- Alserkal Avenue officially launches Dubai’s 2026–27 art season with 19 new exhibitions.
- Shows span 16 contemporary galleries and spaces across Al Quoz throughout September.
- Presentations feature leading Emirati and regional talents including Azza Al Qubaisi, Karima Al Shomely, and Rana Begum.
- International showcases include French conceptual master Bernar Venet at Waddington Custot and Kenya’s Maggie Otieno at Efie Gallery.
Dubai’s vibrant cultural hub, Alserkal Avenue, is marking the official launch of the 2026–27 contemporary art season with a massive slate of 19 new solo and group exhibitions. Opening across 16 premier galleries in Al Quoz, the autumn program unites celebrated Emirati artists, regional pioneers, and international voices exploring themes of ecological archives, public power structures, memory, and tactile material abstraction.
Here is your comprehensive, date-by-date guide to every exhibition opening at Alserkal Avenue this September.
Already Open (From 11 September)
- Ishara Art Foundation
- Exhibition: The sky held it, the earth remembered | Rohini Devasher, Sarker Protick, and Shahana Rajani
- Dates: 11 September – 15 December 2026
- Focus: A layered group presentation examining land, water bodies, and celestial spheres as dynamic living archives of personal memory, historical trauma, and ecological shift.
Opening Saturday, 19 September
- Zawyeh Gallery
- Exhibition: The Field of Dreams | Bashar Khalaf
- Dates: 19 September – 8 November 2026
- Focus: Two brand-new bodies of work investigating the physical presence of steel within public spaces as an architectural symbol of defense, political control, and authority.
Opening Monday, 21 September
- Firetti Contemporary
- Exhibition: The Living Archive | Ahmad Tallaa
- Dates: 21 September – 11 November 2026
- Focus: An expansive, expressive showcase that approaches the human portrait and facial topography as an accumulated archive of identity, survival, and lived experience.
Opening Wednesday, 23 September (Major Gallery Night)
- 1×1 Art Gallery
- Exhibition: Locacola (2000–ongoing) | Sharmila Samant
- Dates: 23 September – 24 October 2026
- Focus: A long-term conceptual project addressing the ongoing friction between hyper-globalized consumer culture and indigenous local identity.
- Aisha Alabbar Gallery
- Exhibition: What We Carry Becomes the Terrain | Bénédicte Gimonnet
- Dates: 23 September – 7 November 2026
- Focus: Interdisciplinary works across paint, drawing, and textile that contemplate topography, cross-generational cultural inheritance, and geography.
- Ayyam Gallery
- Exhibition: Allusive Veil | Hisham Sharif
- Dates: 23 September – 30 October 2026
- Focus: Atmospheric, autobiographical canvases investigating domestic vulnerability, ritual, heritage, and the boundary of private life.
- Carbon 12
- Exhibition: May the Tree No Longer Burn When I Wake | Amir Khojasteh
- Dates: 23 September – 5 November 2026
- Focus: A series exploring themes of displacement, distance, destruction, and spiritual rebirth using ash imagery and the classical motifs of the Persian garden.
- Efie Gallery
- Exhibition: Sojourner: The Difference is the Same | Maggie Otieno
- Dates: 23 September – 13 November 2026
- Focus: The Kenyan artist’s first solo show, spotlighting striking sculptural forms constructed from reclaimed wooden railway sleepers and collected industrial artifacts.
- Gallery Isabelle
- Exhibition: I Bloom Where You Hold Me | Tirdad Hashemi
- Dates: 23 September – 4 November 2026
- Focus: Vibrant figurative works reflecting on tender affection, queer intimacy, mutual care, and community resilience during turbulent times.
- Green Art Gallery
- Exhibition: Private World | Lulua Alyahya, Rami Farook, Sohrab Hura, and Khaled Jarada
- Dates: 23 September – 24 October 2026
- Focus: An intimate four-artist survey diving into voluntary isolation, internal contemplation, and the interior architecture of the self.
- Grey Noise
- Exhibition: The importance of staying quiet: 6. Open Forms | Iqra Tanveer and Faheem Abbas
- Dates: 23 September – 30 December 2026
- Focus: A contemplative dual presentation anchored in stillness, formal reduction, spatial awareness, and non-representational abstraction.
- Lawrie Shabibi
- Exhibition: The Butterfly’s Burden | Nada Elkalaawy
- Dates: Opens 23 September 2026
- Focus: Delicately layered figurative and still-life paintings tracing personal grief, familial memory, and time’s reconstructive nature.
- Leila Heller Gallery (Triple Showcase)
- Exhibitions:
- Between Land and Sea | Azza Al Qubaisi: Multidisciplinary works celebrating Emirati identity, desert wilderness, and indigenous flora.
- In Search of Material within Material | Manish Nai: Minimalist structures, textured compressions, and rhythmic geometric studies.
- Between a Fold and a Memory | Karima Al Shomely: Conceptual explorations of Emirati heritage, the traditional niqab/burqa, and historical memory.
- Dates: 23 September – 10 November 2026
- Exhibitions:
- Taymour Grahne Projects (Dual Showcase)
- Exhibitions:
- The Canticle of the Birds | Katia Kameli: A solo presentation by the acclaimed Paris-based French-Algerian visual artist and filmmaker exploring migratory narratives and Sufi fables.
- Frogs, Jazz & Blisters | Dalal Al-Obaidi: A vibrant, whimsical solo painting presentation by the emerging Kuwaiti artist.
- Dates: 23 September – 11 November 2026
- Exhibitions:
- The Third Line
- Exhibition: Taking Form | Rana Begum
- Dates: 23 September – 10 November 2026
- Focus: An ambitious showcase across sculptural wood, woven textiles, and embossed paper exploring how ambient light, geometric precision, and color gradients interact.
Opening Saturday, 26 September
- Waddington Custot
- Exhibition: Sculptures, Furniture and Works on Paper | Bernar Venet
- Dates: 26 September – 31 October 2026
- Focus: A landmark solo survey bringing together monumental rolled corten-steel arcs, functional artist furniture, and conceptual works on paper by the French master.
Visitor Information
- Location: Alserkal Avenue, 17th Street, Al Quoz 1, Dubai
- Opening Hours: Most galleries open Saturday to Thursday, 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM (Admission is free to all spaces)
- Website: alserkal.online
