'This major retrospective traces the practice of the late Hassan Sharif from the early 1970s to 2016. The exhibition encompasses the artist's diverse body of work, including early newspaper caricatures and comic strip drawings. 'semi system' works, performances, paintings and 'urban archaeology' objects. This show also includes works never shown before, installations realised for the first time according to existing instructions, and archival footage and material on his overall practice and processes.

Drawn from Sharif's own writing on his practice in 1989, the exhibition title reflects his conceptual exploration of duration and repetition. In his text, Sharif asserts that the artist who engages in repetition comes to create a single work over his entire lifetime. Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist presents a visual narrative of his practice, following Sharif's journey as a pioneering experimental artist, both locally and internationally. Through his work, he has posed pertinent questions about the conditions in which contemporary art is practised and produced. Converging with changes in the times, these questions extend his artistic explorations into the realms of the social, cultural, educational and aesthetic.' — from foreword by Hoor Al Qasimi