A summer-long group show for Luke Agada, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ludovic Nkoth, and Naila Opiangah, curated by Brice Arsène Yonkeu – whose curatorial statement defines the show as "an encounter with works on paper and paintings that move between visibility and [... more]
Built from layers of sand collected in the UAE, chalk powder, pigments, and acrylic, the surfaces of Ahmad Tallaa's large-scale portraits at the centre of this show are dense and almost sculptural – as the gallery puts it, "Faces do [... more]
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]
Monaiseer’s solo show examines history through cycles, repetition and flows, while testing the unstable boundary between imagination and reality. The title references the current status of the Doomsday Clock and its measurement of humanity’s proximity to catastrophe; notions of war, [... 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
Amir Khojasteh's third solo exhibition with the gallery presents the first body of work he has developed after leaving his home country, Iran. To 5 November. Right: Amir Khojasteh, Garden Landscape #2 (2026)
Sharif’s first solo exhibition in the UAE presents an autobiographical and very personal series of works about the struggles of private and artist life in a closed society – "a vulnerable, nuanced presentation of life”. The Bahraini artist uses colour [... more]
Rana Begum brings her textile works to The Third Line for the first time. Her fifth solo exhibition at the gallery features a new body of large-scale wool tapestries presented alongside works on linen, paper and MDF, all reflecting the [... more]
New works by the Kenyan artist Maggie Otieno, her first solo show here since the gallery began representing her in 2024 . Otieno’s practice centres on the transformation of reclaimed and distressed materials.; working across wood, metal, and mixed media, [... more]
Borrowed from the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, the title of this exhibition by by London-based artist Nada Elkalaawy “speaks to the tension between sensitivity, beauty, and emotional weight”, as the gallery has it. “Across a body of paintings developed through [... more]
Aisha Alabbar Gallery’s newly renovated space reopens with a solo exhibition by the UAE-based French artist that features paintings, screen prints, drawings and textile works. The theme is a pivotal journey to Peru and a renewed engagement with the roots [... more]
A group show for Lulua Alyahya, Rami Farook, Sohrab Hura, and Khaled Jarada that promises to take the viewer into “intimate, elusive worlds … Modest in scale, invite a form of looking that is closer and more inward, creating encounters [... more]
A visual meditation on the horizon as both boundary and promise, a visible line that remains perpetually distant. Alaa Itani's solo show brings together reverse glass paintings of horizons, blurred landscapes, and moving cloud formations; he explores landscape as acts [... more]
Sara Masinaei’s solo show explores how urban spaces shape memory, movement and lived experience: "through walking, collecting found objects and recording traces of overlooked surfaces, she treats the city’s ground as an active part of how we experience and navigate [... more]
An exhibition by seven emerging UAE-based artists, beneficiaries of Dom Arts' Studio Support Programme (introduced to gave artists space and time to develop their practices without requiring them to produce new work or meet predetermined outcomes). The programme gave each [... more]
An exhibition by seven emerging UAE-based artists, beneficiaries of Dom Arts' Studio Support Programme (introduced to gave artists space and time to develop their practices without requiring them to produce new work or meet predetermined outcomes). The programme gave each [... more]
Collaborative works from Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian’s ongoing Flower series, unfolding across gallery walls covered with hand-drawn graffiti; rooted in the artists’ shared and individual experiences, the works consider what it means to care for, sustain and grow alongside [... more]
The final exhibition in the series The importance of staying quiet, "an attempt to acknowledge a minimal vocabulary within Pakistani art", focuses on conceptual and material practices shaped by stillness and abstraction. To 30 December. Right: Faheem Abbas, Untitled (2025)
A solo presentation by the French-Algerian artist and filmmaker that reinterprets The Conference of the Birds,a 12th-century epic poem by Farid ud-Din Attar, in which a flock of birds search for a mighty ruler and ultimately find their strength within [... more]
A new body of 15 paintings by the Kuwaiti artist that takes us into a life split between two worlds, London and Kuwait– considering what it means to live in two places, or "to be two Dalals" as the artist [... more]
Coke bottles seem identical, but differ subtly from one country to another. These variations in taste and appearance highlight the simulacral nature of the Coca-Cola bottle – a semblance of an imagined universal ideal. The incursion of multinational brands into [... more]
The Courtyard’s popular evening of elimination improv. Ten actors converge for a night of scenes, songs and games based on audience suggestions. After each round you score the players on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one with [... more]
Flamingo Live’s regular comedy club slot at the Coterie pub in Ibn Battuta Mall. The door price includes two drinks.
Maktaba is 421’s monthly gathering dedicated to collective reading, viewing, and discussion across disciplines. This session discusses theatre-making as a practice of solidarity, exploring how performance builds connections across geographies, identities, and movements. Facilitated by artist and theatre-maker Maitha Ali, [... more]
Founded by Emirati filmmaker and curator Nawaf Al Janahi in 2020, Cineolio‘s mission is focused on promoting short films and expanding their audience reach internationally. Its Cinenights screening series presents a diverse selection of short films on the big screen, [... more]
One of the most consistently funny of the Courtyard’s classic improv gigs: the speakers have to give a presentation on a slide deck they’ve never seen before, with the topic determined at random by the Wheel of Destiny. Each presentation [... more]
“Dubai’s hottest comedy night” (aka the Mad Cat team) come to the moodily-lit speakeasy style bar in DIFC for what looks like a regular every-other-Thursday gig. The door price includes one drink.
A Comedy Kix n evening "packed with stand-up comedy, good vibes, and plenty of laughs". The AED 90 door price includes two drinks.
The name riffs off Vantage Point, Sharjah Art Foundation’s biennial open-call photography exhibition; aiming to support the work of local photographers, Vantage Point Editions offers an opportunity to see and buy work from from 20 UAE-based photographers who exhibit a [... more]
Iris Murdoch's Booker winner The Sea, The Sea (1978) is arguably her best book, a novel of obsession, memory, and self-deception. Another interesting and accessible choice from what is arguably Dubai's most interesting book club ...
How could this stage adaptation of the near legendary Graham Linehan / Arthur Mathews TV series not be seriously funny? Dubai Drama Group says "the show captures everything fans adore about the cult classic: razor-sharp dialogue, joyfully absurd situations, and [... more]
Mad Cat Comedy’s regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.
Two further performances for this stage adaptation of the near legendary Graham Linehan / Arthur Mathews TV series. Dubai Drama Group says "the show captures everything fans adore about the cult classic: razor-sharp dialogue, joyfully absurd situations, and characters who [... more]
Al Hashemi’s practice examines what it means to remain human within increasingly automated systems of production and consumption – especiallyy seen through urban life in the Emirates. Al Hashemi works across ceramics, printmaking and painting, “investigating the systems through which [... more]
Barcelona Flamenco Ballet does exactly what the name says – applies the style of flamenco in dance and music to create spectacular and passionate performances, typically by reinterpreting iconic works. This one is described as BFB's "most ambitious and revolutionary [... more]
A regular Mad Cat Comedy night – “Dubai’s wildest comedy show on Saturday” at “the first purpose built comedy room in the country”. The cover charge of AED 99 includes two F&B coupons.
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]
You can't fault the UAENO's ambition in naming this programme – the title almost precludes discussion. It includes three admittedly classic works, but there must surely have been a strong case for others (we'd have gone for the Symphony No.41 [... more]
Dubomedy’s main man is always good value, though the ticket price here does reflect his growing stature. Expect an evening of probably inappropriate jokes, lots of banter with the audience, and a general feel-good vibe. All seats must be pre-booked [... more]
A Dubai date to follow its Abu Dhabi opener for the exciting Barcelona Flamenco Ballet – the iconic Prokofiev ballet reinterpreted as flamenco. This show is described as BFB’s “most ambitious and revolutionary project” to date, addressing universal themes like [... more]
The AD’Art artist collective with an exhibition celebrating the Sorbonne’s 20th anniversary – new works exploring heritage, knowledge transmission, and cultural dialogue, through "diverse and personal artistic perspectives". The collective : Anne-Caroline Schoeller Anne-Marie Lacroix Raffy Annunziata Tricarico Camille Lamelliere [... more]
In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, teenage Nafisa is raised on heroic tales of British colonisers. But when a young businessman arrives from abroad with a new development plan and genetically engineered cotton, Nafisa becomes the centre of a power [... more]
A deeply personal portrait of childhood, family fractures, and the fragility of recollection from award-winning filmmaker Sophy Romvari, who drew on her own experiences for her feature debut – a deeply personal portrait of childhood, family fractures, and the fragility [... 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 …
"An exhibition exploring the perception and relationship between the viewer and the artwork ... an invitation to discover what may appear when we take the time to look beyond the surface." The two French artists offer a dialogue between the [... more]
Funeral Home Comedy, a newish name on the standup circuit, has added to the comedy options in Abu Dhabi – well, on Yas – with a a full night of laughs from top names (Roxy, Obaid, Ash Ahmed and Luca) [... more]
Monaiseer’s solo show examines history through cycles, repetition and flows, while testing the unstable boundary between imagination and reality. The title references the current status of the Doomsday Clock and its measurement of humanity’s proximity to catastrophe; notions of war, [... more]
Two interconnected exhibitions, both curated by Mo Reda and supported by the Department of Painting and Printmaking at VCUarts Qatar. Together, The Ongoing Performance of Melancholia and Songs in Solitude mark the culmination of a two-month residency at Bayt AlMamzar; [... more]
... not when you have three comedians on the stage, eager and willing to hear your problems and turn them into funny scenes and stories on the fly. Fully improvised, totally interactive. The first runout for this show a couple [... more]
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 [... more]
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