Most Important Selections Arts Reads
For Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, memory is not merely recollection but a living organism: a drumbeat echoing through generations, storing traces of experience, knowledge, and imagination. He describes this phenomenon as a ‘memory drum,’ an inner mechanism that gathers and transmits…
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim was born in 1962 in Khor Fakkan, on the east coast of the UAE, at a time when the town was still a small coastal settlement. As a child, he was energetic and often in trouble at…
This interview is an excerpt from issue #75 Being Wael Shawky. In this chapter, we explore how Shawky engages myth, not as a retreat from reality, but as an alternative system of knowledge. The layered, echoing voices that surface throughout…
On January 30, 2026, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale returned for its highly anticipated third edition, transforming the industrial JAX District into a vibrant nexus of global discourse. Titled In Interludes and Transitions (في الحِلّ والترحال), the Biennale runs through May…
This interview is an excerpt from issue #73 Being Manal AlDowayan. A monographic issue exploring the artist’s journey from the Aramco compound to the global stage. The issue maps the personal, social, and political landscapes that continue to inform AlDowayan’s…
Wael Shawky’s work often unfolds like a story told across borders, belief systems, and eras. Born in Alexandria in 1971, he spent much of his childhood in Mecca, where his father, an architect, had moved the family in the 1970s…
Manal AlDowayan’s artistic journey did not begin with childhood sketches or early declarations of vocation. It emerged gradually, shaped by lived experience, observation, and a sustained negotiation between parallel worlds. Raised in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia within the…
To mark its 15th anniversary, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art presents two exhibitions that reflect on its institutional legacy while engaging urgently with the present. Together, Resolutions: Celebrating 15 Years of Mathaf and we refuse_d frame the museum as both…
The Prince Mohammed bin Salman Global Center for Arabic Calligraphy, an initiative of the Saudi Ministry of Culture, has launched the second edition of the Dar Al Qalam Residency Programme, now entering its final phase until 16 January 2026 in…
Presented in collaboration with the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF) and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai, Resonant Histories: India and the Arab World opened at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, CSMVS, and remains on view until 15…