The first solo exhibition in Abu Dhabi in 50 years of works by Steven Naifeh, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, businessman and artist – particularly of large-scale geometric abstractions that owe much to hos appreciation of geometric art in the Middle East. [ ... ]
Seulgi Kim’s first solo exhibition in the Middle East brings to Volery Gallery a deeply personal exploration of her emotional journey,. The sea, which plays a central role in her work, becomes a metaphor for life’s turbulence and tranquillity; her [ ... ]
Originally launched in Dubai in 2021 to promote sustainable thrift shopping, this event arrives in Abu Dhabi with a makeover and what looks like a more commercial bent – the 40+ vendors do include thrift and vintage fashion, but there’s [ ... ]
This acclaimed interactive experience for the young has been a major success for Sydney Opera House; it’s a 40-minute show aimed at children aged 2 to 10 (and their families) which blends live music, storytelling, and song to introduce young [ ... ]
Charismatic, athletic Manish is a talented young street dancer from a poor Mumbai family who struggles against his parents’ insistance that he forgets his dreams of becoming a professional dancer. He meets Yehuda, a curmudgeonly 70-year-old Israeli ballet teacher who [ ... ]
A stage adaptation of the fourth (and best-scripted) of the BBC sitcom originally written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. Dubai Drama Group really can't go wrong with this – a series of schemes by Captain Edmund Blackadder to escape [ ... ]
The latest in Berklee Abu Dhabi’s concert series showcasing different musical styles and genres. Headlining are Canadian singer-songwriter JP Saxe (soulful R&B-influenced pop: he's on the left in the pic) and Jordanian singer/composer /producer Aziz Maraka (on the right: he's [ ... ]
A second Abu Dhabi Classics concert for the Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Jaap Van Zweden, again featuring a stellar young soloist in Inmo Yang. They will play one of the most popular concertos in the solo violin repertoire, Bruch’s Violin [ ... ]
Najib is a multidisciplinary artist from Iran whose practice includes painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and art jewellery but primarily revolves around kinetic mechanisms and magnetic fields. His fascination with magnetism, ergonomic placement elements, and environmental sensing has led him to [ ... ]
An exhibition of recent paintings by the two artists that feature “unexpected protrusions and punctures … that are, as the philosopher Édouard Glissant describes it, ‘a poetics of errantry’, both adventurous wanderings and rebellious misdirections. Referencing forms and motifs from [ ... ]
A group exhibition featuring 28 women artists from the UAE, Russia, Iran, Armenia, India, Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Iceland, USA and more. These artists, who live and work across the globe, look at landscapes — urban, imagined, natural and artificial [ ... ]
Toluwani's fourth exhibition with the gallery (and his second in Dubai) looks at marriage in his native Nigeria. It provides insights into several marital practices observed across different local cultures and analyses prospects for the institution. To 7 January. Above: [ ... ]
A Public Open Day at L’ÉCOLE Middle East, School of Jewelry Arts as part of Dubai Design Week. Expect tasters and demonstrations of the jewellery and gemstone courses, kids workshops, guided tours and other activities – and the new exhibition [ ... ]
A programme of dance-related shorts in the Move on Screen programme. The 24 films include 10 produced by students of the Sharjah Performing Art Academy; the remainder are by local filmmakers and artists.
On the stage of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, 30 dancers from non-traditional genres – hip-hop, krump, break, voguing – reprise and remix Jean-Philippe Rameau's baroque 1735 masterpiece, Les Indes galantes. It’s an opera offensive to modern sensibilities that reflected [ ... ]
Élise (played by real-life Paris Opera Ballet principal ballerina Marion Barbeau in her first film rôle) thought she had the perfect life: an ideal boyfriend and a promising career as a ballet dancer. It all falls apart the day she [ ... ]
The young Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko is something of a must-see, especially when he's playing the Romantic repertoire – and most especially for his treatment of Liszt. Praised as “technically flawless and impeccably musical” (International Piano) and winner of multiple [ ... ]
The second and final performance by Dubai Drama Group of this stage adaptation of the fourth (and best-scripted) of the BBC sitcom – a series of schemes by Captain Edmund Blackadder to escape the horrors of World War One, aided [ ... ]
The Nahr al Bared refugee camp was built in north Lebanon in 1948 for Palestinian families fleeing the Nakba. At the time, nobody considered the possibility that they might still be there 75 years later. In 2007, fighting erupted in [ ... ]
A return for this single-hander, written by and (we think) performed by Gillian Rhodes, who is really very good at this storytelling-with-performance sort of thing. This time it's a coming-of-age tale of a young boy in the late 19th century; [ ... ]
New work by the Bahraini artist, based on an interplay of colours and emotions where the intricate patterns of human behaviour are delicately overlapped with the rhythms of nature: "she reveals the intricate beauty of natural forms and how they [ ... ]
A solo exhibition of Alymamah Rashed’s latest work. A new series of large-scale watercolour and acrylic canvases, it's shaped by the belief that bodily connection to specific environments and elements can facilitate spiritual awakening. Rashed reflects on the immersion of [ ... ]
A captivating dance documentary that celebrates the life and work of the world-renowned choreographer Pina Bausch. During the preparations for the film in 2009, Bausch died suddenly; the dancers of Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, convinced him to proceed as a [ ... ]
A second performance for Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige's speculative performance about the lost Roman city of Orthosia. buried beneath the Nahr al Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon. The ruins of the ancient city of Orthosia, lost since being [ ... ]
The Iraqi artist and calligrapher introduces the latest examples of his signature style, merging the beauty of classical Arabic scripts with modern design principles; Calligraforms transforms Thuluth script lettering into abstract, fluid forms that are removed their textual meaning and [ ... ]
When she was 12 years old, Melati Wijsen started a campaign to ban single-use plastic in Indonesia. Now 18, she decides to travel the globe seeking to connect with fellow young activists who are committed to making their world a [ ... ]
Niki Mukhi (guitar) and his quartet (Rami Lakkis, bass: Arindam Chakravarty, tabla: Ratish Chadha, drums) are joined by Vanraj Shastri (sarangi and vocals) for an evening of jazz, flamenco and Indian classical music.
