A three-part exhibition at 421 Arts Campus traces the evolution of the contemporary arts scene in the UAE; the Sharjah Art Foundation marks the opening of an exhibition venue dedicated to photography; and a pop-up show by Inloco Gallery showcases the human tension against impermanence. When it comes to the arts around the UAE, there is a lot to catch up on this weekend.
Solo exhibits include a sprawling survey of the works and practice of pioneering Emirati artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim and a landmark show of Kuwaiti-born Jordanian artist Ala Younis. There are also group exhibitions that confront the disruptive nature of borders and how photography can document upheavals - environmental and political.
Here are 20 exhibitions to see this week.
1. The Raw and The Cooked at Opera Gallery
In The Raw and The Cooked, US artist Thomas Dillon presents a body of work produced specifically for his Dubai debut. The title of the exhibition draws from Claude Levi-Strauss's 1964 text, which posits that the act of cooking symbolises the transition from the raw into the cultural.
Dillon’s works do contain figurative forms, but they veer towards the abstract, perhaps in a transformation similar to the one highlighted by Levi-Strauss. Brush-strokes with frenzied gestures are further enlivened with boldly hued backdrops. Dillion uses his canvases as a space in which to wrangle and contain chaos.
Until November 17, Sunday to Wednesday, 10am-10pm; Thursday, 10am-midnight; Friday, 2pm-9pm; Saturday 11am-9pm; Dubai
2. Arranging Flowers at Taymour Grahne Projects
Arranging Flowers, a solo exhibition by US artist Gail Spaien, marks the opening of Taymour Grahne Projects’ new space at Alserkal Avenue.
Spaien’s paintings are a lyrical exploration of domestic scenes. Tables, flower pots and windows with idyllic scenes are delightfully flattened, giving a disorienting feel to everyday objects.
Her works are influenced by ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arrangement. There are flowers even in works where the interior is only barely visible, such as Waypoints, which centres on a sprawling seascape and shows the edges of a stone balcony, decorated with blossoming potted trees. It is a subtle contrast between curated, domestic environments and the grandeur of the natural world, made cohesive through Spaien’s idiosyncratic flatness.
Until November 20; Monday to Saturday, 11am-7pm; Dubai
3. Silent Residues at Iris Projects
An artist known for blurring the lines between performance and photography, Ammar Al Attar is presenting a body of recent work that ponders upon the cyclical nature of our daily rituals.
The Emirati artist ventures towards peripheral sites across the country, engaging with the remnants of human presence and industrial debris, coaxing from them stories and meaning.
His monochrome photographs are superimposed with painted circles, emanating from the works with phosphoric vibrancy while tackling themes that range from the caprice of censorship to daily absurdities and the human capacity for adapting in a world that is quickly changing.
Until November 26, Monday to Friday, 11am-7pm; Abu Dhabi
4. The Imaginary Museum at Rizq Art Initiative
The Imaginary Museum is a group show featuring 27 artists from the UAE and abroad.
It draws its title from French writer Andre Malraux’s idea of a museum without walls, reframing artworks as fragments of memory rather than fixed objects.
Curated by Meena Vari, the exhibition brings together generations of Emirati artists, from pioneer Hassan Sharif to Afra Al Dhaheri and her sculptural braids of rope, as well as Maktoum Marwan Al Maktoum, who reimagines the remains of gazelles as relics of time.
Other highlights include Indu Antony’s olfactory artwork that distils the scent of rain, Abdulrahim Al Kendi’s translation of the Quran into a sequence of 0s and 1s in keeping with the binary code, as well as Christopher Joshua Benton’s reflections on the kandura.
Until November 30; Monday to Saturday, 10am-6pm; Abu Dhabi
5. Prix Pictet: Storm at Ishara Art Foundation
Storm spotlights the 12 photographers shortlisted for the 11th Prix Pictet, an international photography award with a focus on sustainability and environmental issues. Storm, the exhibition at Ishara Art Foundation, marks its first international presentation after its premiere at London's Victoria and Albert Museum in September 2025.
The exhibition’s title is also its theme. It prompted photographers to consider the upheavals incurred by climate change, political unrest and forced migration.
