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Gulf Today
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Summons to summer with Ishara Art Foundation's ‘No Trespassing' show
'No Trespassing' marks Ishara Art Foundation's first summer exhibition (July 4 - Aug. 30). Curated by Priyanka Mehra, it channels the aesthetics of the streets into a white cube space. Six UAE-based and South Asian artists explore their relationship with the street, engaging with it as both subject and as a medium. Rather than attempting to define the street, the exhibition resists such definition, and more than a setting, the show is a collection of individual experiences that alternate between chaotic and orderly, gritty and beautiful, uninhibited and curated – much as street life. Mehra is Exhibitions Manager and Programmes Curator at the Foundation. Signposts, building materials, pavements, lights, street art, scrapheaps and human traces become inscriptions of a city's movement. 'No Trespassing' looks at the streets as a site of deconstruction and reinvention, continually shaping and being shaped by those who live in and pass through them. The exhibition explores what it means to speak of art in, on and from the street. The participating artists have created their works through on-site interventions, a kind of mark-making that mirrors the interaction of a city with its inhabitants. Upon entering the exhibition, the viewer encounters a large-scale mixed-media work by H11235 (Kiran Maharjan). As the artist was unable to be present on-site to create the piece, he explores the possibilities of mark-making from a distance. The work signals the void left by his absence. An abstraction of a digital rendering, which is presented opposite, the creation presents the architectural elements shown in the original, while incorporating locally sourced building materials such as corrugated metal and engineered wood. Questioning the life of humans and the built environment, it explores the impact of material surroundings on the psyche. At the far end of the gallery, Rami Farook carves out four square metres of the wall, revealing its hidden structure. Sara Alahbabi's installation. The act exposes the vulnerability of the white cube and prompts reflection on the ownership of art and space. The removed sections are offered as a gift to Ishara's founder and team – symbolising trust, transparency and connection. 'The work honours the Foundation's history, while inviting shared custodianship and care for its future,' says Farook. In the second gallery, Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin) presents 'The World Out There', consisting of what she calls 'scavenged' objects – discarded street signs, scraps of wood and posters – marked with drawings that extend beyond the mounted pieces and onto the surrounding wall. Adopting the persona of the flâneur – a lone figure who wanders through a city, observing and contemplating the urban landscape – she collects objects to rewrite their narratives using her own voice and language. For Fatspatrol, it is an act of reclaiming the street, which is systemically regulated, surveilled and commodified, according to her. It is a space where one is instructed to 'follow the signs', yet where new stories are continually being narrated, she notes. In an alcove is Sara Alahbabi's 'For a Better Modern Something', an installation that explores Abu Dhabi's evolving urban fabric. Cement blocks printed with maps are joined together with LED tube lights, creating a grid-like structure against the surface of the wall and floor. The work is the result of Alahbabi's use of walking as a methodology in her practice, to experience the streets as a pedestrian in a city dominated by a culture of driving. Travelling on foot reveals new aspects of Abu Dhabi's identity, in which connections flow between communities, revealing a potential for mutual understanding across cultural and economic boundaries emerges. Khaled Esguerra's installation, displayed in the third gallery, challenges ongoing efforts to conceal the disorderliness of urban centres. Detail from Sara Alahbabi's compositon. Titled 'Heritage Legacy Authentic', the work responds to the redevelopment of historic neighbourhoods, carried out with the promise of preserving heritage and authenticity. Tiled across the floor are sheets of copier paper, a medium often used for informal advertisements, printed with words drawn from the promotional messaging of these projects and masked with blank carbon paper. The work invites viewers to stomp on, kick, thrash, tear and skid over it; it gradually reveals the printed words. Serving as a canvas for Salma Dib, the surrounding walls are covered with layers of traces, lettering, fragments and textured elements. Inspired by the walls of Palestine, Jordan and Syria, the artwork transforms the gallery into a palimpsest of thoughts and ideas, inscribed by multiple authors over time. 'No Trespassing' invites audiences to step into a dialogue between the street and themselves, and reimagine how one moves through, and leaves his mark on, the spaces he inhabits. The exhibition is accompanied by physical and virtual tours, as well as educational and public programmes. It is supported by reframe. Priyanka Mehra has a background in design and has navigated diverse roles in the arts that include public art commissions in the UAE, urban regeneration programmes in India and conceptualising Public Art Masterplans in the KSA. She has worked on large-scale urban art festivals such as St+art Delhi and Public Art Commissions at Yas Bay, Abu Dhabi. Smita Prabhakar, Founder and Chairperson of Ishara Art Foundation, is an entrepreneur, collector and art patron who has been based in the UAE for over four decades. She is a member of the International Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern (London), the Middle Eastern Circle of the Guggenheim Museum (New York), and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice). Sasha Altaf is the Director of Ishara Art Foundation.
