Al Atiyat, noted that 80 percent of the Fellows changed their artistic medium in the course of the process.

"What ends up happening is we see people applying with a specific medium that they work with and some of them … are asked the question, is there any other way for you to convey your concept? What's the best material for you to convey your concept?" said Al Atiyat.

Al Atiyat saw this transformation as being a process of combination of the studio space provided by the Foundation and the mentorship of the faculty from the Rhode Island School of Design. Especially in the last four to five months of the program, the artists worked closely and extensively with the faculty to develop their knowledge of their medium or material.

The critique and feedback that the artists receive, both from faculty and other fellows, is what Al Atiyat notes as being a critical aspect of the Fellowship, and something that is lacking in the post-graduate arts education field in the UAE. When putting together the program, the Foundation found that the critique these artists were receiving in the UAE was not constructive.

Al Atiyat noted that the kind of critique most artists encountered at their shows was not entirely substantial, and often they only found people appreciating their work superficially, saying, “Oh nice, I like that.” After, the artists would find themselves saying, “You know, that doesn’t do much for me. Where do I go from there?”

By fostering a dynamic of critique and feedback, artists were able to refine their focus. In the second main room of the exhibition, this focus was on identity and the UAE. Hind Mezaina, an artist based in Dubai, explored the representation and iconography of the UAE by digitally altering postcards and reimagining television clips of women dancing.

This hyperreal installation contrasted with Asma Al Ahmed's exploration of the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah, the Emirate where she is from. Mountains make up roughly 2 percent of the geography of the UAE and yet, according to Al Ahmed, are underappreciated and underrepresented. Her installation was a woven shape hanging from the ceiling, its delicateness challenging conventional ideas of this landscape.

These complex depictions of the UAE reflect the multifaceted nature of the arts scene here. Al Atiyat hopes that the alumni of the Fellowship can go on to shape and develop arts practice in the UAE.

“[We hope] that these cohorts that graduate can continue to be the foundation of this community of artists and … [become] the people who look at the current arts ecosystem and look at the arts scene in the UAE and say: ok, this is how I want to contribute,” said Al Atiyat.

Now going into its fourth year, the Fellowship has grown from having 40 nominations in its first year to have 144 nominations for the 2016-17 cohort; out of these 144, only 16 artists will be selected.

"The long term goal is to hopefully establish a generation of artists who become established artists both in the UAE and internationally as well ... and also to establish a generation of people who will drive the arts scene forward in the UAE … people who will exhibit in the beautiful museums that we will have established,” said Al Atiyat.

For now, the exhibition runs until Oct. 2. There will be a public open house with talks and critique on Sept. 28.