Until December 13; Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; Dubai
6. Everything Comes to an End at Inloco Gallery
Impermanence is a certainty, and the artworks in this pop-up exhibition lean into the finite. Organised by Inloco Gallery, the show marks a return to its more nomadic approach to showcasing art, nearly three years after developing its permanent space in Al Quoz.
The exhibition brings together 10 artists from across the world, many of them from the region. The works presented showcase how we confront the notion of impermanence and of things coming to an end. Alongside paintings and photography are more non-traditional works, including a sculpture by Neda Salmanpour that is covered in sand; carved soap-works by Samir Toumi; and Abdulrahim Al Kendi’s abstractions that take cues from binary code.
Until December 13; Monday to Sunday, 10am-10pm; Dubai
7. Restless Circle at Sharjah Art Foundation
The centrepiece of Restless Circle, and the artwork that lends the exhibition its title, is an installation inspired by the desert plants that draw circular patterns in the sand as they swerve with the wind.
For Afra Al Dhaheri, this ceaseless, spiralling movement, with no specific destination or purpose, offers a sharp metaphor to the fatigue inflicted by the constant expectation to produce and perform.
It is a concern that pervades across several works in Restless Circle. Al Dhaheri specifically tackles the idea of repetition, highlighting its tension in relation to time. She uses a diversity of materials to explore these concepts, including rope, fabric, cement and even hair, arranging them in loops, strands and bends, forms that allude to the motions of time.
The body of work is thought-provoking – at once challenging capitalistic and artistic expectations of ceaseless production, while also showing how new forms of knowledge emerge from the cyclical processes of making and unmaking.
Until December 14; Saturday to Thursday, 9am-9pm; Friday, 4pm-9pm; Sharjah
8. The Only Way Out is Through at The Twentieth Line at The Third Line
Curated by Shumon Basar, The Only Way Out is Through marks the 20th anniversary of The Third Line, the contemporary art gallery in Alserkal Avenue.
In reflecting upon the gallery’s last two decades, bringing together works by every artist The Third Line has worked with, the exhibition inevitably contemplates upon the growth of Dubai as well, and in doing so, touches upon key global moments.
A timeline runs along the exhibition floor, with references that flit between hyperlocal and international events. These range from the launch of Art Dubai as well as the opening of Burj Khalifa to regional markers like the 2014 Gaza War, the 2020 Beirut Port Explosion and the launch of Saudi Arabia’s The Line, to global episodes like the outbreak of Covid-19 and the release of ChatGPT.
Between these timestamps and artworks by the likes of Farah Al Qasimi, Hayv Kahraman, the duo Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Tarek Al-Ghoussein and Yasiin Bey, The Only Way Out is Through becomes an exhibition that is as meditative and nostalgic as it is sobering.
Until December 28; Monday to Sunday, 11am-7pm; Dubai
9. Seas are sweet, fish tears are salty at Jameel Arts Centre
Art Jameel presents the first institutional solo exhibition of Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj. Rooted in his hometown of Al Ahsa, the works draw from agricultural landscapes, oral traditions and the details of everyday life.
The show spans photography, film, installation and poetry, unfolding across both the indoor galleries and garden spaces of Jameel Arts Centre. Hands, birds and palm trees recur throughout, forming a loose constellation of motifs. New commissions include a sound piece, a site-specific structure and a video work. The exhibition reflects Alfaraj’s interest in storytelling, moving across human and non-human worlds.
Until January 4; Saturday to Thursday, 10am-8pm; Fridays, noon-8pm; Dubai
10. Sila: All That is Left to You at Maraya Art Centre
Sila: All That is Left to You is an exhibition dedicated to tatreez, the centuries-old Palestinian art of embroidery.
Curated by Cima Azzam of Maraya Art Centre and Noor Suhail, curator of 1971 – Design Space, the exhibition brings together works from across a range of mediums, from video and installation to textiles and paintings.
Many of the works in Sila were crafted in collaboration with embroiderers from Inaash Association, a non-profit that supports more than 2,000 women in Palestinian refugee camps across Lebanon.
Collectively, the works in the exhibition expand on the possibilities and definition of tatreez. They show the technical aspects of the technique, with its care for precision, while also touching upon its historical and societal layers.
The works also highlight how tatreez has become a mode of resistance over the decades, subsisting against the erasure of Palestinian culture.
