Middle East - Exhibitions
April
Resonant Turns: Hadieh Shafie
09 - 21 April 2025
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Warehouse 46, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
(Part of Alserkal Art Week: A Wild Stitch)
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The Mine presents Resonant Turns, a solo exhibition by Iranian artist Hadieh Shafie, exploring the materiality of language, repetition, and movement.
Expanding beyond traditional mark-making, Shafie transforms paper into sculptural forms that shift between stillness and vibration, containment and release. At the heart of Shafie’s work lies a deep commitment to rhythm and process. Her practice relies on the layering of handwritten and printed Farsi text, disrupted by precise cuts and rotations to create optical compositions that transcend linguistic barriers. Her sculptural scrolls and cascading book forms reimagine storytelling as fluid and cyclical, revealing fragments of poetry and memory.
Oscillating between order and disruption, Resonant Turns invites viewers into a sensory dialogue where language, space, and motion converge in a singular, immersive experience.
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Reverie: Reynier Llanes
13 April - 13 June 2025
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Firetti Contemporary, Warehouse 29, Alserkal Avenue
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"Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul.” –Gaston Bachelard
This exhibition is inspired by Bachelard’s philosophy of reverie—a state where imagination and memory merge to reveal hidden truths about the self and the world. Rather than an escape, reverie offers a space for contemplation beyond time—an immersion into the subconscious where reality dissolves into poetic reflection.
Reynier Llanes embodies this vision, creating works that serve as gateways to introspection, where emotions surface freely and compositions unfold as both deeply personal and universally resonant. Reverie is not about escaping life’s struggles but about reinterpreting them, offering a space where emotions, memories, and aspirations intertwine.
At the heart of Reverie is The Poet, an ethereal figure drifting between memory and imagination, past and present. This enigmatic presence observes fleeting yet profound moments—self-discovery, love, loss, and resilience—becoming a vessel for the viewer’s own reflections. Within this quiet space, thoughts untangle, and time momentarily softens. The Poet is both wanderer and witness, a keeper of memory who embodies the ever-shifting human condition.
This exhibition introduces the latest works from The Poet series, where Llanes bridges ancestral echoes with contemporary realities. His paintings serve as portals into dreamscapes imbued with folklore, nostalgia, and a profound sense of humanity. -
The Fridge Presents - Sunset Reggae with Jam Rebel in Dubai
13 April 2025
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The Fridge, Warehouse 5, Alserkal Avenue
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The Fridge presents Jam Rebels, a dynamic five-piece lineup united by their passion for authentic Caribbean and Afro-Reggae music—delivering rich bass lines, steady rhythms, and soulful vocals that capture reggae's spirit and energy.
This collective of seasoned musicians fills a critical gap in the regional music scene, where genuine reggae performances remain rare. Jam Rebel’s repertoire spans reggae history—from Bob Marley and Gregory Isaacs’ classics to Afro-Reggae anthems by Alpha Blonde and Lucky Dube, plus pop-reggae standards from UB40.
The band also performs original tracks that showcase its musical versatility and creative vision. Responding to the growing community of reggae fans in the UAE, this collaboration launches a regular series at The Fridge dedicated to elevating the genre regionally.
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The Promise: Bashir Makhoul
13 April - 30 June 2025
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Zawyeh Gallery, Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue
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An exhibition by Bashir Makhoul, featuring his works in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and tapestries. His art explores identity, fragmentation, dispossession, and longing. Through layered symbols such as home, petals, and patterns, he examines the fragile balance between loss and hope, chaos and order, destruction and rebirth.
In The Promise, artist Bashir Makhoul reflects on home as both a sanctuary and a site of loss. Born in Galilee and now based in Canada, Makhoul explores his relationship with his homeland in this exhibition, examining its emotional and psychological complexities. His work captures the tension between nostalgia and rupture, presence and displacement, permanence, and impermanence. While Makhoul excels in oil on canvas, this exhibition presents various mediums, including handwoven wool and silk tapestries, electroplating sculptures, and mixed media works.
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A Memorial in Fragments - Majd Arandas
13 April - 13 August 2025
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Gulf Photo Plus, Warehouse 36, Alserkal Avenue
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This exhibition 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 by Majd Arandas, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike near his home in the Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. By presenting images retrieved by his brother after his tragic death, this exhibition invites viewers to interrogate the politics of image-making, and the shifting role of photography as tools of evidence
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میــدان / Maydan: A Living Agora
13 April - 13 August 2025
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A1 Space, Alserkal Avenue
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Leila Heller Gallery and Dastan Gallery present Maydan: A Living Agora, a collaborative exhibition exploring the Maydan as both a physical space and a symbolic framework.
Deeply rooted in Middle Eastern, South East Asian, and global cultures, the Maydan—like the Greek Agora—has long served as a site for gathering, exchange, and negotiation.
Beyond its historical role, the exhibition examines the evolving intersections of space, society, and collective identity through diverse artistic perspectives, reflecting on the fluid dynamics of cultural expression in an ever-changing world.
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