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

Found in the heart of Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed district, Madar_39 [M_39] has established itself as a key part of the MiZa neighbourhood and a growing hub for cultural and creative activity. The space, described as a “thriving ecosystem of creative and cultural entrepreneurs”, offers a supporting and structured environment for connection and enterprise with a dedication to elevating the growth of the creative sector.

Jake Andrew’s work is a fusion of digital, physical and audio which he describes as a contemporary view of abstraction and a presentation of what painting can be in the future.

Despite disparate geographical, historical, and cultural backgrounds, a common thread is found in our relation to the earth. It is this concept that Shamma Al Mheiri explored for her curation of Solace in Soil, a duo exhibition running at Efie Gallery in Dubai until October 6. Al Mheiri, an Emirati curator and art historian, brought together the sculptural works of Kenyan Maggie Otieno and Sharjah’s Dr. Mohamed Yousif.

Photographer Ishaq Madan’s 2021 image of Bahraini skateboarders went viral when it was picked up by New York’s MoMA. Today, his practice is more cinematic.

With his ghutra afloat, agal suspended in midair, and arms outstretched like wings, the skater in Shabab Al Mustaqbel became an overnight viral sensation when his image was shown in New York City subway stations in 2022. It was not his identity that captured people’s imagination but what he represented. In a single frame, Bahraini photographer Ishaq Madan had captured the raw and sometimes rebellious energy of youth in an often-misunderstood culture.

Emily Karaka's political landscapes stand out in 'Ka Awatea, A New Dawn' at Sharjah Art Foundation.

The New Zealand artist of Maori descent advocates for social justice and equity through her expressionist canvases.

Imagine extracting Charles Darwin (or perhaps just his theory of evolution) from Victorian England and implanting him two centuries into the future to a time when technological and human intelligence are inseparable. In our age of AI, advanced medical science, and engineering, how would Darwin chart the survival of the fittest? Would man-made inventions be considered the building blocks of life? And who would the most likely survivors be?

When art historian, critic, and curator Valeria Ibraeva visited Latifa Saeed’s Dubai studio in January, she told the Emirati artist that she wanted to bring her work to Almaty for a solo exhibition that would showcase its breadth and diversity. In June, Saeed’s show A Black Silhouette opened in the city’s Almaty Gallery with a collection of nine distinct bodies of work from 2013 to today. It was her first solo and the first time an Emirati has exhibited a solo show in Kazakhstan. The exhibition paid credit to Saeed’s evolution as an artist and designer whose experimental approach covers fine art, graphic design, advertising, branding, and product design.

Labels are something singer Emel Mathlouthi has tried to avoid—but not always successfully. Activist. Revolutionary. Protest singer. Role model.

Born in the suburbs of Tunis and raised during the long rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, it is lore that Mathlouthi rose to prominence with a powerful song that became the soundtrack to Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, which ignited a fire that spread along the North African shore. ‘Kelmti Horra’ (‘My Word is Free’), based on lyrics by Tunisian poet Amine Al Ghozzi, changed Mathlouthi’s career.

Born in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem in 1942, Boullata went on to study fine art at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome in 1965. When war broke out at home in 1967, he was in Beirut and was not able to return to Palestine. He lived the rest of his life in exile moving from Morocco to the US – where he received an MFA from Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC in 1971, then to France and eventually to Germany, where he lived out the rest of his life. However, the city of Jerusalem was continuously alive in his heart. He once said: "I keep reminding myself that Jerusalem is not behind me, it is constantly ahead of me."

In April 2019, Her Excellency Hala Badri was appointed as the Director General of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority [Dubai Culture] by a royal decree from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, following more than 20 years upon an impressive path across dynamic business sectors critical to the UAE’s economic development: telecommunications, oil and gas, media and real estate. Since taking over that vital role, Her Excellency has paved the way for a cultural revolution across the city, which, most recently, has taken hold in the announcement of Al Quoz Creative Zone - a new hub for creative businesses, including those involved in the visual arts, cinema, music and cultural heritage.

Fewer than a thousand people have been to the blackness of outer space. But some 20,000 were able to walk through the Xposure International Photography Festival in February, where photographs of space exploration were spotlighted in the near darkness of galleries set up as mock moonscapes—featuring boulders and suspended meteors.

One of the most prolific artists in the UAE, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim crafts his work in the mountains of Sharjah’s Khorfakkan and represents his nation at the 2022 Venice Biennale.

Patricia Millns is an artistic institution in the UAE. At Maraya Art Centre, in October 2022, she will have her her first solo exhibition in a decade.

The fifth edition of Sharjah’s Xposure International Photography Festival showed the power of photography to make real and lasting change and the impact of a story well told.

Art In The Age of Anxiety: a timely, tightly curated exhibition of contemporary art, so relevant for our current era and enlightening in its presentation

Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi is a true game changer. Thanks to her work at the Sharjah Art Foundation, she has led the way to great regional impact that has created ripples around the world. She is passionate, hard working and visionary - a real asset to the art and cultural landscape in the UAE and beyond.

A retrospective show of the work of Mohamed Melehi will go on display in Dubai next month. Melehi was one of the pioneering artists of his generation and a founder of the radical Casablanca school.