This autumn, galleries and museums across the UAE and beyond offer thought-provoking showcases that engage both local heritage and global conversations. Here is the list of the top 10 exhibitions for you, our dear art enthusiasts, to check out in October 2025.
1. The Machine Curates by Iyad Rahwan
At Foundry Downtown Dubai until 20 October 2025, scientist and artist Iyad Rahwan is presenting The Machine Curates, a solo exhibition that probes how AI reshapes our understanding of history. Through a series of oil portraits, Rahwan examines not only how machines depict us, but also how they choose to represent themselves.
2. NIKA Project Space: Rooted Echoes
Until 1 November 2025, NIKA Project Space is hosting Rooted Echoes, an exhibition that displays works by three female artists: Ahed Al Kathiri, Yasmine Al Awa, and Zahra Jewanjee. Emerging from their participation in NIKA’s summer open studio residency, the show reflects on memory, identity, and belonging.
3. Bridging Generations
This exhibition at the Sharjah Calligraphy Museum features six distinguished Emirati calligraphers. It highlights a wide range of styles from classical Arabic to experimental pieces that merge script with painting. Running through 22 October 2025, the show celebrates tradition and innovation within the art of calligraphy.
4. The importance of staying quiet: Lala Rukh I
Meanwhile, Grey Noise launched the first chapter of its year-long series, The importance of staying quiet, focused on practices of minimalism and abstraction. The opening exhibition showcases photo works by renowned Pakistani artist Lala Rukh, created during her years at the University of Chicago (1974–76). These pieces reveal a cinematic sensibility that foreshadows her later minimalist language. The exhibition will remain open until 5 November 2025.
5. The Only Way Out Is Through: The Twentieth Line
To mark its 20th anniversary, The Third Line presents The Only Way Out Is Through: The Twentieth Line. The multifaceted project includes conversations, 48-hour “Flash Sales Specials,” and an exhibition featuring every artist currently represented by the gallery. On view until 7 November 2025, the show spotlights early and recent works from the gallery’s archive.
6. A Seat at the Table: Food & Feasting in the Islamic World
This exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) traces culinary traditions from the rise of Islam to the present and displays more than 100 objects. It examines the cultural, historical, and social significance of food, exploring dining etiquette, the role of trade, and the rituals of feasting in courtly life. The show also considers contemporary challenges facing food culture today. One will be able to attend the exhibition until 8 November 2025.
7. Motherhood: An Art and Photography Exhibition
At Kutubna Cultural Center, Motherhood gathers artworks by 17 artists and photographs by 12 photographers from around the world. Each participant shares with viewers his/her deeply personal perspective on the theme. Running through 16 November 2025, the exhibition as a whole pays tribute to cultural traditions and rituals of motherhood in the Gulf and beyond.
8. Arranging Flowers by Gail Spaien
Opening Taymour Grahne’s new project space in Dubai, Arranging Flowers presents works by Maine-based artist Gail Spaien. It intertwines art and botany, with Spaien’s paintings blending interior and exterior spaces into dreamlike settings that leave viewers questioning the boundaries of nature and imagination. The exhibition will be open to the public until 20 November 2025.
9. Rizq Art Initiative: The Imaginary Museum
This group show at Rizq Art Initiative (RAi), on display until 30 November 2025, is inspired by André Malraux’s notion of a “museum without walls.” Featuring 27 creatives from the Emirates and abroad, the exhibition explores how artworks transcend their physical forms to live on in memory and interpretation. Rather than treating art as static, the show presents it as fragments of evolving narratives that intertwine personal and collective histories.
10. The Gulf Through Time: Dariush Zandi’s Photographic Journey
At Total Arts, The Gulf Through Time showcases four decades of photography by acclaimed photographer Dariush Zandi. On view until December 2025, the exhibition traces the transformation of the UAE and Oman through images of landscapes, architecture, and daily life. Drawn from Zandi’s extensive archive, the works capture a region in transition while preserving its cultural memory.
You might also be interested in visiting New Western Views (Preview) by Marwan Bassiouni.
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