From overlooked modernist pioneers to Palestinian art, Dubai’s creative district invites visitors to look closer.
- Talks, film screenings and children’s gallery tours round out the programme.
- A major exhibition celebrates women who shaped modern Arab art.
- Seventeen gallery exhibitions bring fresh perspectives to Alserkal Avenue.
- Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour’s work spans five decades of creativity.
Some artworks hold their stories quietly, waiting for someone to stop long enough to notice them. In Dubai’s Al Quoz district, Alserkal Art Week is making space for those stories through a programme centred on women modernists from the Arab world, alongside gallery exhibitions, conversations and film. Running from 15 to 22 November 2026, the week invites visitors to look beyond familiar names and reconsider who shaped modern art in the region. There is history to rediscover.
Walking through a gallery can change how a familiar period of history feels, especially when the artists’ own perspectives take centre stage. At Concrete, a major exhibition presented with Barjeel Art Foundation brings together works by Fahrelnissa Zeid, Samia Halaby, Inji Aflatoun and Etel Adnan. Working across the 20th century, these artists responded to political change, urban development, decolonisation and shifting gender roles. Their work deserves a closer look.
The exhibition, curated by Suheyla Takesh and Rémi Homs, explores how women artists helped shape Arab modernism while experimenting with vernacular materials and new ways of making art. For visitors, it offers a chance to encounter these practices together rather than as isolated names in art history.
A painting can carry decades of memory without spelling everything out. At Warehouse 46, Promises and Scars brings together work by Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour spanning the 1970s to the 2020s, presented by George Al Ama and Fann À Porter. The exhibition offers another perspective on how art can hold personal and collective histories across generations. Some stories stay with you.
Conversations will move beyond the gallery walls, too. On 15 November, Egyptian artist and sculptor Moataz Nasr curates Sharing the Sensitive, this edition of Majlis Talks, in The Yard. The round-table format brings together Simon Njami, Julie Banatre and Jenny Banatre in conversation with Nasr, exploring art, resistance, memory and community through perspectives that challenge dominant Western readings of the art world.
Moving-image works will offer another reason to linger around the Avenue. The Chanel Culture Fund takes over The Yard screens from 9 to 29 November with Fracture: The Window, an edition of its public digital art initiative exploring identity, memory and experience through contemporary visual formats. It adds a cinematic dimension to a district where galleries, independent film and creative spaces sit within walking distance of one another.
An art outing can easily stretch beyond a single exhibition. With 17 new gallery shows, guest projects and a closing weekend featuring Cinema Akil screenings, slow art walks and gallery tours for children on 21 and 22 November, Alserkal Art Week gives visitors reasons to spend an afternoon exploring. There is room to pause.
For Dubai residents planning a cultural weekend, the programme offers more than a quick gallery visit. Explore the exhibitions, join a talk or bring younger visitors along for the children’s tours. Check the detailed schedule and booking information through Alserkal’s official channels before heading to Al Quoz.
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