UNITED ARAB EMIRATES In the UAE this week, exhibitions gather around a shared preoccupation of giving form to memory and spirit, as though art were less an object than a conduit. At Leila Heller Gallery, three concurrent exhibitions are unfolding…
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…
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, exhibitions challenge the ordinary: maps without borders, symbols stripped of certainty, the human form remade, exposing the stories we inherit and those we rewrite. Using iron, clay, wood, stone, and pigment, Khozema…
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…
QATAR This week, Doha becomes the gravitational centre of regional attention. Art Basel Qatar (5–7 Feb), curated by Wael Shawky, brings together 87 galleries from 31 countries in an open-format presentation across the city. Shawky described the fair as a…
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…
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES This week at Alserkal Avenue, several January openings continue across painting, installation, and photography, offering a snapshot of the district’s early-year rhythm. Gallery Isabelle extends Are You Human Enough by artist duo :mentalKLINIK (until 20 March), while…