Exhibitions to Visit in Dubai - Summer 2025
A new season of exhibitions in Dubai is upon us. As I did for the Winter/Spring season, here’s a list of exhibitions I’d like to visit, that may also interest you.
It’s scorching hot right now, and stepping out during the day is quite challenging. Maybe it is time for galleries and art institutions here to reconsider their opening hours during the summer. Perhaps opening their doors from late afternoon till 9pm or 10pm could be a better option. Just a thought.
Some of the exhibitions listed below opened during the Spring season, and some extended their dates. I’ve listed them again in case you missed them before.
If more exhibitions that interest me get announced, I’ll add them here, so do check back. Unfortunately, quite a few announce their exhibitions and events last minute.
The order of the exhibitions below are based on their opening dates.
Images and extracted text are from the exhibition websites/Instagram accounts.
From Fragments to Coherence
Sevil Dolmaci Gallery, Dubai Design District
April 8 to July 15
Deniz Ozuygur, Mommy did you used to be an artist?, 2024
Spanning various media, from sculpture and textiles to painting and installation, the exhibition highlights the interplay between materiality, memory, and meaning-making. The participating artists address themes of destruction and reconstruction as a process of both personal and collective syntheis.
Curated by İpek Ulusoy Akgül.
Artists: Cristiana de Marchi, Deniz Özuygur, Ebru Döşekçi, Hala Schoukair, Hangama Amiri, Hiba Kalache, Kıymet Daştan, Nevin Aladağ, Onur Hastürk, Sabine Boehl, Sara Al Haddad, Sage Lewis, Sinem Sezgin Bozkurt.
A Memorial in Fragments
Gulf Photo Plus, Alserkal Avenue
April 13 - August 13
Majd Arandas, A Memorial in Fragments
Majd Arandas (1994–2023) was a self-taught Palestinian photographer from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He was killed by an Israeli airstrike near his home in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Wednesday, November 1, 2023.
Exhibiting his work in 2025, A Memorial in Fragments considers the afterlife of images, how they function not just as present-day records but as future testimony. The show presents an extensive body of work produced by Majd throughout his life, by presenting images retrieved by his brother after his tragic death.
Through contributions from family, friends and colleagues Moayad Arandas, Samar Hazboun, Maen Hammad, Rita Kabalan, Mohamed Somji and Tamara Abdul Hadi we piece together a collective narrative through the lens of his community.
Arandas’s posthumous images, retrieved by his brother, offer fragmented glimpses of his life up until his tragic death. Here, traces speak to a life marked by the quiet gestures of affection and the subtle exchanges of care.
https://gulfphotoplus.com/blogs/exhibitions/a-memorial-in-fragments
via Photo Plus UK:
This image of the parakeets cuddling on a stretched hand is one of the images exhibited and is for sale with net proceeds going to his family who evacuated out of Gaza before the borders were closed in early 2024.
Purchase it here.
Shifting Gazes: Women Through Middle Eastern Eyes
The Farjam Foundation, Gate Avenue, DIFC
April 15 – October 1
Samira Alikhanzadeh, Untitled, 2008
Spanning over eight decades of artistic production, this curated selection from The Farjam Collection brings together 27 works by artists from the region, both men and women. From the historical echoes of Qajar-inspired photography to bold contemporary interventions in pop culture, sculpture, and digital media, these artworks collectively challenge reductive stereotypes and open up a dialogue about identity, memory, resilience, and resistance.
Rather than offering a single narrative, Shifting Gazes invites viewers to reflect on multiple perspectives and cultural constructions of womanhood.
Organised into four thematic sections, the exhibition offers an expansive view of the feminine in Middle Eastern visual culture, as seen through both male and female perspectives.
Identity and Visibility
Personal and Emotional Landscapes
Tradition, Modernity, and Cultural Memory
Social Commentary and Critique
Curated by Amir Arvand.
https://www.farjamcollection.com/2025/04/16/shifting-gazes-women-through-middle-eastern-eyes/
Asunción Molinos Gordo: The Peasant, the Scholar and the Engineer
Jameel Arts Centre
April 16 – September 21
Asunción Molinos Gordo
Throughout her practice, Asunción Molinos Gordo centres the perspectives and knowledge of farming communities. She celebrates their expertise as intellectuals and engineers who design complex systems for tending to the land and growing crops, reflecting their ability to organise the world.
The Peasant, the Scholar and the Engineer spans fifteen years of Molinos Gordo’s work, tracing her journey from foundational artwork on food systems and agriculture in Egypt and the Arab world to recent investigations of Arab and Muslim heritage in her native Spain.
https://jameelartscentre.org/whats-on/asuncion-molinos-gordo-the-peasant-the-scholar-and-the-engineer/
MyLysses
XVA Gallery
May 24 - June 30
MyLysses invites viewers to experience how contemporary artists grapple with the shifting role of text, literature and knowledge in an age of AI.
Artists whose works engage with classical literature were invited to examine scientific imagery within the context of its interpretation, engage in conversations with AI identities, or consider machine sounds as creators of independent poetics.
Curated by Tor Seidel.
Artists:
Abdulghani Alanahawi, Bao Li, Brian Gonzales, Charlie Koolhaas, Christiana De Marchi, Daniela Friebel, Isaac Sullivan, Marcel Buehler, Mutasim Al Kubaisi, Jens Lystraeten, Shahad Mohamed AlBlooshi, Tor Seidel , Unaiza Ismail
Architectures of the In-Between
Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Alserkal Avenue
May 31 - August 23
Atefeh Majidi Nezhad, Revision The Wall Series, WALL 3, 2023
A group exhibition that brings together three artists whose foundational ties to architecture shape their distinctive visual languages.
