Key Points
- Galleries and museums in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah are staging 18 concurrent exhibitions this season.
- The second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial anchors the programme with 21 artists across Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.
- Several shows run into 2027, giving the UAE its longest continuous exhibition calendar of the year.
The latest:
Eighteen exhibitions are now open across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah as the UAE’s autumn art season builds, according to The National. The programme spans painting, photography, ceramics, textiles and immersive installation, with closing dates running from November 10 through March 2027. Its largest component, the second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, opened in Al Ain on October 23 and expands to Abu Dhabi on November 15.
Details:
- The biennial: Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, titled Home: A Glossary for a Communal Sense of Place, is led by artistic director Elvira Dyangani Ose and brings together 21 artists and collectives, including Ibrahim Mahama, Akram Zaatari, Nari Ward and Laure Prouvost. Installations are sited at Mina Zayed, Souq Al Mina and Saadiyat Cultural District.
- Louvre Abu Dhabi: Spices and Wonders: Sailing the Indian Ocean, organised with Paris’s Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts, gathers about 240 works from 24 lenders across 1,000 years of maritime trade. A second show, A Board Game Adventure, traces chess, Mancala, Ludo and Carrom through ancient artefacts and interactive displays.
- Longest run: The Matter of Light at Dom Art Projects in Dubai, curated by Eugenia Kikodze, runs until March 10, 2027, with 22 artists and collectives from Eastern Europe and the Arab world, among them Kamal Boullata, Zaha Hadid and Susan Hefuna. Loans come from the Barjeel Art Foundation and Art Jameel.
- Centenary show: Bassam Freiha Art Foundation in Abu Dhabi marks 100 years since the birth of Lebanese painter Paul Guiragossian (1926–1993), drawing primarily on his estate. His 1948 self-portrait, which he carried to shelters during the Lebanese Civil War, is on display outside Lebanon for the first time.
- Emirati practice: Leila Heller Gallery is showing Azza Al Qubaisi’s Between Land and Sea, curated by Aysha Al Hemeiri, alongside Karima Al Shomely’s Between a Fold and a Memory, which examines the burqa and traditional fabrics. At Iris Projects, Eman Al Hashemi’s first solo show reads the UAE cityscape through ceramics and printmaking.
- Migration themes: Malaysian artist Shamin Sharum’s Provisional Sanctuaries at Tashkeel reconstructs temporary musallas found in warehouses and industrial areas through paintings, drawings and architectural models. One model recalls a prayer space he encountered in his first days in Dubai that has since been demolished.
- Institutional debut: Emirati artist Juma Al Haj presents Revelation at 421 Arts Campus, his first institutional solo show, developed through the campus’s Artistic Development Programme. It moves from the painting Balaa through engraved glass panels to Hijr, a darkened carpeted room built around a water feature where visitors remove their shoes.
- Photography platform: Sharjah Art Foundation’s Vantage Point 13, introduced in 2013, moves into the institution’s dedicated photography gallery. Six artists selected by international open call — Adam Rouhana, Guanyu Xu, Latifa AlBokhari, Luisa Dorr, Maheder Haileselassie and Sathish Kumar — received production funding for new commissioned series.
- South Asian lens: Ishara Art Foundation’s The Sky Held It, The Earth Remembered pairs Shahana Rajani’s three-channel film on communities displaced from the Indus Delta with Rohini Devasher’s silk panels drawn from sunspots and Sarker Protick’s 15-year record of change in his Dhaka neighbourhood.
- Group shows: NYU Abu Dhabi Project Space is presenting eight UAE-based female artists working in ceramics, curated by Shafeena Yusuff Ali. At Tabari, Omar Kholeif’s Fellow Travellers gathers six artists across four continents, with a limited-edition publication of original poetry and a curatorial essay.
Between the lines:
The calendar’s weight sits in institutional programming rather than commercial gallery turnover: the biennial, both Louvre Abu Dhabi shows and the Guiragossian centenary all run past January 2027, while several Dubai gallery exhibitions close by mid-November. Three of the listed shows are first solo or first institutional outings, pointing to development programmes feeding exhibition slots.
What’s next
The biennial’s Abu Dhabi leg opens on November 15 at Mina Zayed, Souq Al Mina and Saadiyat Cultural District. Several Dubai gallery shows close on November 10, while Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Spices and Wonders runs until February 14, 2027.
