Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual convening of artists, curators, scholars and arts practitioners from around the world to discuss issues in contemporary art focuses this time on effective responses to global challenges in social unrest, environmental degradation, systemic erasure and alienation. [ ... ]
Khalaf explores the relationship between self, object, and other through a focus on 'steel' in public spaces: The Field of Dreams, or "dreams as minefields", remind us of the modern structures of unbridled capitalism and the transformative domination of life. [ ... ]
The debut exhibition in the UAE by the emerging Egyptian artist draws inspiration from Hawam's hometown of El Mahalla El Kubra in Gharbeya Governorate – its countryside, colours, and the faces of people who shaped his early life. Working in [ ... ]
A group exhibition that reflects on continuity, resilience, and quiet optimism at a time when the world can feel uncertain. Says the gallery: "All at Once speaks to the coexistence of multiple realities – personal and shared, fleeting and enduring, [ ... ]
A discussion of Sophie Kazan Makhlouf's excellent exploration of contemporary art in the Emirates, led by Kutubna's founder and director Shatha Almutawa and Nora Qudah, curator of art exhibitions at Kutubna. Free to members; others pay AED 25.
This first solo exhibition in the Middle East for the SF-based Libyan-Yurok artist takes its title from a poem by Joy Harjo, which considers cycles of transformation across land, water, and time, moving from submerged environments to human settlement and industrial [ ... ]
A group exhibition dedicated to mapping and navigation systems, "telling stories of fast cars and donkeys, spinning globes and street barricades, cosmic highways and broken bridges ..." Curated by Indranjan Banerjee and Lucas Morin, the exhibition presents a wide range [ ... ]
The first solo exhibition in the Emirates for the Münster-based Tatar artist Nazilya Nagimova brings together new works created specifically for her solo project at NIKA Project Space, plus selections from earlier projects. Nagimova explores memory, migration, and the search [ ... ]
A group show of works by emerging, mid-career and established artists priced at $3,000 and below, conceived as an accessible entry into collecting "whether you’re just starting or looking to expand your collection with thoughtful additions". The artists: Ahmad Kasha [ ... ]
The Dubai-based artist's first solo show aim to capture the essence of Dubai, and of belonging. Says the artist, who is currently Head of Art at Dubai College: "my visual palette and material inspiration are rooted in the streets. I [ ... ]
This flagship travelling exhibition, run in collaboration with McGill University, Canada, is a great chance to explore the richness, inherent beauty, and global impact of the heritage of Arabic and Islamic manuscripts. The exhibition promises an exploration of the intellectual [ ... ]
A retrospective for one of the artists who have played a central role in shaping the UAE’s modern visual identity, featuring work from a career spanning more than five decades. Bridging heritage and modernity with authority, Al Rais’s paintings draw [ ... ]
For nearly five decades, Sarah McEneaney has devoted her practice to a singular theme, the meticulous chronicling of her own life. This exhibition presents a series of paintings that chart the latest moments and milestones in a life – domestic [ ... ]
The Iowa-based artist John Dilg represents scenic panoramas as earth-toned paintings that feel immediately familiar yet poignantly dreamlike. Having specialised in abstraction early in his career, Dilg’s evolution towards landscape painting retained an especial awareness of spatial relationships – "a [ ... ]
Shezad Dawood’s 25-year career spans painting, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, film, performance and digital media. Fascinated by ecologies and architecture, his work connects art, science, music, environmentalism and technology to explore both alternative histories and futures, through a process of continuous [ ... ]
The culmination of Gallery Isabelle's 20th anniversary 20-day exhibition welcomes artists, contributors, and friends (the full exhibition, during which one work has been unveiled each day, remains on view until 28 May). Those involved: Artists: Hassan Sharif, Bahman Jalali, Mohammed [ ... ]
