“Five Painters,” a group exhibition currently on view at Taymour Grahne Projects in Dubai, showcases a new generation of female artists from the Gulf. The exhibition presents paintings by Roudhah Al Mazrouei from Al Ain, United Arab Emirates; Dalal Al-Obaidi from Kuwait; Hayfa Algwaiz from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Latifa Alajlan from Kuwait and Hawazin Alotaibi, a Saudi artist born in the United States. Together, their works offer distinct reflections on contemporary life in the Gulf.
“The history of painting in the Gulf begins, as so much of the region’s modern cultural life does, with an act of departure and return,” writes Sara bin Safwan, curator at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and founder and curator at Salasil, in one of the commissioned texts accompanying the exhibition. “The earliest works of the modern Gulf period are acts of witness, painters recording a world that was already changing faster than it could be held. The texture of a daily life that the discovery of oil would soon transform beyond recognition.”
The five painters featured in the exhibition capture the fluid tension of rapid change that has shaped the Gulf’s recent history.
Date: until July 11
Location: Taymour Grahne Projects, WH 31A, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
Find more information here.
- Ten Years of Art: Waddington Custot Dubai
Waddington Custot Dubai is marking its 10-year anniversary with an exhibition conceived as an homage to the artists who have shaped its program over the past decade. The exhibition presents a cross-generational dialogue between the modern masters who laid the gallery’s foundations and the contemporary voices who continue to expand its horizons.
Showcasing paintings, sculptures, ceramics and works on paper, the exhibition brings together artists from the region and beyond, including Etel Adnan, Ali Banisadr, Fernando Botero, Nick Brandt, Umberto Mariani, Georges Mathieu, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Marc Quinn, Arnaud Rivieren, Tomás Saraceno, Chu Teh-Chun, Sophia Vari, Bernar Venet and Fabienne Verdier.
Date: until July 18
Location: Waddington Custot, WH84, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
Find more information here.
- The UAE at the 79th Cannes Film Festival
The Dubai Films and Games Commission participated in this year’s Cannes Film Festival, held on May 12-23, as part of ongoing efforts to deepen engagement with the international film industry and strengthen the UAE’s position within the global production landscape.
Over the last few years, Dubai has increasingly become an operational hub for productions across the Middle East. Recent global productions filmed or serviced in Dubai include “Genie,” Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan” and “Make a Wish.”
Young Emirati filmmaker Sarah Alhashimi attended Cannes as part of Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation’s Young Filmmakers’ Circle, representing the UAE at the festival’s Short Film Corner with her film “Why Is My Grandfather’s Bed in Our Living Room?” The film explores memory, intergenerational connections and the impact of losing an ancestral home through the story of an Emirati family.
Find more information here.
4. Book of the week: ‘The Hollow Half’
This multigenerational memoir interlaces Palestinian American author Sarah Aziza’s recovery from a near-fatal eating disorder with her family’s history of displacement as Palestinian refugees. Aziza’s crisis brings both her ancestral and personal past into the present. She eloquently weaves languages, geographies and genres in this powerful book, which explores the intricacies, contradictions and contingencies that shape history and nation-states.
Muslims greet each others after a special morning prayer marking the start of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, at the Al Farooq Omar Bin Al Khattab Mosque in Dubai on May 27, 2026. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP via Getty Images)
- According to the UAE Media Council, cinema spending in the UAE reached $218 million in 2024, accounting for 30% of the Middle East’s total box office market.
- The UAE was the Middle East’s largest cinema market before the COVID-19 pandemic, generating $262 million in box-office revenue in 2019. Revenue subsequently fell to $140 million in 2021, according to Omdia.