Alserkal Art Week takes over Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz from 15 to 22 November 2026, bringing exhibitions, talks, performances and moving image works together across the cultural district. This edition is built around the theme of “Smouldering”, which the organisers describe as the slow burn of resilience that has come to define the present. At its centre is a major exhibition at Concrete dedicated to women modernists from the Arab world.
History Otherwise at Concrete
History Otherwise: Women Modernists from the Arab World is presented by Alserkal in partnership with Barjeel Art Foundation, and the works come from the Foundation’s collection. Curated by Suheyla Takesh and Rémi Homs, it features artists including Fahrelnissa Zeid, Samia Halaby, Inji Aflatoun and Etel Adnan, who responded across the 20th century to changing lifestyles, political shifts, urban development, decolonisation and shifting gender roles.
The show opens with exhibition posters from the 1940s to the 1990s and asks why women who were active in their own time are often less visible in later histories of modern art. It then unfolds in four sections, introspecting, documenting, abstracting and crafting, across painting, sculpture, textiles and other media. Works include Mona Saudi’s marble sculpture Continuity (1968).
Suheyla Takesh, Director of Barjeel Art Foundation, said: “While often sidelined by art history, these artists were active participants in the region’s cultural life, developing new visual languages and engaging with the social and political transformations of their time.” The exhibition opens on Sunday 15 November, with the official opening at 6.30pm, and stays on view until 22 November.
Talks, guest projects and screens
Majlis Talks, the week’s discussion forum, is curated this time by Moataz Nasr, the Egyptian painter and sculptor who curates the Alexandria Biennial. Titled Sharing the Sensitive, it takes a round table format, with Simon Njami, Julie Banatre and Jenny Mbaye in conversation with Nasr, in The Yard on the afternoon of Sunday 15 November. The avenue’s galleries open 17 new exhibitions.
Among the guest projects, Promises and Scars brings together five decades of work by the late Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, presented by George Al Ama and Fann À Porter in Warehouse 46 until 22 November. The Chanel Culture Fund takes over The Yard screens from 9 to 29 November with Fracture: The Window, a programme of moving image works.
The closing weekend, 21 and 22 November, adds film screenings by Cinema Akil, slow art walks and gallery tours for children. If you are planning a longer art week, Artisart Gallery brings 23 Turkish artists to World Art Dubai from 19 to 22 November, and on the avenue itself SALATA is swapping meals for steps this month.
Alserkal Art Week: Details
- When: 15 to 22 November 2026. History Otherwise opens on Sunday 15 November (official opening 6.30pm) and runs until 22 November
- Where: Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai. History Otherwise is at Concrete
- Book: Programme updates at alserkal.online. VIP, school and group tours: info@alserkal.online
- Instagram: @alserkalavenue
See also: The Farmers Market returns to Alserkal Avenue.
Image: courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.