The National
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Ten cool art exhibitions to breeze through the UAE summer heat
The reputation of UAE summer as a time when life comes to a sweltering standstill, is a thing of the past – particularly on the arts scene. Galleries have begun embracing the season, with some new exhibitions rolling out and others being extended well into the hottest months. From photography as a medium of reckoning to an exhibition that brings streets into a gallery setting and another that champions farmers, there is a lot to see across the UAE. Here are 10 to get you started. No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation Curated by Priyanka Mehra, No Trespassing is Ishara Art Foundation 's first summer exhibition. The show brings street aesthetics into the gallery, with six artists engaging with urban materials as both subject and medium. Works by Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin), H11235 (Kiran Maharjan), Khaled Esguerra, Rami Farook, Salma Dib and Sara Alahbabi turn building materials, pavements, signage and surfaces into acts of mark-making. Rather than define what the street is, the exhibition reflects how it's used, as a space that's chaotic, curated, lived-in and constantly rewritten. Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; until August 30, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai Cartographies, Revised at Manarat Al Saadiyat This exhibition is the culmination of a four-month residency at The Photography Studio at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Seven emerging artists from across the world take a cartographer's approach to image-making, using it to chart personal histories and narratives. Aman Ali's photographs, for instance, trace maternal love through worn hands. Reem Hamid projects shifting rhythms of stillness and movement via sand and performance. Fares Al Kaabi mourns demolished homes and a bygone time through windows and doorways. Monday to Sunday, 10am-8pm; until September 1; Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi Upside Down, by Morteza Khazaie at Leila Heller Gallery In Upside Down, Morteza Khazaie uses wood to make tall, curved forms inspired by trees bending to wind and storms. The sculptures show how trees endure without breaking by adapting to the elements. The works evoke a powerful metaphor for individual and societal change, transforming under pressure but nonetheless enduring. The use of wood in this context is also interesting. The material carries a sense of growth and history, while underscoring the resilience found in nature. It embodies the juxtaposition between pliability and strength. As curator Farshad Mahoutforoush said: 'Through these works, I wanted to explore how softness can be strength, and how being 'upside down' might simply mean seeing things differently.' Monday to Friday, 10am-7pm; Saturday, 11am- 7pm; until September 15, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai Architectures of the In-Between at Aisha Alabbar Gallery The three artists featured in this exhibition all identify architecture as a bedrock to their practice. Yet, they have gone on to reinterpret the discipline in new and diverse ways. Atefeh Majidi Nezhad hangs lace like memory in her Zero-G series. Nevine Hamza gives form to nebulous metaphysical ideas through photography, digital art, collage and painting. Finally, Layla Juma renders social structures into minimalist geometries, revealing coded systems through drawing, installation and sculpture. Monday to Saturday, 10am-6pm; until August 23; Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai Between Sunrise and Sunset, by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim at Maraya Art Centre A seminal work by important Emirati artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Between Sunrise and Sunset was commissioned by the National Pavilion UAE and featured at the 2022 Venice Biennale. The work is now on display at Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah. The exhibition, which is in its final month, has been organised with the support of Lawrie Shabibi and the National Pavilion UAE. The exhibition features three paintings by Ibrahim, but the titular installation is the centrepiece, taking the entirety of the second-floor gallery space. The installation features 128 sculptural forms, each unique in shape, size and colour. The sculptures are arranged in a gradient, ranging from more vivid hues to the dulled and monochrome palettes that allude to nighttime. For Ibrahim, the work is meant to reflect the diversity of the UAE, both environmentally and culturally, while also evoking the metaphorical breadth of night and day. Saturday to Thursday, 10am-7pm; Friday, 4pm-7pm; until August 1; Al Qasba, Sharjah New acquisitions and a VR experience at Louvre Abu Dhabi While Louvre Abu Dhabi is not holding a special exhibition this summer, there are plenty of new attractions to make it a worthwhile visit – no matter how many times you've gone before. The museum has introduced a new