When allied with wit and accuracy, the implicit cruelty of the newly-popular 'roast' format can be more just an excuse for snide insults or another culture war salvo. We hope for the best from Abz Ali, who is known for his [... more]
Described by the gallery as "a significant new exhibition" and "a return to the essential experience of art as presence, encounter, and shared space", this show features a curated selection of 50 newly arrived 2D and 3D works by Annalù, [... more]
A group exhibition featuring works by Wadeei Khaled, Ahmad El Badawi, Bahram Hajou, Hanibal Srouji, Jamal Bassiouni, Rania Amoudi and Yervant Hawarian – an introduction to artists who will be featured in upcoming exhibitions throughout the year, alongside others whose [... more]
This is the MFA thesis exhbiition from six graduating students, presenting the culmination of their research and work – "informed by a deep commitment to risky multi-media exploration The works are by Maha Alasker, Yuehan Dai, Nour Elbery, Almaha Jaralla, [... more]
Hasan Hadi's debut feature is a beautiful tale of love, friendship and resilience told from the perspective of a child growing up under Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime. It was the first Iraqi film to feature at the Cannes Film Festival, [... more]
“What is the ultimate goal of a city?” asks architect/artist Hamad Almuzaini: “Governance and the streamlining of lived experience – an impossible task – or something more open, broken, and constantly reinvented?” He says these questions guide his work across [... more]
The Pepp promises "45 minutes of piping-hot laughs with four surprise comedians serving punchlines, saucy jokes, and a generous topping of fun".
Second time this week for the Pepp's "45 minutes of non-stop laughs from four surprise comedians serving up a full-flavoured feast of funny", this one with an early start (7pm not 9pm).
A group show of new and archival works on paper selected by Judy Karkour that brings together 14 artists with distinct material and artistic backgrounds – Sarah Almehairi, Faris Alshafar, Olaf Breuning, Bernhard Buhmann, André Butzer, Nadine Ghandour, Monika Grabuschnigg, [... more]
An exhibition featuring more than 40 works by 16 photographers (of different nationalities, but all based in the UAE) that seek to find beauty and meaning in the small moments of everyday life, personal rituals, routines, brief encounters, simple gestures [... more]
The Gulf String Quartet present an hour of arrangements of Piaf favourites – by candlelight, of course. Ticket holders can get 5% off à la carte menus (including drinks) at Shangri-La Dubai's bars and dining venues, before or after the [... more]
A chance to hear the Canadian Arabic Orchestra, an ensemble that fuses the traditions of Western and Arabic music. This programme promises "a soul-stirring journey through the vibrant crossroads of culture and innovation" that honours the rich heritage of Palestinian [... more]
A terrific start to the new season at The Arts Center – a high-octane double bill featuring two bands, both making their Gulf debuts, who really know how to deliver. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (above) is the pioneering group [... more]
The Vivaldi favourite was written as concerti for violin and orchestra, but it's often arranged for a quartet and this is what we'll be getting here, performed by the Gulf String Quartet. The ambiance is (non-flammable) candlelight, of course. The [... more]
Third time this week for the Pepp's "45 minutes of non-stop laughs from four surprise comedians serving up a full-flavoured feast of funny".
Comedy from two very sharp standups who work really well together. From first dates to ghosting, situationships to heartbreak stories, Noha Bashir and Denise Alexe address the struggles of dating life via sharp humour, relatable stories, and a brilliant chemistry [... more]
This group show is the culmination of the second edition of NIKA Project Space's Open Studio programme: four artists based in the UAE were invited to develop new bodies of work in dialogue with the space, one another, and the [... more]
The first Somali film to be featured at the Cannes Film Festival (in 2024), The Village Next to Paradise tells the story of Mamargrade who is struggling to raise his son Cigaal in their rural Somali village amidst conflict, natural [... more]
Award-winning contemporary dance from Aotearoa/New Zealand, one of the hits of Edinburgh 2025. Created by Oli Mathiesen with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer and inspired by the energy and emotion of rave culture, it's a spectacle of stamina, sweat, and [... more]
It looks like this night of improvisational comedy has been so successful that progenitors Tall Tales Productions and The Junction will be running it regularly. As before, it's a show created on the fly from audience suggestions; it's inspired by [... more]
A stand-up show that delves into "life, travel, identity, and the everyday struggles we all face". Abdi is definitely an engaging storyteller, so this should be a good night ...
First of half a dozen Pepp shows where the Egyptian-American standup, actor, TV host, and former cardiothoracic surgeon tries out new material. He's been a comedy success for 15 years, so he knows how to do comedy; it will be [... more]
Second of three performances for this award-winning contemporary dance from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Created by Oli Mathiesen with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer and inspired by the energy and emotion of rave culture, it's a spectacle of stamina, sweat, and sheer [... more]
Second of half a dozen Pepp shows where the Egyptian-American standup, actor, TV host, and former cardiothoracic surgeon tries out new material. He's on at 7 and 9pm on 12 and 13 September.
