June 2023: Top 10 Exhibitions in Dubai
01.06.2023
Reading 4 min

Among the ways to beat the summer heat in Dubai is to hide in one of the city’s multiple art spaces and galleries. You will be able to enjoy both the blissful coolness and some fascinating art at the same time. Here is our list of top 10 exhibitions in June for you to go to.

1. Coded Gestures

Until 16 July 2023, NIKA Project Space is hosting Coded Gestures, a group show featuring such conceptual artists as Fatma Al Ali, Mona Ayyash, Khalid Jauffer from the Emirates; Alexander Ugay from Kazakhstan, and Minja Gu from South Korea. The exhibition explores common threads between post-Soviet countries and hyper-capitalist societies.

Coded Gestures (installation view), 2023. NIKA Project Space, Dubai.

2. The Voyage Within

Another group show worth visiting is The Voyage Within, which is being held at Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery Dubai until 8 July 2023. You have an opportunity to look at the artworks by the following photographers: Virginie Ellis, Osama Elolemy, Omar A. Hussein, and Amit Kar.

Amit Kar, Unperturbed , 2017. 120 x 80 cm.

3. Decoding by Salem Alshamsi

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery also invites you to attend artist Salem Alshamsi’s solo exhibition titled Decoding; it will end on 24 June 2023. Through his artworks (paintings and sculptures) featuring repetitive patterns, geometric elements, and Arabic calligraphy, Salem illustrates first-hand emotion as a therapeutic medium to express crucial events in his life in order to experience them differently.

Salem Alshamsi, Decoding (installation view). Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery Dubai, 2023.

4. A country without a door or windows

The Third Line presents Franco-Syrian artist Bady Dalloul’s solo exhibition titled A country without a door or windows. It showcases the collection of his miniature colourful drawings (200 in total) displayed inside pocket matchboxes which depict the stories of the civil war in Syria. In these artworks, the artist invokes a deeply personal connection to the conflict. The show will run through 21 July 2023.

5. Stop counting the waves following me, you seabirds!

While at The Third Line, you can also visit the solo show of Iranian artist Shabahang Tayyari which explores the themes of uniformity, replication, flatness, originality, fiction, and exclusivity. His paintings depicting waves are arranged in particular order and thus remind one of the 3D maquettes employed by performers to imitate the motion of the ocean. The exhibition will be on view until 21 July 2023.

6. An Odyssey of Identity

Until 5 July 2023, six African artists (Boris Anje, Collin Sekajugo, Kansiime Brian Lister, Christine Nyatho, Florence Nanteza, and Carson Buka) are having their works exhibited at Firetti Contemporary. In their art pieces, they reflect unique perspectives on the concept of identity and critically explore the nuanced and multidisciplinary nature of their African heritage.

7. Polite Existence by Tsuyoshi Hisakado

Jameel Arts Centre offers you a chance to admire the artworks of Japanese artist Tsuyoshi Hisakado. His solo exhibition Polite Existence will end on 24 September 2023. Drawing his inspiration from the laws of physics and mathematics, in his work, Hisakado questions the order of space, time, and other natural forces shaping our everyday lives.

Tsuyoshi Hisakado, crossfades #4 / air, 2020. Silkscreen on paper (Set of 3). 30 1/10 × 22 in | 76.5 × 56 cm.

8. the only constant

the only constant, a group exhibition which features Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Patty Chang, Gil Heitor Cortesão, Sharon Lockhart, Taus Makhacheva, Haroon Mirza, Clifford Ross, Thomas Struth, and Vivek Vilasini, is dedicated to exploring the contrast between natural landscapes and the human imprint. It will run through 4 June 2023.

9. Daniel Buren: L’Horizon, Infiniment, travaux in situ et situés

Galleria Continua Dubai will present the solo exhibition by famous French artist Daniel Buren. In his art, he plays with points of view, space, architecture, colours, light, movement and the surrounding environment, or projections. The show will be open to the public until 3 June 2023.

Daniel Buren, Tondo n° 17, 2015. Coloured plexiglass, coloured altuglas in orange (15000), smoked yellow (16049), clear green (14004), clear blue (13010), red (12000) and green (14000), self-adhesive strips, steel 215 cm (diameter) / 84 5/8 in (diameter).

10. Do Arabs Dream of Electric Sheep?

ICD Brookfield Place Arts is hosting the group exhibition Do Arabs Dream of Electric Sheep? featuring Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Haitham Haddad, Meriem Bennani, Tracy Chahwan, and Walid Bouchouchi. In their artworks, they reimagine common views of what an Arab future could look like. The exhibition will end on 6 June 2023.