With practices rooted in spatial logic, metaphysical inquiry, and embodied form, each artist navigates the threshold between structure and sentiment, material and memory, between what is seen and what is sensed.
Artists:
Atefeh Majidi Nezhad, Layla Juma, Nevine Hamza
Omar Al Gurg: Everyman’s Mountain
Lawrie Shabibi, Alserkal Avenue
May 31 - September 12
Omar Al Gurg, Everyman's Mountain: Forest – 001 , 2021
The photography series Everyman’s Mountain is a documentation of Kilimanjaro’s striking ecological diversity, captured by Al Gurg during a six-day journey in 2021.
His work offers a nuanced exploration of the mountain as a living, evolving ecosystem shaped by natural forces and human presence.
https://www.lawrieshabibi.com/exhibitions/190-omar-al-gurg-everyman-s-mountain/overview/
Surreal Lanka
RAW Coffee Company
May 31 - July 31
Onvision, Surreal Lanka
The debut solo photography exhibition by Onvision (Sai Han Seng On), it captures his journey across Sri Lanka. What began as a personal journey unfolded into a quiet reflection told through still images — exploring memory, movement, and the surreal beauty in everyday life, Surreal Lanka is a visual love letter to the island and its stories.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKPk3JlPoc4/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ10n4hP101
https://www.instagram.com/0nvision/
time heals, just not quick enough…
Efie Gallery, Alserkal Avenue
June 1 - July 30
Kelani Abass, Unfolding Layers 8, 2021
time heals, just not quick enough… brings together contemporary works in film and photography to explore the slow, fragmented, and often nonlinear processes of healing, memory, and transformation.
The moving image, fluid and unfolding, captures time in motion; the still photograph, by contrast, arrests it in a single frame. These distinct modes of seeing offer complementary perspectives: one continuous, the other punctuated. Together, they echo the rhythms of memory, grief, resilience, and hope.
Curated by Ose Ekore.
Artists: Samuel Fosso (b. 1962)
Aïda Muluneh (b. 1974)
Kelani Abass (b. 1979)
Abeer Sultan (b. 1999)
Sumaya Fallatah (b. 2000)
Summer Collective: Wavering Hope
Ayyam Gallery, Alserkal Avenue
June 18 - September 5
Othman Moussa, The Terror Group, 2013
Hope is a complex and often conflicting sentiment within the Syrian experience.
For over two decades of conflict, displacement, and resistance, Syrian artists have relied on their creative practices as a lifeline.
Through these practices, they have fought against erasure, preserved memory, and expressed truths too heavy for language alone. When homes and institutions were shattered, art persisted, an act of quiet defiance.
Since December 8, 2024, a new chapter began. Exiled Syrians felt the first stirrings of return. Yet even in this long-awaited moment, a deeper question surfaced: was this truly an end, or merely the next turn in a long cycle of hope and despair?
As Ayyam Gallery approaches its 20th anniversary, this moment of transformation for Syria coincides with a significant milestone for the gallery itself. Established in 2006, during a time of cultural vibrancy and promise, Ayyam Gallery has navigated the full arc of Syria’s recent history—from creative renaissance to collapse, and now to cautious renewal.
Wavering Hope reflects on that journey, presenting works by artists mapping the emotional, political, and cultural aftermath of conflict, and the fragile hope that emerges in its wake.
Artists: Abdalla Al Omari, Abdul-Karim Majdal Al-Beik, Elias Izoli, Kais Salman, Khaled Takreti, Mohannad Orabi, Nihad Al-Turk, Othman Moussa, Safwan Dahoul, Tammam Azzam, Thaier Helal, Yasmine Al Awa
https://www.ayyamgallery.com/exhibitions/273-summer-collective-wavering-hope/works/
Emirati Treasures Sealed by History: From Memory Archives to Treasures for Generations
Mohammad Bin Rashid Library
June 24 - 26
In collaboration with the Emirates Philatelic Association, the exhibition will display a rare collection of stamps marking pivotal moments in the UAE’s history.
A dedicated workshop and discussion session will provide insights into the art of collecting, documenting, and preserving national memory.
Mohammad Alfaraj: Seas are sweet, fish tears are salty
Jameel Arts Centre
June 26, 2025 - January 4, 2026
Mohammad Alfaraj, What does the water dream of? But to burst into flames, 2017
Drawing its title from Mohammad Alfaraj’s writings, the exhibition brings together installations, photography, video works and site-specific commissions that respond to the gardens and outdoor spaces of the Jameel Arts Centre.
Alfaraj, who lives and works in the oasis city of Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia, draws much of his source material from the area’s distinctive agricultural landscapes, oral traditions and everyday life, which he expands into universal stories and parables. Often with a touch of humour, his work frequently delves into multi-species narratives, ecological and infrastructural transformation and their impacts on communities of humans and non-humans alike.
Curated by Rotana Shaker.
https://jameelartscentre.org/whats-on/mohammad-alfaraj-seas-are-sweet-fish-tears-are-salty/
No Trespassing
Ishara Art Foundation, Alserkal Avenue
July 4 - August 30
Fatspatrol, The World Out There, 2025
No Trespassing channels the aesthetics of the streets into a white cube space. Through distinct practices, six UAE-based and South Asian artists explore their relationship with the street, engaging with it as both subject and medium.
The exhibition explores what it means to speak of art in, on and from the street. The participating artists have created their works through on-site interventions, a form of mark-making that mirrors the interaction of a city with its inhabitants. By “tagging” the walls and floors of a formal exhibition space, the artists claim it as their own – challenging the perception that institutionalised forms of artistic expression hold greater cultural value.
Curated by Priyanka Mehra.
Artists:
Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin), H11235 (Kiran Maharjan), Khaled Esguerra, Rami Farook, Salma Dib, Sara Alahbabi