rotation of loans and acquisitions across its permanent galleries. The additions range from Roman portraiture and South Asian courtly art to modernist works. Highlights include a finely carved Roman cameo thought to depict Agrippa Postumus, mounted in an 18th-century British setting; a luminous ivory-and-gold casket from 16th-century Sri Lanka; Juan Luna's enigmatic Una Bulaquena (1895), on loan from the National Museum of the Philippines; and Kandinsky 's White Oval (1921), which marks a moment of transition for the legendary artist. Louvre Abu Dhabi has also launched a virtual reality experience. The Quantum Dome Project is a VR installation that unfolds over 25 minutes. It immerses participants in digitally reconstructed environments from three disparate and historic corners of the globe: ancient Rome, medieval Baghdad and Mughal-era India. Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-6.30pm; Friday to Sunday, 10am-8.30pm; Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi Everyman's Mountain, by Omar Al Gurg at Lawrie Shabibi Emirati photographer and designer Omar Al Gurg is presenting his first solo show with Everyman's Mountain. The exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi features 24 archival prints from a six-day trek up Kilimanjaro in 2021. From misty forests and regenerating moorlands to the fragile icy summit, Al Gurg's work shows the mountain as a shifting ecosystem, shaped by nature and human activity. The exhibition is as much a personal odyssey as it is a broader environmental mediation, a tribute to nature's quiet transformations and our collective duty to preserve them. Monday to Saturday, 10am-6pm; until September 12; Alserkal Avenue, Dubai The Peasant, the Scholar and the Engineer, by Asuncion Molinos Gordo at Jameel Arts Centre Spanish artist-researcher Asuncion Molinos Gordo's first major retrospective in West Asia surveys 15 years of her work on rural knowledge, land use and food systems. Gordo's work draws on anthropology and cultural studies. It reframes farmers as not only food producers, but also intellectuals and engineers. Their vernacular practices, she points out, may hold keys to sustainability. Works that are being featured in the exhibition include her famous World Agriculture Museum, which was first staged in Cairo in 2010 and won the Sharjah Biennial Prize in 2015. Another highlight is Como Soliamos, a 2020 rammed-earth installation echoing Andalusian and falaj irrigation techniques. Saturday to Monday, Wednesday to Thursday, 10am-8pm; Friday; noon-8pm; until September 28; Jaddaf Waterfront, Dubai Unstable Grounds at 421 Arts Campus Unstable Grounds, the MFA graduate exhibition from NYU Abu Dhabi at 421, is a layered constellation of practices that reveal not just what is shown, but also what resists visibility. The exhibition features the works of eight artists, exploring themes of environment, displacement, memory and human connection, through installation, performance, video, sculpture and print. Highlights include Consequences of Circumstance by Hala El Abora, where images of birds, neither definitely dead nor alive, are carved on slabs of stone, disrupting the historical trope of the bird as a symbol of beauty and freedom. In The Sea is a Body which Moves, Adele Bea Cipste explores her evolving relationship to Abu Dhabi's shoreline across several works. In Gridlines, Jude Maharmeh presents hand-cut and incised clay-tiles that draw from the capital's urban aspect. Other installations question the limitations of materials, form and meaning. Danute Vaitekunaite, Mowen Li and Bao all examine their personal histories while experimenting with materials. Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-8pm; until September 7; Zayed Port, Abu Dhabi Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough… at Efie Gallery Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough… is a group exhibition curated by Ose Ekore. It features works by five contemporary artists: Samuel Fosso, Aida Muluneh, Kelani Abass, Abeer Sultan and Sumayah Fallatah. The artists come from different generations and use film and photography to reflect upon themes of growth and healing, while also showing how the mediums are barometers of change. Fallatah, for instance, reflects on experiences of the African diaspora in the Arab world by examining personal and family narratives. Sultan uses imagery of marine life to re-examine her family's migration from West Africa to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. Abass, inspired by his father's letterpress printing company, layers images, texts and found objects to explore the passage of time. Fosso's self-portraits challenge identity and representation by embodying stylised personas. These are inspired by African-American fashion and West African pop culture, and draw on the magazine images that were brought to the Central African Republic by Peace Corps volunteers. Finally, Muluneh's surreal photographs show face paint, masks and Ethiopian motifs to subvert stereotypical representations of African women.
