LEBANON
A new crop of exhibitions considers Lebanon’s overlapping crises through the physical infrastructure of everyday life, from subterranean fault lines to rooftop water tanks. At Beit Beirut, French-Lebanese photographer and installation artist Catherine Cattaruzza presents I Am Folding the Land, an installation of 18 illuminated photographic panels, each measuring over two metres high, mapping Lebanon’s three major seismic fault lines. Shot on analogue film expired in 1992, the photographs bear chemical alterations, faded areas and irregular textures that form an integral part of their visual composition. Onview until 29 November 2026. Galerie Janine Rubeiz, in collaboration with Difaf, presents Al-Fawwāra, a two-part exhibition by Lebanese multidisciplinary visual artist Renoz, opening
on 14 November. Divided between the two venues, the exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, prints and ceramics, taking its starting point from the artist’s observations of Beirut’s rooftop water tanks and the informal networks of water storage and distribution that have become part of the city’s urban landscape.
At Beirut Art Center, Lebanese visual artist, researcher and architecture instructor Mohamad Kanaan presents his first solo exhibition, The Joy of Becoming, opening on 12 November. Drawing on Zakariyya al-Qazwīnī’s 13th-century book of marvels, the exhibition brings together a range of artistic practices and is developed in collaboration with children. It takes shape as an evolving constellation of bodies, creatures and structures, embracing play and imagination. Curated by Yasmine Helou, Lily Abichahine’s solo exhibition Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”) is on view at the Sursock Museum in Beirut from 6 November 2026 to 21 February 2027. Begun in 2021 by the Beirut-born lawyer, researcher and performance artist, this ongoing multidisciplinary project combines law, video, installation and physical endurance to challenge land-centric legal boundaries by imagining the Mediterranean Sea as a single, indivisible space rather than a divided geopolitical border. Mapping connections across cities like Beirut, Marseille, İzmir and Palermo through walking trails and ancient divinatory rituals, the work connects historical trauma and modern migration.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Ayyam Gallery marks its twentieth anniversary with The Days Go On, an exhibition bringing together works by artists who have shaped its programme since its founding in Damascus in 2006. Co-curated by Safwan Dahoul, Ali Kaaf and gallery director Maya Samawi, the presentation spans several generations of artists, including Youssef Abdelke, Samia Halaby, Fadi Yazigi, Tammam Azzam, Mounzer Kamnakache and Mohannad Orabi, alongside a wider roster of regional and international practitioners. Accompanying the
exhibition is an archive tracing the gallery’s development through photographs, documents and other material relating to the artists, people, places and projects that have shaped its history. Founded in Damascus with an initial roster of five Syrian artists, Ayyam subsequently expanded to Dubai, Beirut, Cairo, London and Jeddah, gradually extending its programme beyond its original focus on the Syrian art scene.
KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
At Misk Art Institute in Riyadh, Along the Way brings together 69 artworks and objects by 34 artists, exploring travel as a physical, intellectual and personal experience. Drawing on historical journeys such as those of Ibn Battuta, the exhibition spans a wide range of artistic practices and archival material, including rare manuscripts such as The Book of Fixed Stars by the astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and Nuzhat al-Qulub by al-Qazwini,
alongside an engraved astronomical disc. Mapping and cartography run throughout the selection, which brings together different approaches to geographical and imagined space. Works by Safeya Binzagr, Mona Saudi, Dia al-Azzawi, Marwan Rechmaoui, Manal AlDowayan, Filwa Nazer, Reem Al Faisal and Gauri Gill, in collaboration with Rajesh Vangad, feature alongside those of artists from across the region and beyond. Rather than following a linear sequence, the works are arranged as a series of crossings, bringing together historical references, personal journeys and shifting perceptions of place. The exhibition is on view at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Arts Hall until 31 March 2027.
THE WORLD
At the 29th edition of Paris Photo, held at the Grand Palais from 12 to 15 November, three galleries from the Arab region bring distinct photographic practices to the fair. Cairo based gallery TINTERA, making its debut in the Main Sector, presents works by Bernard Guillot, Nermine Hammam and Ibrahim Ahmed. Their photographs range from Guillot’s hand-painted prints to Hammam’s layered compositions and Ahmed’s fragmented, reassembled family images. Beirut’s Galerie Tanit occupies two sectors: its Main Sector presentation includes Sonja Braas, Elger Esser, Fouad Elkoury, Tarek Haddad, Gilbert Hage, Joumana Jamhouri, Rania Matar, Serge Najjar, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giulio Rimondi, Georges Yammine and Les Indisciplinés (Anthony Saroufim); in Emergence, it presents Randa Mirza’s Atlal, a series photographing the remains of homes in South Lebanon with a large-format camera. From Casablanca, L’Atelier 21 presents a solo exhibition by Moroccan photographer Hicham Benohoud, bringing together three series: Perchoirs, Papier peint and Landscaping. Made in southern Morocco, the photographs document scenes physically constructed by the artist in real landscapes and photographed in a single take, without digital retouching or photomontage.
