Alserkal Art Week, Dubai’s premier art event, is a vibrant celebration of modern creativity and innovation. Known for showcasing some of the most influential and experimental artists from the region and beyond, this year’s edition will take place from 13 to 20 April under the theme A Wild Stitch. Visitors can look forward to a dynamic public programme featuring exhibitions, workshops, and public art installations, which brings together diverse voices that challenge dominant narratives and create space for multiplicity, hybridity, and alternative perspectives.
The list of notable exhibitions for visitors to explore includes:
Maydan: A Living Agora
This exhibition, presented by Leila Heller Gallery and Dastan Gallery, will run at A1 Space from 13 to 20 April. Curated by Behrang Samadzadegan, the show explores Maydan as a physical space and a conceptual framework. Through diverse artistic retrospectives, the exhibition examines Maydan’s historical role, its societal significance, and its relationship with our fast-changing world.
Resonant Turns by Hadieh Shafie
The Mine presents Resonant Turns by Hadieh Shafie, on view from 9 to 21 April. The artist reimagines material forms — transforming paper into sculptural objects — blurring the boundaries between vibration and stillness while expanding traditional mark-making practices.
Night Glow Group Exhibition
On display from 14 April to 31 May 2025, this exhibition showcases some of the most distinguished artists, including Landon Metz, Nick Brandt, Kenia Almaraz Murillo, Bernar Venet, Fabienne Verdier, Marc Quinn, and Tomás Saraceno. Night Glow brings these artists into a dialogue which highlights their artistic expressions while blending them into the gallery space. Viewers are invited to immerse themselves in this rich experience, exploring the artistic voices that define Waddington Custot.
The Promise by Bashir Makhoul
This solo exhibition by Bashir Makhoul, running at Zawyeh Gallery from 13 April to 30 June 2025, features works in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and tapestries. The artist explores themes of displacement, identity, and fragmentation, searching for a delicate balance between hope and loss, revival and destruction. In The Promise, he reflects on the theme of home — as a temple and a site of loss. Nostalgia and tension play a crucial role, inviting viewers to rethink displacement and impermanence.
Among the other exhibitions one will be able explore are also I PAINT YOUR GRACE, I PAINT YOUR PAIN, I PAINT YOUR LOVE by Reza Derakshani (12 March – 15 September), Upside Down by Morteza Khazaie (16 April – 15 September), and Bubble Land by Naeemeh Kazemi (16 April – 15 September). All three showcases are held by the Leila Heller Gallery.
Visitors will also be able to visit such exhibitions as Unraveling by Huda Lutfi (The Third Line, 15 April – 25 May), Reverie by Reynier Llanes (Firetti Contemporary, 13 April – 13 June), The Storyteller by Hassan Sharif (Gallery Isabelle, 14 April – 30 May), and Maryam Hoseini’s solo show (Green Art Gallery, 15 April – 24 May).
Alserkal Art Week will also feature a series of public discussions. The Majlis Talks, curated by Stephanie Bailey, will be held on 13 April and will host a special edition of Crit Club, a performance project conceived by Cem A (from Frieze Magazine). These talks invite participants into an engaging space where “unrealistic questions” that rarely surface in the UAE art scene can be explored.
Also, on 13 April, Adelita Husni Bey will present Mast, a lecture performance based on her recent research on water infrastructure, drawing from her work Like a Flood (2025), which is currently on view at Sharjah Biennale 16, supported by the Alserkal Arts Foundation. Her lecture explores archival materials from the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (ISIAO), tracing the movement and concealment of artefacts looted from Libya. She also examines her family history and how water infrastructure has influenced population settlements and colonisation processes.
You might also be interested in visiting Migrants to the North by Hady Boraey.