The National
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Louvre Abu Dhabi's new loans and Mohammad Alfaraj's solo show
At Louvre Abu Dhabi, new loans and acquisitions have been woven into the museum's permanent galleries, adding fresh layers to its core universal narrative. At Ishara Art Foundation, a new exhibition brings a visual identity from the streets into a white cube space, while a show at Jameel Arts Centre delves into life in Saudi Arabia's oasis city Al Ahsa. Here are three exhibitions to explore this weekend. New loans and acquisitions at Louvre Abu Dhabi Louvre Abu Dhabi has introduced a new rotation of loans and acquisitions across its permanent galleries. The additions range from Roman portraiture and South Asian courtly art to modernist works. Highlights include a finely carved Roman cameo thought to depict Agrippa Postumus, mounted in an 18th-century British setting; a luminous ivory-and-gold casket from 16th-century Sri Lanka; and Juan Luna's enigmatic Una Bulaquena (1895), on loan from the National Museum of the Philippines. Other artefacts build subtle conversations with existing displays: a limestone Head of an Ephebe from Cyprus joins other sculptures of the human face; a Gabonese reliquary figure enters a display of funerary objects; and Kandinsky 's White Oval (1921) marks a moment of artistic transition. Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-6.30pm; Friday to Sunday, 10am-8.30pm; Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation Curated by Priyanka Mehra, No Trespassing is Ishara Art Foundation's first summer exhibition. The show brings street aesthetics into the gallery, with six artists engaging with urban materials as both subject and medium. Works by Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin), H11235 (Kiran Maharjan), Khaled Esguerra, Rami Farook, Salma Dib and Sara Alahbabi turn building materials, pavements, signage and surfaces into acts of mark-making. Rather than define what the street is, the exhibition reflects how it's used, as a space that's chaotic, curated, lived-in and constantly rewritten. Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; until August 30, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai 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.
The National
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Must-see exhibitions by Sama Alshaibi and Shilpa Gupta
A new wave of solo exhibitions is rolling across galleries and institutions in the UAE. Diasporic experiences represented by flowers, paintings ruminating on psychological states through fables and a project aimed at capturing the palimpsest-like nature of Baghdad, here are four exhibitions to see this weekend. The title of Sama Alshaibi's solo exhibition at Ayyam Gallery is drawn from the Arabic word for palimpsest. The Iraqi-Palestinian artist is presenting a series of mixed-media collages and video works that present Baghdad as a site of fragmented narratives and memories. Alshaibi travelled to the Iraqi capital between 2021 and 2023, using LiDar technology to document its streets, landmarks and marshlands. She captured structures and the flow of daily life. The works featured in the exhibition are drawn from data mappings, archival materials and photographs. Together, they form a thoughtful exploration of a city that is constantly adapting to new geopolitical realities. Monday to Friday, 10am – 6pm; Saturday, 12pm – 6pm; until May 30; Ayyam Gallery, Dubai Maitha Abdalla's works bloom from the seams between the real and the uncanny. The Emirati artist, whose practice spans several mediums, often uses folktales and myths to explore themes such as psychology, social conditioning and gender. Her solo exhibition at Abu Dhabi's cultural foundation reflects upon these topics through a mix of painting and sculptures that toe the line between the figurative and the abstract. Saturday to Thursday, 9am – 8pm; Friday, 2pm – 8pm; until August 30; Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi In her first regional solo exhibition, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons references the flora and fauna of Latin America, the Middle East and Africa to examine experiences of diaspora. The Cuban artist touches upon experiences of unity and longing in her works. Her paintings and sculptures are vibrant, brimming with hibiscus, sugarcanes and guava leaves. The works come together as an arresting exploration of the connection