Ahaad Alamoudi’s ‘Sunkissed’ opens in Sharjah

Welcome back to Al-Monitor Dubai.

Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi’s whimsical multidisciplinary works are the subject of a major solo exhibition opening this week at the Sharjah Art Foundation. The show explores the Gulf’s rapid development and its impact on culture and society. Also at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Chilean artist Jorege Tacla presents paintings that capture the aftermath of tragedy and destruction. Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, a new government-backed support scheme aims to lure more collectors to the capital.

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Rebecca

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1. Leading the week: ‘Sunkissed’ by Ahaad Alamoudi

Ahaad Alamoudi, “Those Who Don’t Know Falcons Grill Them” (still), 2018. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi explores the speculative possibilities of rapidly changing landscapes in her latest solo institutional exhibition, which opens next week at the Sharjah Art Foundation. Titled “Sunkissed” and curated by Amal Al Ali, the foundation’s curatorial assistant, the exhibition features mixed-media works that draw on motifs of the sun, sand and urban development. Together, they examine how collective identity and visual expression intersect amid the Gulf’s rapidly transforming landscape. The show presents recent and newly commissioned works by the Jeddah-based artist, exploring how individuals connect imagined futures with honored pasts through both continuous and fragmented narratives.

Alamoudi’s vivid snapshots of contemporary Khaleeji aesthetics are filled with humor and local pop culture, including talking falcons, viral memes, automated toy cars and insect light traps that function as tools to process the accelerating change in Saudi Arabia and beyond. In unison the works trace how a desire for development becomes reflected and absorbed in society, in everyday life and in the collective consciousness.

"The whole show is about a cycle, a return," Alamoudi told Al-Monitor. "I am really thinking about this idea of a looping regarding construction and destruction, becoming and unbecoming, while also trying to highlight wider cycles that are occurring, because the change we're witnessing now has also happened before during the 70s. I am questioning what this era of shifts, this moment of dreaming, means."

The works on show, always with Alamoudi’s injection of clever humor, capture the tension between the region’s developmental goals and their real-world manifestations, providing a whimsical account of the often contradictory processes shaping Khaleeji cultural life.

Date: until May 3

Location: Gallery 6, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah

Find more information here.

2. Word on the street: Sirene by GAIA

Interior view of Sirene by GAIA. (Photo courtesy of Sirene by GAIA)

An Aegean-inspired restaurant, launched by Chef Izu Ani — one of Dubai’s most popular chefs — offers a contemporary Mediterranean twist on Greek cuisine. Nestled in the La Mer development in Jumeirah, the restaurant combines an inviting outdoor pool with an upscale rustic interior and exterior design, creating a taste of Greece in the Gulf metropolis.

Start your meal with seafood dishes, such as sea bream carpaccio with truffle and mandarin dressing, or baked goat’s cheese in a filo pastry drizzled with honey, thyme and a selection of nuts. For mains, don’t miss the popular truffle pasta or the classic lobster linguine.

Location: J1 Beach, La Mer, Dubai

Find more information here.

3. Dubai diary

Jorge Tacla, “Identidad Oculta” (Hidden Identities) 163, 2022. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York)

• Jorge Tacla: ‘Time the destroyer is time the preserver’

Titled after a line from a T.S. Eliot poem, “Time the destroyer is time the preserver” explores how enduring truths can be excavated in the aftermath of tragedy and destruction. Divided into eight chapters and curated by Her Highness Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, with Abdulla Aljanahi, the foundation’s curatorial assistant, this largest solo presentation to date by Chilean Jorge Tacla confronts the hierarchies of human suffering, the blurred lines between victim and actor, and the violence that connects seemingly unrelated incidents.

Amid contemporary visual culture dominated by machine vision, Tacla’s poignant paintings reassert the urgency of human memory in navigating the complexities of representation and interpretation.

Date: until June 7

Location: Sharjah Art Foundation, Galleries 1, 2 and 3, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah

Find more information here.

• ‘Melted into the Sun’ by Saodat Ismailova

Watch Uzbek filmmaker and artist Saodat Ismailova’s film “Melted into the Sun,” presented as part of the yearlong film program “How to Reappear,” curated by Indranjan Banerjee. The film follows the elusive eighth-century leader al-Muqanna, known as “The Veiled One,” who led a movement of white-clad followers in Central Asia and drew inspiration from the sun, regarded as a purifying force just beyond the human realm.

Born into a Zoroastrian tradition, al-Muqanna worked as a dyer before emerging as a spiritual and political agitator, preaching ideas influenced by Zoroastrianism, Mazdakism and Buddhism. While he awakened collective consciousness, his legacy remains deeply contested, leaving many questions unanswered. As portrayed in the film, his image traverses belief systems and political narratives, entwined with structures of power, with his demise prompting reflection on humanity’s capacity to build a just society.

Date: until March 9

Location: Jameel Arts Center, Gallery 9, Dubai

Find more information here.

• Abu Dhabi lures art collectors with new support scheme

To cement its status as global hub for culture, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism announced this week a new regulatory framework for the long-term placement of museum-quality art: the Art Customs Duty Waiver Program. The initiative is designed to position the emirate as a premier, secure destination for the long-term care and display of world-class art. Under the program, eligible artworks valued at AED 10 million ($2.72 million) or more are exempt from import duties, provided they remain in the emirate for three years.

The program also mandates rigorous transparency standards, including verified ownership and international legal compliance, ensuring a credible environment for private institutions and family offices.