The audience for this show has been called for jury duty. As the story proceeds you hear the testimony, analyse the evidence, and ultimately decide whether the accused is guilty or not ... It's a courtroom drama where you get [... more]
Third of half a dozen Pepp shows where the Egyptian-American standup, actor, TV host, and former cardiothoracic surgeon tries out new material. He's on again at 9pm and at 7 and 9pm on 13 September.
The final performance of this award-winning contemporary dance from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Created by Oli Mathiesen with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer and inspired by the energy and emotion of rave culture, it's a spectacle of stamina, sweat, and sheer willpower [... more]
Dubai Opera marks its 10th birthday with a black-tie gala featuring soprano Fatma Said, performing with the UAE National Orchestra under the baton of Ahmed Farag and the Festival Chorus. We're promised "a curated gala of operatic and orchestral works [... more]
The Egyptian-American standup, actor, TV host, and former cardiothoracic surgeon tries out new material. He's on again at 7 and 9pm on 13 September.
A group exhibition based around site-specific installations and considering ecological, feminist, philosophical, and postcolonial concerns. The core inspiration however is “philosophical reflections of time as growth rather than movement ... Time, as humans experience it, is inseparable from the vegetal. [... more]
A solo show featuring works that Petr Kirusha developed during his residency at Dom Art Projects. At a time of heightened geopolitical tension between the US and Iran, Kirusha documented the landscapes of Al Quoz and the rapidly changing cityscape [... more]
Selected works from the Farjam Collection. Through a refined language of Minimalist abstraction, the London-based artist blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture – "bringing together works that explore light, colour, perception, and spatial experience, the exhibition reflects Rana [... more]
Human in the Loop is a sound-based interactive installation that takes the form of a game of hide-and-seek between visitors and an unseen algorithm. Hanging ropes are suspended from the ceiling and visitors are invited to pull on them; each [... more]
First of two final shows where the Egyptian-American standup, actor, TV host, and former cardiothoracic surgeon tries out new material. He's on again at 9pm.
A concert with a difference – venue is absolutely dark, and each audience member dons a light-blocking mask. The idea of course is that without visual perception your full attention is on the sound: "the most subtle musical nuances, delicate [... more]
Last of a run of six shows with the Egyptian-American standup, actor, TV host, and former cardiothoracic surgeon trying out new material – he'll probably have honed it by now, so this is probably the one to catch.
A grad show for Base39’s first accelerator cohort of designers. An evening of celebration, connection, and emerging design talent is promised. RSVP through this link.
A two-act evening of improvised spells, scenes, and songs, entirely based on audience suggestions and featuring the Courtyard Playhouse’s most experienced improv performers plus guest performer and improv instructor Andrew Gentilli from the UK. After warming up with some games [... more]
A Diarbid show for 35 artists "who explore identity as fluid, layered, and continuously evolving. Through fragmented, distorted, duplicated, and incomplete forms, the works examine how the self is shaped by memory, displacement, shifting environments, and the uncertainties of contemporary [... more]
Stephan Kaluza’s practice is fundamentally concerned with depictions of nature, either as hyper-realistic oils or near-abstract renderings. These two modes of painting should be seen as different stages of the same subject in a process of transformation: disruptions creep in, and [... more]
Mad Cat’s standup team at their regular stop at the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi’s Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks.
A descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors and raised in Syria, Mourad approaches his work with a profound sense of responsibility to preserve culture and history; his practice aims to give voice to places that no longer exist, offering an interpretation [... more]
This exhibition by the Saudi artist embraces the experimentation of jazz, commemorating its role as an audiovisual gathering for culture to flourish from and exact its designs on the world as it moved from older models of audiovisual art – [... more]
Rend Beiruti’s research display, sharing insights into her investigation of the baqala neighbourhood grocery store as a vital urban entity in Dubai, exploring its history, its influence on urban development, and its role as a cultural signal. Through photographs, mapping, [... more]
Shamma Al Bastaki – poet, writer, interdisciplinary artist and NYUAD alumna – discusses her latest poetry collection, House to House. Drawing on memories spanning the 1940s to the 1980s, Shamma traces the infra-ordinary details of daily life along the Dubai [... more]
A presentation of Palestinian artistic journeys shaped in Egypt and inspired by its art and culture, featuring works by Nabil Anani, Samira Badran, Tayseer Barakat, Mostafa Al Hallaj, Kamel Al Moghani and Abdul Rahman Al Muzayyen that range from the [... more]
A solo show for the Palestinian-Syrian-Dutch artist that reinterprets celebrated masterpieces from Western art. Diab revisits iconic works by artists including Picasso, van Gogh, Michelangelo and van Dyck, applying his own distinctive visual language to allow the images to speak [... more]
The Ukrainian National Ballet brings its version of The Marriage of Figaro to Dubai as a two-act comic ballet with a libretto by Yaremenko and Yuri Stanishevsky, choreography and staging by Viktor Yaremenko, and musical adaptation and additional composition by [... more]
Mad Cat Comedy’s only open mic night: comedians test new jokes, new performers take the stage, and dog lovers are welcome to come along for a fun evening in JVC. Only 20 seats available. Free entry!
Mad Cat Comedy's regular Thursday stop in Silicon Oasis promises "insane laughs every week". The door price of AED 99 includes one drink and popcorn.
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