The second performance of this spectacular "reimagining" of Handle's opera by the flamboyant director and designer Stefano Poda. It blends Handel’s score with "a new musical concept" by composer Kirill Richter that weaves in traditional Uzbek instruments. The sets feature [ ... ]
Koushaji’s exhibitions continues his exploration of memory, resilience, and the human condition with a new body of work that “reflects on a world shaped by displacement, conflict, and uncertainty, yet illuminated by fleeting moments of beauty and strength”. His signature [ ... ]
The Russian State Ballet Mari El, a company known for its commitment to classical ballet technique, is touring a repertoire of ballet standards in the UAE. It has gained a reputation for the quality and accessibility of its performances; so [ ... ]
Jumana Emil Abboud’s first solo exhibition in the Emirates draws on the lineage of Palestinian folktales and their continued resonance in the present – how stories inhabit landscapes, shape personal histories and collective memory, and create an enchanted relationship to [ ... ]
A solo show for the Korean artist reflecting Kim’s belief that we live within a paradox where we can be both predators and shelter for one another. Says the gallery: "despite this contradiction we continue to reach outward, to connect, [ ... ]
MadCat’s standup team at its regular stop in the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi's Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks ...
The second edition of the festival brings together 20 African and nine Emirati authors for around 20 Library sessions, book talks and panel discussions – and a series of African cooking sessions. The theme is “The African Way”, which is [ ... ]
Arva Ahmed is the entrepreneur behind Frying Pan Adventures, one of the Dubai’s more interesting food tour guides. This talk draws from her writings, YouTube channel, and television work to take stock of her career, her evolving relationship with the [ ... ]
An evening of new music from Boom.Diwan's forthcoming album, which is being recorded this week. The style is their characteristic merging of Kuwaiti maritime and desert traditions with the improvisational energy of jazz. Joining the ensemble are some distinguished collaborators, [ ... ]
Works by Yoshi (Aisha Al Ali), Ammar Al Banna, Ahmed Al Kuwaiti and Shaikha Al Shamsi. The theme is time as both a material and emotional presence, expressed through processes of transformation, memory, repetition, and decay – so time not [ ... ]
The debut solo exhibition in the Middle East for the Chinese-born London-based artist, known for her luscious sweeps of colour and a mordant wit (“Good Girls Go To Heaven, Cool Girls Go Everywhere”). This show presents a new body of [ ... ]
Bassam Freiha Art Foundation continues its monthly lecture series led by Dr Michaela Watrelot, BFAF Curator and Director of Exhibitions. This time it explores a pivotal moment in art history shaped by political upheaval, intellectual transformation, and shifting social ideals [ ... ]
Artist Daniele Genadry and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Associate Curator Nadine El Khoury will discuss Genadry’s practice and her approach to landscape through light, perception, and visual uncertainty, in relation to ecology, mediation, and the themes of the current group exhibition [ ... ]
The UAENO's inaugural concert series, the first with its full ensemble of 70 musicians and 30 choir, includes six dates around the Emirates in January. Performances in Abu Dhabi and Dubai will feature the acclaimed Iraqi oud virtuoso Naseer Shamma [ ... ]
MadCat Comedy's regular stop in Silicon Oasis promises "insane laughs every week". The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks.
The November Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Emmanuel Sonubi big man, big smile, big fun. A big hit too when he was here a year ago. Highly recommended Saanya Abbas razor-sharp Dubai-based comedian with over half a million fans on [ ... ]
A group show – 27 artists, 35 works – of prints from digital art that represent “a kaleidoscopic range of subjects and sentiments reflecting the complexity and richness of being human today … Rendered through digital tools, in some instances [ ... ]
A contemporary art exhibition dedicated to the Urdu language: according to Ishara, "the show explores how language provides the tools with which we create and shape our internal ‘worlds’. Words, rather than simply describing our surroundings, give rise to our [ ... ]
A group show in the Renaissance Business Bay’s lobby for “a diverse roster of Dubai based artists” that is “defined by variety rather than a single style" and linked “through colour, emotion, and storytelling”. To 27 January.
A live solo performance by the Lebanese-Armenian neo-classical pianist and composer (and a member of the Jameel team) for his latest album, MO(VE)MENT, which was released at the end of last year. Kurumilian says his music engages with questions of [ ... ]
A recreation of the classic Strauss-laden New Year’s concert from imperial Vienna, an hour and a half of classics from Die Fledermaus to the waltzes (like Blue Danube, Emperor Waltz, Voices of Spring, Donner und Blitzen). And yes, there will [ ... ]
MadCat Comedy's regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.