Otieno’s first solo presentation with Efie centres on her signature transformation of reclaimed and distressed materials. Working across wood, metal, and mixed media, her semi-abstract forms explore layered narratives of history, memory, human interaction, and environmental survival. To 16 May. [ ... ]
Durags are stretchable fabrics worn over the head to shape and protect the hair; in Akinbola’s practice, they are both culturally loaded objects and a material he can reconfigure. For this solo show, Akinbola assembles durags into compositions that are [ ... ]
A group exhibition that approaches 'ground' as "something continuously produced: fractured, inscribed, and held in tension between erasure and persistence ..." The first of two spaces has works by Mandy El Sayegh, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Omar El Gurg, and Rand [ ... ]
For her first solo exhibition in the UAE, curated by Nadine Khoury, Samar Hejazi presents a body of work that explores how forms shift, unravel, and reassemble over time. Working across textile, printmaking, and spatial intervention, her practice suggests that [ ... ]
"All the lands from sunrise to sunset", a phrase attributed to the Mesopotamian king Sargon of Akkad, graphically invoked his claim to total dominion. Taking this assertion as both point of departure and provocation, this exhibition includes works by Alla [ ... ]
Alserkal Avenue's Art Month (18 April to 19 May) includes a raft of individual events, mostly at the weekends, alongside the usual gallery opening hours – most of those we have listed separately in the Agenda. Here’s the schedule for [ ... ]
In 2014, an exhibition was held in Hong Kong under the title The importance of staying quiet; conceived by Saira Ansari and Umer Butt, it was an attempt to find a minimal vocabulary within Pakistani art. A decade later, The [ ... ]
Here’s the schedule for the first Sunday of Alserkal Avenue's Art Month (18 April to 19 May): 3-4pm Project Space KIDS' WORKSHOP Animal Comic Creations Participants (aged 7+) design their own comic-style story, inspired by an animal of their choice [ ... ]
Described as "the UAE’s first collaborative gallery exhibition", this 14-day selling show features more than 50 artists represented by 20 of the UAE’s leading contemporary art galleries. The intention is to provide a commercial opportunity for the galleries, which have [ ... ]
The annual Faculty exhibition of the Academy of Visual Arts at the University of the Arts, Sharjah. The curator is Tor Seidel, filmmaker and lecturer in photography and video at the Academy, and his statement includes this summary of the show: [ ... ]
This major exhibition marks the ten-year anniversary of 421 Arts Campus and offers a chance to reflect on emergent artistic practices in the UAE, their possibilities, and challenges for the future. Featuring video, performance, installation, and multimedia works, it invites [ ... ]
A group show for six contemporary artists of Arab descent: Gilbert Halaby, Hanibal Srouji, Hussein Baalbaki, Richard Hearns, Sarah Alagroobi, and Soraya Abu Naba’a. Says the gallery: "At the heart of Memoryscape lies a shared inquiry into how our surroundings [ ... ]
In this exhibition of a new body of work, curated by Cima Azzam, Noor Al Suwaidi approaches colour as a field of sensation where form appears and dissolves within shifting tonalities – "figures hover at the edge of abstraction; colour [ ... ]
Curated by Cima Azzam and featuring artworks loaned by Firetti Contemporary, this exhibition reflects an ongoing exploration of memory, material, and place by Salmah Al Mansoori, an Emirati artist from Abu Dhabi. Her practice begins with acts of noticing: fragments, [ ... ]
A solo exhibition for Shamsa Al Omaira, an Abu Dhabi based multidisciplinary artist and designer. Evocations of duality occupy a prominent position in her work; childhood bedding and memories of jelly desserts morph into soft-looking sculptures laced with hidden or overt [ ... ]
The inaugural auction of what is described as “a secondary market platform focused on mid-range contemporary works from the UAE and the wider region” will consist of a “tightly curated” sale of 21 lots. The organisers, from the Bayt AlMamzar [ ... ]
Alamoudi’s snapshots of contemporary Khaleeji aesthetics playfully capture the give-and-take between developmental goals and their real-world manifestation. Viral memes, talking falcons, automated toy cars and insect light traps all function as tools to process accelerating change; together, these works explore [ ... ]
