All Day

Sharjah Festival of African Literature

University City Sharjah

The second edition of the festival brings together 20 African and nine Emirati authors for around 20 Library sessions, book talks and panel discussions – and a series of African cooking sessions. The theme is “The African Way”, which is [... more]

Free, but pre-register

Ras Al Khaimah Art 2026 Festival 

Al Jazeera Al Hamra Ras Al Khaimah

In the last few years the Ras Al Khaimah Art Festival has grown into a solid contributor to the UAE’s arts and culture scene, with a community-oriented twist to the mix of exhibitions, performances, workshops and film screenings. There’s always [... more]

Free

CLOSING TODAY Lala Rukh II: The importance of staying quiet

Grey Noise Unit 24 Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

The first part of this series, Lala Rukh I, presented a selection of photographs from the artist’s archives during her years at the University of Chicago (1974-76). Its speculative framework helped us to stage the evolution of Lala’s photographic sensibility, [... more]

Free

Kais Salman: Remnants

New work by Kais Salman, who "places his audience among ruins ... his recent body of work acting as a pile of forgotten images buried beneath decades of historical buildup ... Faces emerge through Salman’s energetic brushwork, only to fade [... more]

Anuar Khalifi: Remember the Future

The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

The third Third Line solo exhibition by Spanish-Moroccan artist Anuar Khalifi comprises a new body of large-scale paintings and works on paper that represent an evolution in Khalifi’s practice, with increasingly intricate and carefully composed settings expanding the pictorial field. [... more]

Free

Alia Hussain Lootah: In the Space of Becoming

Aisha Alabbar Gallery Warehouse C19, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

In this new body of work – paintings, drawings, and sculpture – Alia Lootah continues an exploration of how form moves, shifts, and transforms ("a form is never finished, only paused"). Shapes stretch, collapse, and reappear altered, "existing in a [... more]

Free

Anahita Razmi: The Task of the Mythologist

CARBON 12 17th Street, Dubai

Anahita Razmi's video, installation and performance works usually focus on issues of identity and gender and examine processes of cultural appropriation in which the meanings of existing images, artefacts and thus identities are put into question by situating them in [... more]

Free

:mentalKLINIK: Are You Human Enough

Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Set within an environment of visual overload and compulsive accumulation, the work in this third solo exhibition at the gallery for the artist duo centres on the human figure at risk of dissolving into surface, interface, and pattern – a [... more]

Free

Aïda Muluneh: This Bloom I Borrow

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

A new series of images by the Ethiopian art photographer, her second solo exhibition at the gallery. The show includes 10 works that have never been seen before, using techniques developed through Muluneh's recent residency at Efie. Muluneh has been [... more]

Free

Saher Nassar: Chronicles from the Storm

Zawyeh Gallery Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

In this new body of work, Nassar reflects on prolonged states of loss, endurance, and moral exhaustion, translating deeply personal and collective experiences across multiple mediums. Says the gallery: "Rather than seeking resolution or catharsis, the works dwell in a [... more]

Free

Sarah McEneaney: Creative Non-Fiction

Taymour Grahne Projects Warehouse 31A, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

For nearly five decades, Sarah McEneaney has devoted her practice to a singular theme, the meticulous chronicling of her own life. This exhibition presents a series of paintings that chart the latest moments and milestones in a life – domestic [... more]

John Dilg: Found and Lost

Taymour Grahne Projects Warehouse 31A, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

The Iowa-based artist John Dilg represents scenic panoramas as earth-toned paintings that feel immediately familiar yet poignantly dreamlike. Having specialised in abstraction early in his career, Dilg’s evolution towards landscape painting retained an especial awareness of spatial relationships – "a [... more]

Al Hosn Festival

Al Hosn Abu Dhabi

This living expression of Abu Dhabi's Culture is always worth a visit. The emphasis is on heritage, so the Al Hosn programme includes traditional souks, performances (lots of ayyalah), food, coffee, kids’ workshops and more. It runs 4pm to 11pm [... more]

AED 35

Reel Palestine Social

One Life Kitchen & Café Building 5, d3, Dubai

The RP Social returns for "an afternoon of great food, familiar faces, and engaging conversations around this year’s must-see films". Always a good meetup, and since this time it's in the afternoon there's more chance for kids to get involved [... more]

AED 250

Legends and Motifs of Feathers

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

Another of L’ÉCOLE Middle East’s entertaining talks about the art of jewellery – mostly of course from the atelier of the school’s parent, Van Cleef & Arpels. This one explores how birds and feathers became a major theme in jewellery [... more]

AED 50

War and Peace

Dubai Opera Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, Dubai

Tolstoy’s epic novel has often resisted dramatisation as a one-off theatrical performance – it’s huge, after all, which is the classic BBC series from 1972 ran for fully 20 episodes and Sergei Bondarchuk's film adaptation from the 60s spanned seven [... more]

From AED 300

UAE National Orchestra: The Beginning

Al Ain City Municipal Theatre Civic Centre, Al Jimi, Al Ain

The UAENO's inaugural concert series, the first with its full ensemble of 70 musicians and 30 choir, includes six dates around the Emirates in January with variations in the programme (though all include Nadim Tarabay's specially commissioned symphony The Beginning) [... more]

From AED 150

The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

Dukes The Palm Palm Dubai, Dubai

The final gig for the November Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Emmanuel Sonubi big man, big smile, big fun. A big hit too when he was here a year ago. Highly recommended Saanya Abbas razor-sharp Dubai-based comedian with over half [... more]

AED 160

Miqdaad D: Failed Successfully

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

A standup special by MadCat Comedy's main man, Miqdaad Dohadwala: life advice for how to live your 20s, from a guy who did everything wrong. We think the regular MadCat comedy night deal applies, meaning a cover charge of AED [... more]

AED 99