between landscapes and collective memories. Monday to Saturday, 11am – 7pm; until Thursday; Efie Gallery, Dubai Shilpa Gupta: Lines Of Flight at Ishara Art Foundation Shilpa Gupta's first solo exhibition in the Middle East is being held at the Ishara Art Foundation. It presents a large body of work, produced since 2006. The artworks, though ranging in medium, all have a central preoccupation in that they challenge the notions of border, terrestrial and political. Some drawings highlight works by poets from around the world who faced persecution, showing how their writings transcended demarcations. A room-filled installation, titled Listening Air, meanwhile, features songs of resistance, emanating from microphones that move across the space. Monday to Saturday, 10am – 7pm; until May 31; Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai
The National
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Beirut as a regional hub for modern abstract art and Sharjah Biennial
A slate of new exhibitions and events in the UAE are highlighting cross-cultural connections but in very different ways. From a show that shares how Lebanon was at a crossroads for abstract artists from across the Arab world to an examination of the poetry of resistance, which reveals how they echo beyond borders and with a universal timbre, here are a few exhibitions to see this week. A pioneering figure of abstract art in the region, Nadia Saikali's spotlight is perhaps long overdue. The Lebanese artist's work ranges across a variety of mediums and styles, despite them often veering towards abstraction. From her early gestural work to the line-based paintings and sprawling landscape canvases in the later stages of her career, Saikali's work is at the heart of a new show at Sharjah's Maraya Art Centre. Yet, the exhibition – co-organised with the Barjeel Art Foundation – opens up to feature works by her contemporaries, all of whom are women. The artists come from across the Arab world, but they all spent time reducing work in Beirut during the 1960s and 1970s. As such, Beirut becomes the star of the exhibition, showing how the city was a regional hub for artists. Saturday to Thursday, 10am-7pm; Friday, 4pm-7pm; until July 13; Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah Shilpa Gupta's first solo exhibition in the Middle East is being held at the Ishara Art Foundation. The exhibition presents a large body of work, produced since 2006. The artworks, though ranging in medium, all have a central preoccupation in that they challenge the notions of border, terrestrial and political. Some drawings highlight works by poets from around the world who faced persecution, showing how their writings transcended demarcations. A room-filled installation, titled Listening Air, meanwhile, features songs of resistance, emanating from microphones that move across the space. Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; until May 31; Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai Tunisian artist Karim Jabbari, whose practice involves light and calligraphy, is presenting a solo exhibition at Inloco Gallery. The pieces, created as part of his residency in Dubai, examine the importance of tradition in a contemporary world. The works show how poetry is a starting point for Jabbari's art as well. Several calligraphic pieces take cues from the Arabic poetry that Jabbari found in his father's library. The exhibition also features documentation of his light calligraphy pieces, showing how the artist engages with disparate traditions and cultures to create something idiosyncratic. The exhibition comes as part of Inloco Gallery's third season and includes an art intervention in Satwa, as well as performances by Jabbari and Emirati artist Khalil Abdulwahid. Monday to Wednesday, noon-7pm; Thursday to Friday, noon-8pm; Inloco Gallery, Dubai Sharjah's prestigious art event is back. It is showcasing 650 works by almost 200 artists, including 200 commissioned works. The biennial will be taking place under the title "To Carry", reflecting the memories and traditions we individually carry with us. The event is running across 17 venues in Sharjah, including locations in Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid and Kalba. The event opens on Thursday and will be running until June 15. It is curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Oz. The biennial is running in several locations across Sharjah. More information at
