In collaboration with Sotheby’s Middle East, Aisha Alabbar Gallery has organised Whispers of the Past, an exhibition featuring works by five acclaimed artists: Khalid Al Banna, Dr Najat Makki, Sara Al Haddad, Samar Hejazi, and Sara Aref Ahli. On display at Sotheby’s Dubai until 14 November 2025, the showcase reflects on memory, identity, and cultural heritage as living forces that shape the present. Through diverse media, it offers a compelling meditation on how both personal and collective histories are carried forward through materials, gestures, and forms.
Employing the negative space as a central element in his practice, Emirati artist Khalid Al Banna (b. 1975, Sharjah) creates striking black-and-white abstract paper works with ink and collage; he also produces sculptures and vivid textile pieces. His art connects to his Emirati roots, engaging with the history of his homeland and its rapid transformation.
Dr Najat Makki (b. 1956, Dubai), a pioneering figure in Emirati art and the first Emirati woman to earn a PhD in art, is famous for her mastery of colour and her exploration of its emotional resonance. Her abstract landscapes draw inspiration from the natural environment of the UAE. For this exhibition, she presents new mixed media artworks that merge fluorescent tones and fluid compositions, transforming Gulf landscapes into luminous reflections of time, place, and emotion.
Sara Al Haddad (b. 1988, Dubai) works with yarn, fibre, and techniques such as crocheting and stitching to create tactile art pieces that can be suspended, wrapped, piled, or stretched across a space. Her reflective practice treats art as a way of exploring life’s shifting situations and the emotions that arise from them.
Palestinian-Canadian artist Samar Hejazi (b. 1987, California, USA) draws on Arab and Islamic heritage through intricate embroidery and thread-based installations. Reworking the traditional Palestinian tatreez, her ethereal spatial interventions serve as metaphors for impermanence, fragmentation, and continuity. Through these works, she reflects on the shifting nature of perception and reality.
Emirati and Colombian-American artist Sara Aref Ahli (b. 1993, Alabama, USA) investigates the intersections of memory, home, and the body. Her works emphasise the physicality and labour of making, exploring vulnerability, resilience, and thresholds of experience. In this exhibition, her glass and mixed-media pieces probe the fragility of memory and the embodied sense of belonging.
To get more information about Whispered Stories, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you may be interested in exploring The Imaginary Museum, a group exhibition at Rizq Art Initiative.
