• Politically Incorrect Comedy

    Xandros Singature 1 Hotel, Barsha Heights, Dubai

    Mad Cat Comedy’s regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.

    AED 80
  • CLOSING TODAY Stephan Kaluza: From Dust to Bloom

    JD Malat Gallery ACT 2 Tower, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Blvd 13A ,Downtown Dubai, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Oussama Diab: Reimagined

    Artbooth Gallery Centro Capital Center, Al Khaleej Al Arabi Street, Abu Dhabi

    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]

    Free
  • Salah Elmur: Just as the Heart of a Mango is a Stone

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Joke Jam

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.

    From AED 125
  • Joke Hub

    Canopy by Hilton Dubai Al Seef Al Seef Street, Umm Hurair 1, Dubai

    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.

    AED 99
  • Maria Hassabi: Us

    Cultural Palace Cutlural Square, Al Riqa Suburb, Sharjah

    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]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Valentina Danubio: I Love Them, But …

    Pepperoni Comedy Club 25 Jump Street 25h Hotel, One Central World Trade Center, Dubai

    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.

    From AED 160
  • CLOSING TODAY Artists’ Rooms: Kamruzzaman Shahdin

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Salah Elmur

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Promis le Ciel | Promised Sky: dir Erige Sehiri (2025)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    AED 31.50
  • CLOSING TODAY Alaa Itani: A Momentum for the Horizon

    Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian: I Bloom Where You Hold Me

    Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    Free
  • Cineolio’s Cinenights

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    AED 25 – AED 35
  • Recreating Gesture: Crafting a Gold Necklace from The Iron Age

    L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts Building 10, Dubai Design District, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Bénédicte Gimonnet: What We Carry Becomes the Terrain

    Aisha Alabbar Gallery Warehouse C19, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Bashar Khalaf: The Field of Dreams

    Zawyeh Gallery Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Waterlands, Elemental Dreams

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Rana Begum: Taking Form

    The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Azza Al Qubaisi: Between Land and Sea

    Leila Heller Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Manish Nai: In Search of Material Within Material

    Leila Heller Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Karima Al Shomely: Between a Fold and a Memory

    Leila Heller Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Ahmad Tallaa: The Living Archive

    Firetti Contemporary Unit 29, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAYAhmad Tallaa: The Living Archive

    Firetti Contemporary Unit 29, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Ahmad Tallaa: The Living Archive

    Firetti Contemporary Unit 29, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free, but RSVP
  • CLOSING TODAY Katia Kameli: The Canticle of the Birds

    Taymour Grahne Projects Warehouse 31A, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Dalal Al-Obaidi: Frogs, Jazz & Blisters

    Taymour Grahne Projects Warehouse 31A, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Afrah Shafiq: Nobody Knows For Certain

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Sebastian Mayer: Hannibaby and Zarafa

    Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

    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]

    Free, but pre-register
  • CLOSING TODAY Maggie Otieno: Sojourner – The Difference Is the Same

    Efiɛ Gallery 2 Al Khayat Art Avenue, First Al Khail Street, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Artist’s Room: Bani Abidi

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Carte Blanche

    La Galerie, Alliance Française Dubai Alliance Française Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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]

    Free
  • Down to Earth 2026

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • Sebastian Mayer: Hannibaby and Zarafa

    Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi Arts Square, Sharjah

    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]

    Free, but pre-register
  • CLOSING TODAY Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial

    Calligraphy Square – Sharjah Art Museum Sharjah

    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]

    Free
  • The Territory Dreams Back

    NIKA Project Space Unit 11 Al Khayat Avenue, 19th Street Road — Al Quoz 1, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Vantage Point 13

    Sharjah Art Foundation Photography Gallery Al Manakh, Sharjah

    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]

    Free
  • Book Cellar Dubai: The Women Are Up to Something

    Le Brasserie sur le Boulevard Kempinski The Boulevard, Mohammed Bin Rashid Blvd, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Fellow Travellers

    Tabari Artspace Gate Village Level 2, DIFC, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY A Way Through: Archive of Resilience

    Kutubna Cultural Center Madina Avenues 17, Nadd Al Hamar, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY The sky held it, the earth remembered

    Ishara Art Foundation Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    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]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Juma Alhaj: Revelation

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The first institutional solo exhibition by Emirati artist Juma Alhaj is the culmination of his participation in 421 Arts Campus' Artistic Development Program. Grounded in reading, journaling, and philosophical inquiry, it explores themes of reflection, solitude, and self-discovery; the exhibition [... more]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Archipelago of Whispers

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A group show curated by Deniz Kirkali and Elham Puriya Mehr that brings together works in video, sound installations, and performance that explore “alternative infrastructures for knowledge-making such as whispers, murmurs, hums, gossip, and storytelling”. The artists include Aliaskar Abarkas, [... more]

    Free
  • CLOSING TODAY Library Circles: Rend Beiruti

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    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]

    Free