Etihad Museum and Barjeel Art Foundation have organised one of Dubai’s key exhibitions of the season: the retrospective Observers of Change: Art from the UAE (1971–2025), which traces the development of the UAE’s art scene over the past five decades. On view at the Etihad Museum until 30 June 2026, the show is a visual chronicle of how artists from the region have responded to the country’s rapid transformations, from the establishment of the federation to Dubai’s rise as a global metropolis.
The exhibition features around 60–70 works from the Barjeel Art Foundation collection, created by artists who have lived and worked in the UAE since 1971. The show spans painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and mixed media, highlighting parallel shifts in artistic language and in understandings of national identity, memory, and space. Among the works are landscapes and city views, abstract compositions, calligraphic experiments, and visual responses to urbanisation processes and the transformation of the landscape.
Curator Rémi Homs structures the exhibition as a layered narrative charting changing perspectives, from contemplations of desert and coastal landscapes to depictions of dense urban fabric and interior psychological states. In his curatorial commentary, he stresses that Observers of Change follows evolving ideas of identity, memory and place through artistic practices that “capture moments of transition and redefinition.”
The dialogue between generations and geographies plays a key role. Emirati artists are shown alongside practitioners from Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Bahrain, whose works are woven into the story of the local scene and underline shared cultural narratives across the region.
The line-up includes Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Najat Makki, Afra Al Dhaheri, Reem Al Ghaith, and other pivotal figures of Emirati art, as well as artists from the broader Arab context. The organisers emphasise a “gender-balanced” approach, ensuring that women’s practices and their contribution to the development of the scene are placed at the forefront alongside works by widely recognised masters. The exhibition also presents works that have not been on public display, which turns the project into a rare opportunity to access “hidden” layers of the Barjeel collection.
Hala Badri, Director General of Dubai Culture, notes that the exhibition’s concept is significant in that it “highlights the social, economic and urban transformations the UAE has undergone over the past five decades, capturing changing perceptions of national identity and collective memory, and giving audiences the chance to discover works being shown to the public for the first time.” According to her, Observers of Change also creates a platform for supporting new talent and contributes to the growth of Dubai’s cultural and creative industries.
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, underlines that the exhibition marks an important step in documenting the development of art in the UAE and demonstrates how artists “map” the country’s transformations through the language of art.
The project is the result of a partnership between Dubai Culture and Barjeel Art Foundation and is accompanied by a memorandum of understanding that includes knowledge exchange in museology, joint educational and research initiatives, and collection-sharing. For Dubai’s cultural policy, the exhibition is positioned as a key step in consolidating the city’s status as a global cultural centre and “incubator of creativity”. For visitors, it offers a rare chance to see, in a single venue, works from one of the most significant collections of modern and contemporary Arab art.
To learn more about Observers of Change, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
You might also be interested in viewing Picasso, The Figure at Louvre Abu Dhabi and Fellow Travellers at Tabari Artspace.
