Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Pioneering Lebanese abstract artist enters spotlight

Featured shows draw on distinct visual vocabularies to question what we take for granted

Roswell2223, Nima Nabavi, 2023. Photo: The Third Line

This week, we’re highlighting three artists whose practices span the grid, the city and the gesture.

From the meditative geometry of Nima Nabavi to the urban excavations of Abdullah Al Othman and the raw, expressive gestures of Nadia Saikali – the featured exhibitions are dissimilar in form but they share a common impulse. They slow us down, prompt us to look closer and question what we take for granted.

Sunrise at the Vortex at The Third Line

In Sunrise at the Vortex, Nima Nabavi continues his exploration of geometry as both discipline and meditation. The centrepiece of the show is a monumental, hand-drawn work that was meticulously composed over the course of a year. The work showcases Nabavi’s dedication to precision and scale. Its complex patterning feels almost architectural while also alluding to the tenets and forms of sacred geometry.

The smaller works in the exhibition crafted using a plotter offer a contrasting sense of mechanical control, yet still bear Nabavi’s distinctive aesthetic logic. Together, the pieces speak to the tension between the human-hand and machine, intention and repetition.

Monday to Sunday, 11am-7pm; until July 27, The Third Line, Dubai

Structural Syntax at Iris Projects

Anticipation, Abdullah Al Othman, 2025. Photo: Iris Projects

Structural Syntax is Abdullah Al Othman’s first solo exhibition in the UAE, and it shows his penchant for revealing the hidden language of cities. The Saudi artist beckons towards billboards, signages and architectural elements to highlight the cultural and political residues that are easily overlooked.

In Anticipation, he strips a billboard of its message, leaving only structure and light. Geometric Quotation revisits the construction of Al Maktoum Bridge as a moment of vision and becoming. From Riyadh to Dubai and beyond, his works decode the city not as backdrop, but as a living archive.

Monday to Friday, 11am-7pm; until June 27; Iris Projects, Abu Dhabi

Nadia Saikali and Her Contemporaries at Maraya Art Centre

Nadia Saikali and Her Contemporaries is running until July 13. Photo: Maraya Art Centre

A pioneering figure of abstract art in the region, Nadia Saikali’s spotlight is perhaps long overdue. The Lebanese artist’s work ranges across a variety of mediums and styles, despite them often veering towards abstraction.

From her early gestural work to the line-based paintings and sprawling landscape canvases in the later stages of her career, Saikali’s work is at the heart of the show at Sharjah’s Maraya Art Centre, which is now in its final month. Yet, the exhibition – co-organised with the Barjeel Art Foundation – opens up to feature works by her contemporaries, all of whom are women.

The artists come from across the Arab world, but they all spent time producing work in Beirut during the 1960s and 1970s. As such, Beirut becomes the star of the exhibition, showing how the city was a regional hub for artists.

Saturday to Thursday, 10am-7pm; Friday, 4pm-7pm; until July 13; Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah