The energy of 1970s Moroccan music meets hip hop in this piece by choreographer Fouad Boussouf, performed by the company of Le Phare - Centre chorégraphique national du Havre Normandie (where he's been the director since 2022). Näss (People) orchestrates [... more]
Mad Cat Comedy’s regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.
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]
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]
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]
A survey of works by the French artist, "one of the most restless practitioners of his generation" as the gallery has it. Since the early 1960s Venet unusually broad range of media has included tar poured on to canvas and [... more]
Bringing together paintings, archival photographs, sketches and ephemera produced after 2018, this exhibition offers an immersive encounter with Salah Elmur’s world, "one where memory, landscape and identity merge and ripple through time" as the Jameel puts it. Through paintings that [... more]
The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.
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.
A 6m bench along the front edge of the stage compresses the space into a narrow, linear runway. Five dancers trace this boundary through a sequence of calculated tableaus, their bodies caught between rest and anticipation. The bench acts as [... more]
An hour of new material from the always excellent Valentina, this time on the people we love, the things they do that drive us crazy, and all those moments that make relationships so complicated.
A monumental one-room installation that restages the Bangladeshi artist's The River Remembers. Originally commissioned by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation and created in 2023, this large-scale textile work has handcrafted threads mapping the colour of the water of the Teesta and [... more]
Bringing together paintings, archival photographs, sketches and ephemera produced after 2018, this exhibition promises an immersive encounter with Salah Elmur’s world – "where memory, landscape and identity merge and ripple through time", exploring the artist’s shifting sense of belonging and [... more]
Sehiri’s intimate drama follows four generations of Ivorian immigrant women as they find solidarity, conflict and sometimes a sense of displacement in one another’s company. We're dropped into the lives of Marie (Aïssa Maïga), Naney (Debora Lobe Naney) and Jolie [... 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]
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]
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]
Amir Khojasteh's third solo exhibition with the gallery presents the first body of work her has developed after leaving his home country, Iran.
Following showings in Paris, Lyon, Seoul and Shanghai, this exhibition – "a strategic research project for L'ÉCOLE, at the crossroads of archaeology and the history of techniques, and goldsmithing craftsmanship" – demonstrates the skills and techniques in reproducing a Celtic [... 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]
Amphibious Timelapse by South Korean collective the Rice Brewing Sisters Club (RBSC) is the 2026-2028 Artist’s Garden commission at the Jameel – the Artist’s Garden being a space for artists to create, cultivate and experiment with the conceptual limits of [... more]
Two series of works, Junk Garden and Protective Shield, from the Ramallah-born artist. “The Field of Dreams is an exploration of formations of ‘steel’ in the public space from the perspective of the relationship between the self, the object, and [... more]
Guided by Jumana Emil Abboud’s practice and drawing on practices of performance, storytelling, and material research, and drawing on his ongoing exhibition The Storyteller and the Obedient Tide, this symposium brings together artists and practitioners to discuss the mythological and [... 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]
A mid-career exhibition dedicated to the work of the Emirati multidisciplinary artist, curated by Aysha Al Hemeiri. Ranging from intimate jewellery pieces to large-scale public works, Al Qubaisi's practice invites audiences to encounter the UAE's natural resources through space, structure, [... more]
A solo exhibition by the Mumbai-based artist; much of his work comes from what he has seen and handled there. Nai works with jute, newspaper, cardboard, used clothing, mosquito mesh and corrugated metal; he cuts, folds, compresses and layers these [... more]
Karima Al Shomely's work draws from the clothing, textiles and adornments of Emirati women. The burqa is a recurring subject, appearing in works that look at how it was made, worn and passed down through generations; Al Shomely also works [... more]
A solo exhibition by the Syrian artist that includes large-scale portraits, a tile installation, sculptures, artist books, and works on paper. At the centre of Tallaa's practice is the face, not as portrait or likeness, but as witness; this exhibition, curated [... 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]
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 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]
Afrah Shafiq’s Nobody Knows for Certain is a multimedia game that draws on the illustrated children’s books that were distributed widely in India by the USSR, highlighting a little-known chapter of Cold War-era cultural exchange. These richly illustrated Soviet fairytales [... more]
A public artwork, performance and community project, Sebastian Mayer’s Hannibaby draws from an absurd family adventure. Structuring a life-size baby elephant puppet around his toddler’s carrier, the duo covered a 70km-distance from France into Italy through the Cottian Alps in [... 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]
Bani Abidi’s Artist’s Room displays a single body of work, Trembling hands (2024) – a series of portraits of artists, journalists, politicians, lawyers, doctors and civil society leaders who publicly spoke out against the genocide of Palestinians, often using public platforms [... more]
A group exhibition organised with Feminin Pluriel, featuring the work of a selection of contemporary female artists. Participating artists were given carte blanche to explore their own creative perspectives; the result is seen in photography, painting, sculpture, 3D and mixed [... more]
The Jameel’s annual festival for eco-consciousness and sustainability is back for its seventh edition in the Arts Centre and across the Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park. Expect a weekend of botanical inspirations, workshops, performances, tours and family-friendly activities alongside artists, gardeners, [... more]
The UAE National Orchestra brings Sergei Prokofiev’s beloved musical tale to life as part of its Once Upon a Tune family series for children aged 5 to 10 and their families. As Peter’s adventure unfolds, young listeners discover the instruments [... more]
Two further performances of Sebastian Mayer’s Hannibaby and Zarafa. Hannibaby manifests as a walkabout performance by a life-sized baby elephant puppet, alongside a workshop series instructing families in the art of creating and decorating their own 3D elephant masks. It [... more]
This 12th edition of the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial has the theme 'Balance' and features 297 works by 145 artists from around the world. It's always an interesting visit because of the range of styles and techniques on show, covering traditional [... more]
A group exhibition of newly commissioned and recent works by Rajni Perera, Sancintya Mohini Simpson, Soma Surovi Jannat, Karan Shrestha and Rain Wu, five artists who offer different perspectives on our relationship with place. Says the gallery: "The Territory Dreams [... more]
The latest edition of Sharjah Art Foundation's open-call photography exhibition examines the evolving possibilities of documentary photography through newly commissioned works by six artists – Luisa Dörr, Latifa AlBokhari, Sathish Kumar, Adam Rouhana, Guanyu Xu and Maheder Haileselassie. The principle [... more]
Benjamin Lipscomb's 2021 book draws on a recently opened archives and extensive correspondence and interviews with those who knew them best to tell the story of four lifelong friends who met at university and made their mark in a male-dominated [... more]
An exhibition conceived and curated by Prof Omar Kholeif, featuring Sonia Balassanian, Jai Chuhan, Luísa Correia Pereira, Lalitha Lajmi, Irene Scheinmann and Omar Kholeif himself. Developed from nearly two decades of Kholeif’s research, writing and relationships with artists, the exhibition [... more]
An exhibition born out of the question: how will this time be remembered and who will tell the stories of the people who live here? It's one of the outcomes of Kutubna’s initiative Documenting Culture in the Gulf in a [... more]
Culture Summit Abu Dhabi this year runs 8-10 December under the theme Towards a Reimagined Commons. Bringing together cultural leaders, artists, policymakers and thinkers from around the world, this year's programme explores the role of culture in shaping shared memories, [... more]
Major works by Shahana Rajani, the recipient of the inaugural South Asian Video Art Production Grant, Rohini Devasher, and Sarker Protick that examine how land, water, and the cosmos serve as living archives of memory and history. Through photography, moving [... 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.
Curated by Nada Shabout of NYUAD's al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art, this exhibition investigates and celebrates the work and influence of one of the most important art movement of the mid-Century Middle East. Dr Shabout brings [... more]
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