It is the first week of the month, so the time has come for us to present to you our top 10 exhibitions taking place in April (and some beyond) which caught our eye. What seems to be more exciting for you: to admire some abstract art or learn more about the silk industry, textile design, and fashion in 17th-century Iran? Look through our list and choose your perfect option!
1. How to Disappear by Ana Mazzei
How to Disappear is a solo show by Brazilian artist Ana Mazzei which is being staged at Green Art Gallery. It concludes Mazzei’s project Love Scene Crime Scene, a series of three exhibitions focusing on the fictional disappearance of a ballerina. With its title referring to the detective novels by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza and Agatha Christie, the show at Green Art Gallery deepens the mystery of the ballerina by displaying a collection of bronze sculptures and oil paintings that leave the spectator with the desire to take on the role of an investigator. You will be able to look at Mazzei’s enigmatic art pieces until 20 April 2024.
2. Posters for Gaza at Zawyeh Gallery
While Sharjah Art Foundation is holding In the eyes of our present, we hear Palestine (a show narrating stories of the Palestinian people and celebrating the country’s identity and heritage), Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai is hosting Posters for Gaza. On view until 21 April 2024, this group exhibition showcases a collection of posters by 26 Arab and Palestinian artists. Through their artworks created specifically for the event, the participants shed light on the critical situation in the Gaza Strip and demand the recognition of Palestinian rights.
3. Letters of Faith: The Arabic Script in Indonesia
Taking place at the Qatar National Library until 25 April 2024, the Letters of Faith: The Arabic Script in Indonesia exhibition is part of the Qatar-Indonesia Year of Culture 2023. Featuring diverse artefacts from the Library’s collection and those of Indonesian and local cultural institutions, the show allows one to see beautiful Quranic manuscripts and explore how the Arabic script has been employed across various media.
4. Guest Relations at Jameel Arts Centre
Jameel Arts Centre presents Guest Relations, a group exhibition featuring 34 artists from the Global South, such as Park Sunyoung & Lee Somi, Asma Belhamar, Lamya Gargash, and Michael Rakowitz, to name a few. The show, which will end on 28 April 2024, explores the historical, political, social, and cultural transformations accompanying the processes of intense touristification. Looking at the transactional nature of modern hospitality, it puts hotels in the spotlight, making them a place of artistic investigation.
Photo: Daniella Baptista.
5. For Every Horizon That You Leave Behind by Owais Husain
1X1 Art Gallery is holding For Every Horizon That You Leave Behind, Indian artist Owais Husain’s first solo exhibition in the Emirates. Curated by Gayatri Sinha, it features his paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, and poetry produced over the past seven years. The artworks focus on and imbue the fragile expression that applies to our environment, wider social, cultural, and political surroundings, and the spaces we inhabit. The show will be available to visit until 30 April 2024.
6. Sign of the Times by Robert Janitz
Sevil Dolmacı Dubai is currently housing Sign of the Times, a solo exhibition by internationally famous German artist Robert Janitz. Presenting his latest body of work (although a selection of his older art pieces is also on view), it navigates the cultural merge of the East and West. Visitors can see the artist’s abstract paintings he created employing a unique blend of flour, oil, and wax to convey the feeling of motion. The show will be open to the public until 30 April 2024.
7. Introspection as Resistance by Mehdi Moutashar
Arab Museum of Modern Art invites everyone to visit Introspection as Resistance, French-Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar’s first solo exhibition in Qatar. Showcasing a collection of his diverse art pieces, it demonstrates how his practice connects contemporary art with the Arab-Muslim world’s heritage. The exhibition will be open to the public until 4 May 2024.
8. Sheher, Prakriti, Devi at Ishara Art Foundation
Ishara Art Foundation is hosting the Sheher, Prakriti, Devi group show that examines the relationship between cities, the natural environment, and the sacred. It features collectives and artists who work across various contexts of urban, rural, domestic, communitarian, public, and non-material spaces. Curated by Delhi-based artist and photographer Gauri Gill, the exhibit will end on 1 June 2024.
9. Fashioning an Empire: Textiles from Safavid Iran
To organise this impressive exhibition, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar has collaborated with the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC (USA). Featuring more than 100 works, the show delves into the development of the silk industry, textile design, and fashion in 17th-century Iran, emphasising the crucial role silk played during the Safavid period (1501–1736 CE). The last day of the exhibition will be 22 June 2024.
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, 2023-2024.
10. Laal Collection Volume || Fereydoun Ave Collection
This show spotlights 50 years of acclaimed Iranian artist Fereydoun Ave’s collection of modern and contemporary Iranian art (1959 – present). Currently on display at Total Arts, it is a complementary presentation to the initial chapter of the exhibition series conceived by the Carnegie Museum of Art for the 58th Carnegie International (later, it was on view at the Jameel Art Center). Running through September 2024, the show displays a full range of works (paintings, sculptures, photographs, etc.) by more than 70 artists and offers a gaze into the dynamic cultural history of 20th and 21st-century Iran and beyond.
You might also be interested in visiting Invitation to a Mystical Dreamland by Kenia Almaraz Murillo.
