10 December 2023

LAST CHANCE Wissam Shawkat: Black & White

Mestaria Gallery Unit 35, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Monochrome works at reduced scale from one of the masters of modern calligraphic art. In this show there are 111 in total, all in his characteristic calligraphy styles including Al Wissam and Calligraforms. "It feels to me a universal truth [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Jade Kim & Kai: SOMEDAY | Love and Labyrinths

Volery Gallery Maze Tower - 5201, Dubai International Financial Center, Dubai

A dual exhibition for two interesting Asian artists – Jade Kim from South Korea and Kai from Japan. Jade Kim's practice is based around the animated character MIN, an embodiment of his wife, whose personality and characteristics inspire his paintings [ ... ]

Free

Alfiz Sabirov: Ayu Bala

Andakulova Gallery Unit 18, P4 Level Damac Park Towers, DIFC , Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A solo exhibition of 3D work by the Turkic artist, sculptures distinguished by a variety of shapes and volumes, unexpected combinations of materials and textures. Says the gallery: “Sabirov has created his own mythology, elaborated in detail and embodied in [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Mohannad OrabI: Coloured Shadows

Urbanist Art Gallery Box Park, Al Wasl Road, Dubai

Collage art by the Dubai-based Syrian artist whose work reflects his interest in spontaneity, the liberation of forms and colours, and the creation of art without specific guidelines.    

Free

LAST CHANCE Saher Nassar: The Front Side Strikes the Most

Zawyeh Gallery Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Soldiers undergo rigorous training, sometimes bordering on indoctrination, to execute commands often beyond their personal desires or intentions. They become pieces in a domino effect, operating in environments they cannot control. The latest works by Saher Nassar examine the psychology [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Nine Nodes of Non-Being

421 Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

A group exhibition with works by nine artists, thinkers, filmmakers, and researchers from East, South, Southeast Asia, the MENA region, and South America. Curated by Ritika Biswas, it conceives of climate-related extinction through various states of negation and excess emerging [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Asma Belhamar: Solid Void

421 Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

This solo exhibition captures the tensions between shifting natural geographies and dynamic urban environments, featuring new works inspired by the UAE’s architectural history. It narrates the topographic evolution of the UAE, as influenced by Western classical modernity, contemporary traditionalism in [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Roshanak Aminelahi: Faces of Resilience

Ayyam Gallery Alserkal Avenue Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The second solo exhibition for Roshanak Aminelahi at Ayyam Gallery (the first was way back in 2017) illuminates the stories of women who navigated a male-dominated society and persevered through adversity. The selected women come from diverse backgrounds, spanning different [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Nabil Nahas: Tethys

Lawrie Shabibi Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

After months of renovations, Lawrie Shabibi is reopening with a show by the pioneering Lebanese American artist Nabil Nahas — who was actually the first artist Lawrie Shabibi exhibited, back in 2011. Nahas looks like a great choice. Noted as [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Afra Al Dhaheri: Give Your Weight to the Ground

Green Art Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Working across various mediums including mixed media, sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, photography, and printmaking, Afra Al Dhaheri draws out notions of time and adaptation, rigour and fragility. Born in Abu Dhabi, where she still lives and works, Al Dhaheri has [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Lubna Chowdhary: Disjunctions

Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A solo exhibition from an always interesting artist that foregrounds her distinctive disruption of material, of tradition, of expectations. Clay and ceramics constitute her principal media, but she uses them to explore tensions between the handmade and the industrial, the [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Nima Nabavi and Jason Seife: Duality

The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

New works by two artists working together in symbiosis – pairings of canvases that are mixed and matched (the precise dimensions of each canvas are the same) but not exact: the works are cousins, not siblings. Geometry was the common [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Julian Charrière: Melting Point

For COP28, the noted climate-engaged Swiss-French artist is presenting an important show in collaboration with Art of Change 21, a non-profit organisation on art and environment which has curated exhibitions and events at each COP since 2015; and Alserkal Initiatives, [ ... ]

LAST CHANCE Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics

Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

Founded in 2009, the Jameel Prize is a collaboration between the V&A and Art Jameel; it is the world’s leading award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. This sixth edition, the first to have a focus on [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Samia Halaby: Lasting Impressions

Sharjah Art Museum Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

The big autumn exhibition at the Sharjah Art Museum is a major retrospective for the NY-based Palestinian Samia Halaby, featuring around 180 works of various sizes from abstract paintings and sculptures to documentary drawings and digital works. Internationally recognised as [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE I Can No Longer Produce the Limits of My Own Body

NIKA Project Space Unit 11 Al Khayat Avenue, 19th Street Road — Al Quoz 1, Dubai

A group show highlighting ecofeminist perspectives, curated by Nadine Khalil and featuring work by Liane Al Ghusain, Lilia Ziamou, Dalia Khalife, Sara Niroobakhsh, Mirna Bamieh with Isaac Sullivan, and Christiane Peschek. Khalil notes that the show features predominantly women-centric perspectives, [ ... ]

LAST CHANCE Yoshihiko Tsutsumi: Intersections of Cosmos

XVA Gallery Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood, Bur Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Yoshihiko Tsutsumi is an accomplished graphic designer and artist (and a professional antiques dealer, gallerist and art director too, as it happens). Influenced by the immersive environment of his uncle's cinema billboard painting atelier in Kumamoto, Japan, he draws inspiration [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Sawsan Al Bahar: 33 Songs, 99 Words