The penultimate stop for the November Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Emmanuel Sonubi big man, big smile, big fun. A big hit too when he was here a year ago. Highly recommended Saanya Abbas razor-sharp Dubai-based comedian with over half [ ... ]
The first part of this series, Lala Rukh I, presented a selection of photographs from the artist’s archives during her years at the University of Chicago (1974-76). Its speculative framework helped us to stage the evolution of Lala’s photographic sensibility, [ ... ]
New work by Kais Salman, who "places his audience among ruins ... his recent body of work acting as a pile of forgotten images buried beneath decades of historical buildup ... Faces emerge through Salman’s energetic brushwork, only to fade [ ... ]
The third Third Line solo exhibition by Spanish-Moroccan artist Anuar Khalifi comprises a new body of large-scale paintings and works on paper that represent an evolution in Khalifi’s practice, with increasingly intricate and carefully composed settings expanding the pictorial field. [ ... ]
In this new body of work – paintings, drawings, and sculpture – Alia Lootah continues an exploration of how form moves, shifts, and transforms ("a form is never finished, only paused"). Shapes stretch, collapse, and reappear altered, "existing in a [ ... ]
Anahita Razmi's video, installation and performance works usually focus on issues of identity and gender and examine processes of cultural appropriation in which the meanings of existing images, artefacts and thus identities are put into question by situating them in [ ... ]
Set within an environment of visual overload and compulsive accumulation, the work in this third solo exhibition at the gallery for the artist duo centres on the human figure at risk of dissolving into surface, interface, and pattern – a [ ... ]
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, using techniques developed through Muluneh's recent residency at Efie. Muluneh has been [ ... ]
In this new body of work, Nassar reflects on prolonged states of loss, endurance, and moral exhaustion, translating deeply personal and collective experiences across multiple mediums. Says the gallery: "Rather than seeking resolution or catharsis, the works dwell in a [ ... ]
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 [ ... ]
The RP Social returns for "an afternoon of great food, familiar faces, and engaging conversations around this year’s must-see films". Always a good meetup, and since this time it's in the afternoon there's more chance for kids to get involved [ ... ]
Another of L’ÉCOLE Middle East’s entertaining talks about the art of jewellery – mostly of course from the atelier of the school’s parent, Van Cleef & Arpels. This one explores how birds and feathers became a major theme in jewellery [ ... ]
Tolstoy’s epic novel has often resisted dramatisation as a one-off theatrical performance – it’s huge, after all, which is the classic BBC series from 1972 ran for fully 20 episodes and Sergei Bondarchuk's film adaptation from the 60s spanned seven [ ... ]
The UAENO's inaugural concert series, the first with its full ensemble of 70 musicians and 30 choir, includes six dates around the Emirates in January with variations in the programme (though all include Nadim Tarabay's specially commissioned symphony The Beginning) [ ... ]
The final gig for the November Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Emmanuel Sonubi big man, big smile, big fun. A big hit too when he was here a year ago. Highly recommended Saanya Abbas razor-sharp Dubai-based comedian with over half [ ... ]
A standup special by MadCat Comedy's main man, Miqdaad Dohadwala: life advice for how to live your 20s, from a guy who did everything wrong. We think the regular MadCat comedy night deal applies, meaning a cover charge of AED [ ... ]
This mid-career retrospective marks the first institutional survey in the region for Ala Younis. It includes archival installations, textiles, murals, mosaics, and drawings spanning the last two decades of her hybrid practice as an artist-researcher-curator. There will also be some [ ... ]
The second and final performance of the Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre adaptation of Tolstoy’s epic novel, by celebrated director Rimas Tuminas. Reviews suggest that most of the grandeur and complexity of Tolstoy’s work has been retained, with the Napoleonic Wars [ ... ]
Architect Rashad Bukhash has restored and protected from demolition hundreds of buildings in Dubai. In this conversation with researcher Lina Najem, he revisits decades of work on both shores of Dubai Creek, including a long tenure at Dubai Municipality, with [ ... ]
Prasad Shetty and Rupali Gupte reflect on the motivations and challenges that shaped their commitment to the School of Environment and Architecture in Mumbai which they founded in 2014. Today, it is a fully accredited architecture school with around 200 [ ... ]
Dubomedy's standup night at Social Distrikt returns. This has become a bit of a fixture: good vibes, good comedy, and "you never know who will pop in". Recommended. It's free, but it's popular, so pre-booking is recommended to get a [ ... ]
Aakash Odedra returns to the Arts Center with his latest work, an hour of beautiful, engrossing virtuoso dance from a single dancer that unashamedly embodies emotions – mostly joy, some reflection, a tinge of sadness and pain – in a [ ... ]
The UAENO's inaugural concert series, the first with its full ensemble of 70 musicians and 30 choir, includes six dates around the Emirates in January with variations in the programme (though all include Nadim Tarabay's specially commissioned symphony The Beginning) [ ... ]
A key element in 421's Winter season is Localized Futures: Conversations by 421 x afikra, a four-part series of talks and panel discussions developed in collaboration with afikra. The series aims to explore the future of key cultural and civic [ ... ]
MadCat’s standup team at its regular stop in the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi's Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks ...
A landmark monographic exhibition that traces Picasso’s lifelong preoccupation with the human form. Included are more than 130 artworks from the Musée National Picasso-Paris and other institutions, as well as Louvre Abu Dhabi, DCT Abu Dhabi, and other regional collections [ ... ]
An expressionist exploration of the city that captures Dubai as it is felt, rather than as it is seen. "Through expressive brushstrokes, colour becomes a language, revealing the city’s complexity – its energy, diversity, and profound contradictions." To 5 February.
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