Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: A painted Lamborghini and art with raw meat

The National

17-07-2025

A painted Lamborghini, sausages crafted from ceramics and wooden panels painted in gold – this week's round-up of exhibitions challenge conventional aesthetics with their use of unlikely materials and forms.
Lebanese artist Ihab Ahmad paints with his non-dominant hand, letting go of painterly control in favour of spontaneity. The artists presenting at Rarares Art Gallery use gold leaf, ceramics and fabrics to explore transformation and femininity. Indian artist Richi Bhatia, meanwhile, uses fish scales and raw meat to explore food systems.
Here are three exhibitions to see this week.
I put my brain on pause! at Firetti Contemporary
Every artist reaches a point when they question their process, their practice and even themselves. Lebanese artist Ihab Ahmad rose to the challenge by disrupting his entire approach.
I Put My Brain on Pause! is the result of this experiment. Firetti Contemporary describes the exhibition as 'a deeply personal body of work that embraces instinct, vulnerability and emotional surrender'. Works that use oil on linen and spray paint show smiling faces (a first in Ahmad's work) as reflections of personal connections and memories.
But the centrepiece of the exhibition, a work created in collaboration with Lamborghini Dubai, is a Huracan Spyder decked with whimsical patterns and figures, similar to those on the surrounding canvases.
Monday to Sunday, 11am-7pm; until August 20; Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
Elysian Awakening of Powerful Spring at Rarares Art Gallery
This group exhibition is exclusively dedicated to women artists, spanning generations, geographies and practices. Established names such as Emirati artist Fatma Lootah and Rome-born artist Barbara Duran explore identity and transformation through abstract forms, light and textured surfaces. Duran's Sortilegio series, for instance, presents wooden panels layered with gold and silver pigments to evoke light.
Emerging artists such as Emirati Sara Alkhayyal and Egyptian Zeina Abdullah revisit regional heritage through interesting use of materials and visual language.
The exhibition, at its core, is a celebration of the contributions of women in contemporary art, exploring emotional depth and imaginative vision.
Monday to Sunday, 10am-10pm; until August 31; Dubai International Financial Centre
Antevasin: The one who sits at the border of two worlds at Gallery Isabelle
Embodied research is central to artist Richi Bhatia's practice. Living with a skin condition, for instance, prompted an exploration of fish scales as an artistic material. Ultimately, it also led her to question our food systems and consumption habits.
In The Animals, The Bodies, and Coefficient of Time, she constructs temporary-scale shelters from fish scales and stainless steel structures. In Prone to Change… she constructs a bundle of stringed sausages from ceramics. In Table - Bed II, she puts together animal hide, hair, bottled water residue, pearl head pins, ashwagandha and meat-referencing ceramics. The works may evoke discomfort – and that is partly the point.
As the gallery describes: 'Food is both a sustainer of life and a site of suffering.'