Maraya Art Centre Al Qasba, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

The Dubai-based Syrian artist presents a large-scale multimedia installation with 330 printed sheets representing songs inherited from her father over the past 33 years. The songs are an obscure and highly personal collection; the patterns only reveal visual poetry and [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE I Can No Longer Produce the Limits of My Own Body

NIKA Project Space Unit 11 Al Khayat Avenue, 19th Street Road — Al Quoz 1, Dubai

The fourth exhibition at NIKA Project Space is a group show for seven artists exploring the body as an expanded site and medium; Liane Al Ghusain, Mirna Bamieh, Isaac Sullivan, Dalia Khalife, Sara Nirookbaksh, Lilia Ziamou and Christiane Peschek. Says [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Letters of Light

Louvre Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

Held in partnership with Bibliothèque nationale de France and France Muséums, this exhibition will spotlight the Holy Books of the three Abrahamic religions – the Quran, the Christian Bible, and the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) – exploring the historical context in [ ... ]

AED 60

LAST CHANCE Blane De St Croix: Horizon

NYUAD Art Gallery Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The Art Gallery at NYUAD opens its new season with works from a sculptor who works on the relationship between people and landscape and in particular the landscape of climate change. His practice is based on extensive field research; over [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Reviewing Landscape

Elmarsa Gallery 23 Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A group exhibition of landscapes from a genuinely eclectic list of painters – Alexis Delahogue (France, d.1936), Ammar Farhat (Tunisia, d.1987), Antoine ‘Mayo’ Malliarakis (Egypt, d.1990), Atef Maatallah (Tunisia, b. 1981), Baya Mahieddine (Algeria, d.1998), Cécile Bougourd (France, d.1941), Hedi [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Maxi Cohen: The Poetry of Water

Leila Heller Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Maxi Cohen’s first solo show in the UAE is a collection of water art captured in the UAE that includes paintings, large format photographs, multimedia works, immersive installations, mixed-reality, and video furniture. For 25 years Cohen’s engagement with water, as [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Diane Tuft: Frozen in Time

Leila Heller Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The mixed media artist’s solo show is a collection of photographs documenting the expansive beauty of our planet and the dire situation that it continues to face if we do not provide a sustainable environment for its future. Diane Tuft [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Pablo Reinoso: Lines in Motion

Custot Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The first solo exhibition in the region for the French-Argentinian artist features a selection of existing and brand-new works first shown at the Abu Dhabi Art fair that provide a comprehensive survey of Reinoso’s sculptural practice. The show highlights the [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska: Plaited Time / Deep Water

Sharjah Arts Foundation, Arts Square Al Shuweiheen, Sharjah

Developed over several years, Lubaina Himid’s first exhibition in the region has been conceived together with Magda Stawarska, who is internationally renowned for her practice of ‘inner listening’—a collaborative process of listening to cities. The results of their intimate encounters [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Philip Mueller: The Black Flags of Medea

CARBON 12 Unit 37, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz 1, Dubai

Another excursion through the worlds of one of Carbon 12's stars.  It's a gathering of old and new people from paintings past, featuring the Black Flamingo Sad Boys and the Naxos Racing Team; the work marks a fundamental stage in [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Walid Siti: Fragile Construct

Meem Gallery Umm Suqeim Rd, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Two towers loom large in Walid Siti’s artwork, one manmade – the 9th century Malwiya minaret of Samarra, encompassing both the hubris of political power and the genius of an unknown architect; and the mountains of his native Kurdistan, formed [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Rashid Rana: It Lies Beyond

Volte Art Projects Warehouse 13, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Rashid Rana characteristically challenges our perceptions of scale through the intermingling of both small and large imagery, exploring and revealing patterns and similarities. In It Lies Beyond, the imposing proportions invite viewers to immerse themselves in the intricate imagery and [ ... ]

LAST CHANCE Abdulrahim Salim: Muheera & I

Aisha Alabbar Gallery Warehouse 101, Al Quoz 2, Dubai

Abdulrahim Salim’s first solo exhibition with the gallery presents a collection that spans two decades of his career, including figurative drawings, paper collages, and  abstract paintings. Central to his artistic vision is the enduring influence of folklore and the character [ ... ]

LAST CHANCE Alfiz Sabirov: Ayu Bala

Andakulova Gallery Unit 18, P4 Level Damac Park Towers, DIFC , Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A solo exhibition of 3D work by the Turkic artist, sculptures distinguished by a variety of shapes and volumes, unexpected combinations of materials and textures. Says the gallery: “Sabirov has created his own mythology, elaborated in detail and embodied in [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Henok Melkamzer

Al Hamriyah Studios Sharjah

Featuring more than 100 works, many on view for the first time, this exhibition is the largest solo presentation of artworks by Ethiopian telsem artist Henok Melkamzer. Traditionally termed as healing or talisman art, telsem is a sophisticated visual art [ ... ]

Free

LAST CHANCE Fereydoun Ave and the Laal Collection

Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

Featuring more than 30 artists from the collection of one of Iran’s most influential and critical artists, this exhibition highlights five decades of modern and contemporary Iranian art, shaped by personal history, friendship, sensibility and circumstance. Featured artists in Galleries [ ... ]

Free