Sharjah Art Foundation inaugurates its new Photography Gallery with Image Keepers, on view from 8 November 2025 until 26 April 2026. The exhibition brings together over 50 works by 17 artists and collectives from the Foundation’s collection curated by Jiwon Lee, with Nada Ammagui, Osemudiamen Ekore, Souraya Kreidieh, and Shahd Murshed. Image Keepers presents a panoramic view of artistic experimentation and engagement through the photographic medium.
Spanning the past six decades, the exhibition reflects on sociopolitical realities shaped by modernisation and decolonisation. Its first chapter focuses on portraiture, where images testify to the diversity of experience and identity across regions and histories. Rula Halawani’s The Bride is Beautiful, But She is Married to Another Man (2017) captures Palestinians at border crossings, revealing both vulnerability and resilience. Sunil Gupta’s Black Experience (1986/2021) revisits diasporic South Asian communities in 1980s Britain, offering a poignant glimpse into collective identity during a defining era.
A second section explores photography’s capacity to depict what is obscured or absent, particularly in times of displacement or conflict. Mame-Diarra Niang’s Léthé (2021) and Same Guent Guii (2021) embrace abstraction and memory, while Susan Hefuna’s Landscape/Cityscape (1999–2002) transforms everyday scenes of Cairo into layered reflections on time and perception.
Upstairs, the exhibition expands into multimedia forms, as artists reinterpret archives and monuments through humour, speculation and material play. Works by Mohammed Kazem and Fehras Publishing Practices highlight how photography can reframe urban development, publishing, and collective history.
Location: Photography Gallery, Sharjah Art Foundation
Date: 8 November 2025 until 26 April 2026