“The real challenge in our High Jewellery business lies in the technical transcription of the original aesthetic intention,” says Alexa Abitbol, Director of Cartier’s High Jewellery Workshops. “Everything hinges on the precision and mastery of our artisans, who give life to exceptional pieces that are charged with emotion.”

Abitbol’s words provide a fitting entry point into En Équilibre, Cartier’s latest High Jewellery collection, which was unveiled in Keturah Park in Dubai’s Meydan district in February 2026. The exhibition showcased a series of creations exploring one of the Maison’s most enduring creative principles: balance.

In 2026, Art Dubai turns twenty. The anniversary edition, presented under the theme ‘Future, Past, Present’, is a milestone fair that both reflects on the past and looks forward to the rapidly evolving future. It arrives at a pivotal moment for the Gulf’s art landscape, as major international fairs enter the region and institutions across the Middle East consolidate their presence. What was once described as an emerging scene is now firmly embedded within the global art circuit.

A Dubai exhibition celebrates one of the most influential figures in modern and contemporary art.

With undulations that resemble topographic features more than facial contours, paintings by Marwan Kassab-Bachi—commonly known as Marwan—were described by his friend, the Syrian poet Adonis, as “face landscapes” because of their ability to capture intense psychological states and inner emotions.

“I’m a superstitious woman, so I don’t like to even say the words ‘writer’s block’,” she laughs. “Instead, I call it a creative dry spell that went on for too long. I had years in which I could not write fiction, and I was very unhappy.”

It was in 2023, at the Xposure International Photography Festival, that the seeds of collaboration were sown. Walking among the exhibitions, His Highness Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah and Chairman of Sharjah Media Council, and an avid photographer himself, stopped at a striking digital installation by Dutch artist Marcel van Luit. As their conversation deepened, centred on process, craft, and the role of imagination, the idea arose to merge His Highness’s photographs with van Luit’s distinctively surreal visual language.

Faisal Al Hassan is the director of 421 Arts Campus in Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed district. Over the past decade, he has guided the evolution of a repurposed industrial space into a platform that nurtures emerging artists and serves as a connection point for the creative community. As 421 marks its 10th anniversary, Al Hassan reflects on continuity, capability building, and being the catalyst for change. 

Sculptor, ceramicist, painter, and spiritualist, Rachid Koraïchi has had a five-decade, internationally recognised career. Algerian by birth, raised in Tunisia, and now based between Tunisia and Paris, his work has appeared in major collections and biennials around the world. Yet this season marks a significant first: a major solo exhibition at Sharjah Art Foundation.

The rising sun has, for millennia, signalled hope, renewal, and the promise of new beginnings. In the exhibition As the Sun Appears from Beyond, these ideas are reignited through the lens of Islamic art and tradition. Light, both metaphorically and conceptually, serves as the exhibition’s guiding force, offering spiritual insight as well as a curatorial framework that connects past and present. It offers a platform not only for aesthetic reflection, but for deeper understanding: a space where viewers can encounter the spiritual, historical, and contemporary expressions of Islamic culture, and find common ground in its beauty.

When visitors step into the sweeping atrium of Zayed National Museum this December, many will pause in awe at the magnificent arcs of steel and stone, which resemble falcon wings soaring skyward. Designed by Foster + Partners, the building is both a remarkable sculptural monument and a symbolic landmark: a national museum housed in a structure of architectural brilliance rising from the sands and mirroring the strength and grace of the United Arab Emirates’ cultural heritage.

Nestled in Mina Zayed, an industrial area punctuated with shipping containers and the smell of salt hangs, lingering in the air, Madar_39, or M_39 as it is commonly known, blossoms. Inside the building, a collection of shared working spaces and individual offices, and studios, there is a quiet buzz of activity.

Sharjah: The Capital of Culture published by Assouline in collaboration with Shurooq. Author: Anna Seaman.

Shaima Rashed Al Suwaidi assumed the role of CEO of the Arts, Design, and Literature Sector at Dubai Culture and Arts Authority [Dubai Culture] in April 2025. Her appointment follows a distinguished career in strategic communications and cultural advocacy, including senior roles within different entities in Dubai as well as memberships in Dubai Media Diplomacy and Communication Network in the Government of Dubai Media Office and a member of the General Network of Government Communication in The Executive Council of Dubai. Her expertise in marketing and storytelling has been instrumental in positioning Dubai as a creative centre of global significance and is now shaping how the emirate invests in and supports its homegrown talent.

It is 20 years since Sunny Rahbar, Claudia Cellini and Omar Ghobash joined forces to open The Third Line, a contemporary art gallery in Dubai. It was 2005, and a time when outlets for creativity from the Middle East and wider region were much needed in the simmering aftermath of 9/11.

Mohammed Kazem engages with the world as a field of continuous movement, to which his practice responds across shifting forms. Light, sound, and space migrate from the intangible to become his materials. “I create from everything, from shadows, colours, coordinates—even the distance between me and you is a medium,” he says.

In the once densely populated northwestern quarter of Gaza City, Qasr Al Basha was erected in the 13th century as a fortress for a Mamluk sultan. Its limestone structure, geometric patterns, domes, and intersecting vaults endured for centuries. It bore witness to the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, once housed Napoleon Bonaparte during his military campaign to Egypt, and later served as a police station during World War I. Abandoned in 1967, the building was placed under UN protection in 1998 and opened as Gaza’s national museum in 2010. By the end of 2023, the palace had been severely damaged, resulting in the loss of thousands of historical artefacts.

Maryam Al Falasi is dedicated to building an ecosystem, establishing a true collecting culture, and elevating regional voices. Iris Projects, her independent gallery in Abu Dhabi’s MiZa cultural district, focuses on contemporary art from the Gulf, with a programme that supports emerging and mid-career artists through solo shows, collaborations, and public programming.

An exhibition at Sharjah’s Maraya Art Centre showcases tatreez as a powerful aesthetic force.

The unwoven threads in Areen Hassan’s work hold almost as much significance as their embroidered counterparts. The gaps between them signify the growing distance between the Palestinian people and their land, but also the enduring connection.

In Arabic, the work that gives its name to the title of Afra Al Dhaheri’s first institutional show—Restless Circle, open until December 14 at Sharjah Art Foundation—is a poetic concept. Dā’ira hā’ira is a rhyming expression: “dā’ira” means circle, while “hā’ira” suggests uncertainty or, metaphorically, spinning in circles.