Until January 5; Saturday to Thursday, 10am-7pm; Friday, 4pm-7pm; Sharjah
11. The Shape of Things to Come at Efie Gallery
Artists El Anatsui, Carrie Mae Weems, Abdoulaye Konate, Yinka Shonibare, Iman Issa and Adam Pen come together in this group exhibition at Efie Gallery.
The Shape of Things to Come reflects upon the drastic and at times rapid transformation that define modern life. These include political upheavals, technological and cultural impact as well as environmental crises. The works exemplify how art addresses these changes, but also prepares for them.
Until January 10; Monday to Saturday, 11am-7pm; Dubai
12. Past of a Temporal Universe at NYUAD Art Gallery
The individual components in Ala Younis’s works are small – tin soldiers, dioramas and archival materials – but the way they come together, as a constellation of stories touching upon mythmaking, urban planning and societal perception, is monumental.
The Kuwaiti-born Jordanian artist draws from her background as an architect to build sprawling bodies of work that reference landmark modernist structures as a departure point.
From the Le Corbusier-designed Baghdad Gymnasium to Egypt’s High Dam, Younis begins drawing an archival trail, citing films, music, video footage and literature, while inviting viewers to explore these personable stories.
Past of a Temporal Universe brings more than two decades' worth of work in one space, in an elegantly curated exhibition that offers a lot of food for thought, whether you are familiar with Younis’s works or experiencing them for the first time.
Until January 18; Tuesday to Sunday, noon-8pm; Abu Dhabi
13. I like to like what others are liking at Sharjah Art Foundation
Even from its title, Leda Catunda’s exhibition at Sharjah Art Foundation’s Al Mureijah Square seems like a self-reflective confession. And in a way, it is, prompting an introspection of desire, taste and identity.
I like to like what others are liking is Catunda’s largest solo presentation outside of Brazil. It brings together works dating back to the 1980s, including large-scale installations and watercolours that explore the overlap between the handmade and the mass-produced.
A leading voice of 1980s Brazilian art, Catunda fuses painting and sculpture, evolving from fabric-based pop assemblages to sensuous, baroque abstractions.
Until February 8; Saturday to Thursday, 9am-9pm; Friday, 4pm to 9pm; Sharjah
14. And After at Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi
Curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab, And After features mixed-media works by 15 artists. The artworks explore the element of air through Arabian concepts such as sukoon, which denotes stillness; naseem, a gentle zephyr; and riyah, which refers to a turbulent gust.
Exhibiting artists include Yousif Abdulsaid - The florist from nothingness, Ammar Al Attar, Moza Al Falasi, Omar Al Gurg, Mariam Al Khoori, Jawad Al Malhi, Salmah Al Mansoori, Reem Al Mubarak, Abdulla Buhijji, Zara Mahmood, Iman Shaggag, Leila Shirazi, Mohammed Kazem, Ayman Zedani and Razan Al Sarraf. Together, their work invites visitors to reconsider their natural surroundings, particularly the subtle shifts that underline each season.
Until February 22, Saturday to Thursday, 9am-8pm; Friday, 2pm to 8pm; Abu Dhabi
15. Self-portrait with a cat I don’t have at Jameel Arts Centre
In his debut institutional solo exhibition in the UAE, Bady Dalloul presents an autobiography that touches upon collective memory.
The French-Syrian artist uses books, board games, matchboxes and magazines to create layered works, narrative epics that challenge Eurocentric perspectives and definitions of art.
A highlight of the show, and one made specifically for the exhibition, is Age of Empires. The series of 50 works on paper draws from a 19th-century Japanese astrology manual to reflect upon the rise and demise of imperial power. The exhibition also features a recreation of Dalloul’s home studio in Dubai, featuring works that shed light on his itinerant life and practice that have led to travels across France, Japan and the UAE.
Until February 22, Saturday to Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10am-8pm; Friday, noon-8pm; Dubai
16. Two Clouds in the Night Sky at Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi
Two Clouds in the Night Sky delves into the work and practice of Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, a pioneering Emirati artist with a singular process and aesthetic.