This retrospective for the late Syrian artist honours Leila Nseir’s legacy and celebrates her contributions to art and feminism. Nseir’s art was rooted in humanist concerns and feminist thought, addressing themes of conflict, inequality, and poverty; her career was impacted [ ... ]
The artist, writer, art historian and collector Steven Naifeh will discuss his work, currently featured in a solo exhibition at Artbooth Gallery and at Abu Dhabi Art; his writing, notably his biography of Vincent van Gogh; and his collection of [ ... ]
The first in The Gallery Collective, a series of sort-of gallery takeovers whereby Sotheby's Dubai is giving its DIFC exhibition space over to a series of local galleries in a two-year run starting in November. Every six to eight weeks, [ ... ]
Two spectacular dance projects show how a young generation of dancers from all over the world are rediscovering Pina Bausch's choreography: the Semperoper Ballet Company in Dresden rehearses her dance opera Iphigenia in Tauris, and dancers from all over Africa [ ... ]
"If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth," said Albert Einstein, "man would have no more than four years left to live". That's because without the bees' pollinating work, agriculture could collapse and with it our ability to [ ... ]
Daniel Roby's film has a Parisian couple whose daughter suffers from an incurable disease that forces her to live in a hermetically sealed glass bubble. Then a mysterious toxic fog begins to spread in the Parisian streets, killing anyone who [ ... ]
"Hilarious live performances by up-and-coming stand-up comedians" at Ting Irie Abu Dhabi every other Tuesday (best to check their Instagram account @tingirieauh just to be sure). It's hosted by Funeral Home Comedy; the Jamaican vibe is always great, irrespective of [ ... ]
An early-evening open mic gig for local musicians in Bla Bla's Backroom.
A handsome oyster farmer from the Mediterranean port town of Sète vows to win back his actress girlfriend after a botched proposal involving a ring hidden in an oyster shell. Fortunately, his friends are ready to do anything to help [ ... ]
16-year-old Bella and Vipulan are part of a generation that knows its very future is at risk – between climate change and the mass extinction of wildlife, their world could well be inhabitable 50 years from now. At the instigation [ ... ]
Works spanning the last eight years of the artist’s practice that critically engage with the socio-political contexts of architectural heritage and modernist ideologies and aesthetics. Drawing is at the centre of Amba Sayal-Bennett’s practice, expanding across works on paper, projections [ ... ]
A solo exhibition featuring Helal’s most recent body of work and a pivotal moment in the artist’s evolution, a more straightforward yet deeply expressive style without the constraints of his previous methods. The new approach, characterized by loose, dynamic strokes, [ ... ]
A solo show for the Mexican artist whose practice focuses on hybrid sculptural forms that draw inspiration from modernism, popular culture, and specific historic moments. In particular, Orlaineta explores post-war design and architecture, generally depicting biomorphic shapes with a strong [ ... ]
New work by the Lebanese-born Paris-based sculptor. Working mainly in wood but occasionally in marble or stone, Choukini's aethetic may appear somewhat primitivist; in fact his sculptures exhibit a sophisticated interrogation of organic and mechanical worlds. To 20 January.
Alhashemi's second solo exhibition at the gallery is her first after returning from the States with a Master’s in Fine Arts. Curated by Nasser Abdullah, this exhibition presents a series of works that build on her previous experiences, "appearing as [ ... ]
Behzad Noori, PhD is a self-described artist, writer, educator and necromancer; his research-based practice includes films, installations, and archival studies, investigating histories from the Global South, labour and the means of production, and histories of political relationships that have existed [ ... ]
A group show for three female artists whose backgrounds, experiences, and practices converge in a shared exploration of cultural heritage, personal memory, and emotional landscapes. Negin Fallah examines the intersection of tradition and transformation, where echoes of Iranian illuminated manuscripts [ ... ]
An intimate look at the creative journey of the founder of the Injari contemporary clothing brand, Chinar Farooqui, and the narratives woven into each piece produced by Injiri, its dedication to traditional craftsmanship, and its emphasis on sustainable practices. To [ ... ]
El Siwi's first solo exhibition in over a decade features both new paintings and pieces from an archive of earlier works: "the paintings shown here collectively present philosophical provocations and musings" says the gallery. The title references Upper Egypt and [ ... ]
Sharjah Arts Foundation’s annual indie/experimental film festival returns for its seventh edition, featuring around 30 UAE premieres. Most are in the Competition section, documentary and fiction films that have been nominated by an international committee of filmmakers and industry professionals. [ ... ]
This month's Laughter Factory tour has a particularly good look, with some top standups on the bill (and one more than usual). It kicks off at the Mövenpick as usual. The acts: Stephen Grant hard-working emcee, a genius British comic [ ... ]
Winston’s work blends art with sports culture, transforming everyday objects – deflated basketballs, cigarette butts, even the signatures of artists and athletes –into pieces that challenge viewers to reconsider the significance of these items; the results "resonate with resilience, legacy, [ ... ]
A new venue for the candlelit performance, the Al Azure Room at SeaWorld Yas Island. Aldo Dotti plays a 65 minute programme of piano favourites: Mozart: Rondo alla Turca from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K 331 Mozart: [ ... ]
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