A great idea from Foundry Downtown – a group exhibition featuring artists based in the UAE who are not (currently) represented by galleries. The organisers describe it as “for the first time, a selling exhibition structured around accessibility, discovery, and [ ... ]
Throughout his practice, White approaches sculpture as a kind of material alchemy – discarded substances are reworked forms that appear uncannily animate: industrial debris becomes wave, tree, or cosmic surface, revealing unexpected continuities between natural forces and technological systems. Two [ ... ]
Described as "the UAE’s first collaborative gallery exhibition", this 14-day selling show features more than 50 artists represented by 20 of the UAE’s leading contemporary art galleries. The intention is to provide a commercial opportunity for the galleries, which have [ ... ]
A new series of images by the Ethiopian art photographer, her second solo exhibition at the gallery. The show includes 10 works that have never been seen before. Muluneh has been a distinctive voice in contemporary photography throughout her 25-year [ ... ]
Without formal art schooling, Nihad Al Turk has developed a distinctive visual language that blends colours, forms, and patterns, "preserving his naïve sensibility while conveying his philosophical outlook and artistic vision". His paintings typically feature anthropomorphic shapes and figures, a [ ... ]
A group exhibition that approaches 'ground' as "something continuously produced: fractured, inscribed, and held in tension between erasure and persistence ..." The first of two spaces has works by Mandy El Sayegh, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Omar El Gurg, and Rand [ ... ]
In 2014, an exhibition was held in Hong Kong under the title The importance of staying quiet; conceived by Saira Ansari and Umer Butt, it was an attempt to find a minimal vocabulary within Pakistani art. A decade later, The [ ... ]
An ambitious large-scale group exhibition dedicated to mapping and navigation systems, "telling stories of fast cars and donkeys, spinning globes and street barricades, cosmic highways and broken bridges ... delves into topographies, transit lines and simulated landscapes to engage critically [ ... ]
Khozema Al‑Aaed's solo exhibition reimagines cartographies, reminding us that land absorbs our movements, our wounds, our hopes, "becoming a living archive of human presence" as the gallery puts it. "The compositions resemble traces of cities once inhabited, imagined, or departed. [ ... ]
An interesting concept: "art can be 'seeded' into the urban environment, where it evolves over time through interaction with people, space, and context ... Rather than presenting finished works within gallery walls, the festival invites artists to engage directly with [ ... ]
A group exhibition that reflects on continuity, resilience, and quiet optimism at a time when the world can feel uncertain. Says the gallery: "All at Once speaks to the coexistence of multiple realities – personal and shared, fleeting and enduring, [ ... ]
Otieno’s first solo presentation with Efie centres on her signature transformation of reclaimed and distressed materials. Working across wood, metal, and mixed media, her semi-abstract forms explore layered narratives of history, memory, human interaction, and environmental survival.
Safwan Dahoul’s most recent body of work continues his Dream series – an ongoing body of work investigating the dream state that he began back in the late 1980s, exploring "the physical and psychological effects of alienation, solitude, and longing [ ... ]
A group show of works by emerging, mid-career and established artists priced at $3,000 and below, conceived as an accessible entry into collecting "whether you’re just starting or looking to expand your collection with thoughtful additions". The artists: Ahmad Kasha [ ... ]
The annual Faculty exhibition of the Academy of Visual Arts at the University of the Arts, Sharjah. The curator is Tor Seidel, filmmaker and lecturer in photography and video at the Academy, and his statement includes this summary of the show: [ ... ]
Durags are stretchable fabrics worn over the head to shape and protect the hair; in Akinbola’s practice, they are both culturally loaded objects and a material he can reconfigure. For this solo show, Akinbola assembles durags into compositions that are [ ... ]
How do borders and ideologies attempt to contain open stretches of land and water, and segregate those who inhabit them? What ties us to a place, and what severs us from it? Which ways of living and knowledge can move [ ... ]
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