Much of his work is inspired by the geography and colour palette of his native Khor Fakkan. The city's cliffs and coral reefs feature in his art as allusions, or through their patterns and textures in paintings. In sculptures such as Fresh and Salt, they are used as a medium in themselves. In Between Sunrise and Sunset – the work he presented at the 2022 Venice Biennale – he reflects upon the changes in colour between dawn and dusk.
Until February 22; Saturday to Thursday, 9am-8pm; Fridays, 2pm to 8pm; Abu Dhabi
17. Rays, Ripples, Residue at 421 Arts Campus
This exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of 421 Arts Campus, offering an opportunity to reflect on the practices that have emerged in this time, while also looking towards the future.
The works displayed in Rays, Ripples, Residue are diverse, encompassing video, performance, installations and multimedia. The works promote discussions on “what it means to produce art in the UAE today”, the exhibition literature reads, highlighting perspectives of emerging creatives, collectives and grassroots initiatives, while also nodding to the role of cultural institutions that have promoted these practices.
Rays, Ripples, Residue can be considered as three exhibitions that overlap and inform one another.
Munira Al Sayegh’s Leading to the Middle, for instance, celebrates the contributions of key instigators, from Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim to Lamya Gargash, Khaled Esguerra and Bait15, showing how their works have had a ripple effect on the local arts scene.
Where Al Sayegh unpacks a seminal moment in the earlier moment of the country’s contemporary arts landscape, Nadine Khalil considers what it was like to enter the scene after this trail-blazing moment from the early 2000s to the 2010s. Her Ghosts of Arrival shows, as the exhibition literature reads, “the quieter structures that continue to shape the present". Artists and collectives featured here include Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Mona Ayyash, Nadine Ghandour, Bait Juma, Hashel Lamki, Sara Naim and Isaac Sullivan.
Finally, Murtaza Vali’s SUN™ takes its cue from the sun, not only as a source of life, but also through the way it governs rhythms of daily routine. Symbolically, it reflects “the growing complexity and maturity of artistic practice and discourse in the UAE”, reads the literature. “The diverse conceptual, material and process-based approaches on display are pitched between the sun’s eternal beauty and increasingly urgent critiques of consumption and climate change, revealing the contradictions embedded in narratives of modernity and progress.”
Artists included in this section are Charbel-Joseph H. Boutros, Khalid Jauffer, Raja'a Khalid, Nima Nabavi and Pratchaya Phinthong.
Until April 26; Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-8pm; Abu Dhabi
18. Image Keepers at Photography Gallery
The inaugural show at Sharjah Art Foundation's new venue in Al Manakh brings together works by 17 artists and collectives. The photographs are all drawn from the foundation’s collection and encompass studio portraits and multimedia installations.
Highlights include The Bride is Beautiful but She is Married to Another Man, a 2017 portrait series by Rula Halawani that depicts Palestinians just before the checks at the border crossing. Sunil Gupta’s Black Experience delves into the everyday lives of South Asian communities in the UK in the 1980s. Susan Hefuna’s Landscape/Cityscape shows Cairo and the Nile Delta through a pinhole camera. Mohammed Kazem’s Window shows the rapid urban development in the UAE, documenting the rise of a new building and the experiences of the workers constructing the structure.
Until April 26; Saturday to Thursday, 9am-9pm, Friday, 4pm-9pm; Sharjah
19. Of Land and Water at Kalba Ice Factory
Of Land and Water marks the first presentation of works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection in the emirate's east coast.
The exhibition presents large-scale works by nine international artists and collectives. The works ponder upon how borders sever stretches of open land and sea, dividing inhabitants and impacting their daily lives.
Until May 31; Saturday to Thursday, 9am-9pm; Friday, 4pm-9pm; Sharjah
20. Spectra of the Beautiful Past at Bait Sheikh Saeed Bin Hamad Al Qasimi
Taking place in the heritage house in Kalba, Sharjah, the exhibition brings together works by prominent Emirati artists including Abdulrahim Salem and Najat Makki. The work on display is meant to evoke nostalgia and an appreciation for a bygone era.
The exhibition’s venue underscores its themes. Constructed at the turn of the 20th century, it was built by and named after the ruler of Kalba, Saeed bin Hamad Al Qasimi.
Until May 31, Saturday to Thursday, 8am-8pm; Friday, 4pm-8pm; Sharjah
