10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Louvre Abu Dhabi's new loans and Mohammad Alfaraj's solo show
At Louvre Abu Dhabi, new loans and acquisitions have been woven into the museum's permanent galleries, adding fresh layers to its core universal narrative. At Ishara Art Foundation, a new exhibition brings a visual identity from the streets into a white cube space, while a show at Jameel Arts Centre delves into life in Saudi Arabia's oasis city Al Ahsa.
Here are three exhibitions to explore this weekend.
New loans and acquisitions at Louvre Abu Dhabi
Louvre Abu Dhabi has introduced a new rotation of loans and acquisitions across its permanent galleries. The additions range from Roman portraiture and South Asian courtly art to modernist works.
Highlights include a finely carved Roman cameo thought to depict Agrippa Postumus, mounted in an 18th-century British setting; a luminous ivory-and-gold casket from 16th-century Sri Lanka; and Juan Luna's enigmatic Una Bulaquena (1895), on loan from the National Museum of the Philippines.
Other artefacts build subtle conversations with existing displays: a limestone Head of an Ephebe from Cyprus joins other sculptures of the human face; a Gabonese reliquary figure enters a display of funerary objects; and Kandinsky 's White Oval (1921) marks a moment of artistic transition.
Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-6.30pm; Friday to Sunday, 10am-8.30pm; Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi
No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation
Curated by Priyanka Mehra, No Trespassing is Ishara Art Foundation's first summer exhibition.
The show brings street aesthetics into the gallery, with six artists engaging with urban materials as both subject and medium.
Works by Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin), H11235 (Kiran Maharjan), Khaled Esguerra, Rami Farook, Salma Dib and Sara Alahbabi turn building materials, pavements, signage and surfaces into acts of mark-making. Rather than define what the street is, the exhibition reflects how it's used, as a space that's chaotic, curated, lived-in and constantly rewritten.
Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; until August 30, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
Seas are sweet, fish tears are salty at Jameel Arts Centre
Art Jameel presents the first institutional solo exhibition of Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj. Rooted in his hometown of Al Ahsa, the works draw from agricultural landscapes, oral traditions and the details of everyday life.
The show spans photography, film, installation and poetry, unfolding across both the indoor galleries and garden spaces of Jameel Arts Centre. Hands, birds and palm trees recur throughout, forming a loose constellation of motifs. New commissions include a sound piece, a site-specific structure and a video work. The exhibition reflects Alfaraj's interest in storytelling, moving across human and non-human worlds.
