Dubai’s galleries continue to present a dynamic mix of works that span diverse themes and mediums. Here’s what’s worth seeing this week.
Hassan Sharif at Gallery Isabelle: “The Storyteller”
Titled after Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay, The Storyteller revisits Hassan Sharif’s “Objects” through a contemporary lens that redefines craft as a space for experimentation, embodied learning, and storytelling. Benjamin described storytelling and craft as deeply interconnected—manual repetition offering room for narrative, while stories brought meaning to labour. Sharif embodied this exchange. Known for his playful use of parables to explain his work, he resisted fixed interpretations, instead embracing ambiguity and metaphor. Although he criticised art that nostalgically reproduced tradition, he recognised craft as a framework to understand his practice, notably in his 2005 text “Weaving”. Sharif’s “Objects” are not readymades but handcrafted through repetitive actions—twisting, binding, wrapping—that mirror both industrial labour and domestic handicraft. This duality connects his work to unseen forms of labour, particularly that of women, with whom Sharif expressed solidarity—at times attributing his weavings to his feminine alter ego, Sharifa Hassan.
On view until 31 May 2025 at Gallery Isabelle, Alserkal Avenue.
Sama AlShaibi at Ayyam Gallery: “TTERSS”
Ayyam Gallery presents ‘طرس’ “TTERSS” a solo exhibition by Sama Alshaibi that reimagines the fragmented history and evolving identity of Baghdad. Drawing on mixed-media collages, video art, and LiDAR technology, Alshaibi transforms the city into a layered site of memory, absence, and speculative possibility. After a forty-year separation from her homeland, the artist returns between 2021 and 2023 to confront the dissonance between lived reality and imagined memory.
Through a collage-based visual language, the exhibition explores the contradictions of a place shaped by imperial ambition, destruction, and resilience. By layering precise data mappings with archival imagery and personal photographs, Alshaibi constructs a speculative lens through which to view Baghdad—not just as a city, but as a symbol of collective trauma, transformation, and the persistence of cultural identity.
On view until May 30, 2025, at Ayyam Gallery, Alserkal Avenue.
Huda Lutfi at The Third Line Gallery: “UNRAVELING”
In her fourth solo exhibition at The Third Line, Huda Lutfi presents “Unraveling”, a show that brings together three of her seminal series: When Dreams Call for Silence (2019), Our Black Thread (2020–2021), and Healing Devices (2020–ongoing). This exhibition reflects the increasingly introspective nature of Lutfi’s recent practice.
“Unraveling” also debuts a selection of previously unseen miniature collages that predate “Healing Devices”, offering a glimpse into the artist’s exploratory process that led to her intricate sculptural forms. In addition to the collages, the exhibition features a newly produced video work, The Seven-legged Demon of the Night (2025), created in memory of Lutfi’s mother —a lifelong seamstress whose profession deeply influenced the artist’s engagement with thread and fabric.
On view until May 27, 2025 at The Third Line Gallery, Alserkal Avenue.
Shilpa Gupta at Ishara Art Foundation: “LINES OF FLIGHT”
Shilpa Gupta debuts her solo exhibition in West Asia at Ishara Art Foundation with “Lines of Flight.” The show spans work from 2006 to the present and explores Gupta’s ongoing interrogation of mobility, borders, control, and resistance through sculptures, installations, sound, drawings, and video. The exhibition explores how lines—whether territorial, linguistic, or bureaucratic—act as instruments of power but are continually challenged by human resilience and poetic expression.
Key highlights include kinetic installations such as “Listening Air”, which features suspended microphones reciting poetry by political prisoners and protestors, and with animated flap-boards that subvert institutional signage. Gupta’s works also address state violence, censorship, and border politics, with pieces inspired by the India–Bangladesh border and the repression of dissenting voices. Curated by Sabih Ahmed, the exhibition is accompanied by public programs and invites viewers to reflect on freedom, belonging, and the power of language as resistance
On view until May 31, 2025 at Ishara Art Foundation, Alserkal Avenue.