Hazem Harb's latest solo exhibition, Gauze, is a journey into his past and recent works that reimagine facets of reality connected to his homeland Palestine.
Spread across two different spaces, it includes newly produced works and retrospective pieces dating back to 1998. They not only reveal the diversity of Harb’s chosen mediums, from charcoal to acrylic and collage, but also the multifaceted expressions of identity throughout his career as a visual artist.
Curated by Munira Al Sayegh, founder of Dirwaza Curatorial Lab, the exhibition at Tabari Artspace, the DIFC, also marks a return for Harb to the use of the material gauze within the context of varying Palestinian iconographies and narratives.
“The new works presented in this exhibition, using both charcoal and gauze, mark a departure from my contemporary approach to collage,” Harb tells The National.
“These new works are visceral and my physical reaction to and way of synthesising the anguish of recent months.”
Other new works in the exhibition include the circular acrylic collages, Watermelon I and II, where Harb has restored images of a watermelon from a 1917 fresco found in a home in Nazareth. There is also The Last Escape, a rectangular piece that overlays a photograph from Harb's family visit to Gaza with Arabic text that translates to "The Last Escape".
Harb’s practice has taken a drastic turn since the Gaza conflict started.
As a Gazan native with numerous family members still residing there, Harb couldn’t create art the way he has been previously, he says. The meticulously crafted collages of archival images, which his practice has leaned towards in the past, were replaced with expressive and much darker works.
Dystopia is not a Noun, the series he presented at Abu Dhabi Art in November, showcased eight large-scale drawings and a sculpture. Disfigured bodies twisting and writhing from out of demolished homes, drawn with expressive charcoal gestures, were harrowing.
“Everything has changed,” Harb told The National at the time.
“My mind, my studio, my desk, my materials, my personal life, my professional life, my attitude, my approach as an artist, everything has changed.”
Dystopia is not a Noun was a return to materiality for him. Seven additional works from the same series that were not shown are showcased in this exhibition.
Harb’s return to materiality is further showcased in his latest piece, Gauze #22, a work that includes 14 framed pieces of gauze material on fine art cardboard.
In 2004, during Harb’s early years as an artist in Gaza, gauze was his unexpected artistic medium. The translucent, thin fabric created through a loose open weave is often used for clothing, medical dressings, bookbinding and by artists for sculpting and mixed media artwork.
Gauze is also a material that originates from Gaza. It is a poetic and poignant reality that Harb connects to his national and cultural identity, especially to the time when he was a young artist.
“I used gauze in my experiments as both a material for sculpting and as a blank canvas,” Harb says.
“It formed the backdrop for my personal resistance, which has always been expressed through my art during the suffering of my people that defined my youth.”
Two decades later, as Harb returns to his expressionistic method of creating and making meaning through art, his new gauze works are like his charcoal drawings – a compelling and stark reminder of the fragility and reality of human life.
Harb has laid the gauze on brown fine art cardboard that feels both random and intentional. Bodies appear to float and yet are still and lifeless. The gauze bodies are laid down in rectangular frames that sit incredibly close to one another in the small backroom of the gallery, where the lighting adds an intimate and closed-off experience.
The frames act as both windows and burial plots. The gauze is also a reference to the kafan, the white cloth that traditionally shrouds bodies before burial in Islamic tradition.
Here, Harb presents a more subtle but equally powerful means to describe the imagery of Palestinian corpses in Gaza posted on social media platforms since October 7.
Harb elaborates that his return to the use of gauze is a means to “unearth the untold stories embedded in my city and to illuminate the genocide that has impacted my people".
His use of gauze, almost like a painterly material that depicts floating bodies, becomes a confronting and compelling message that connects the realities of Palestinians to a solitary space.
Hazem Harb's exhibition Gauze runs until February 15 at Tabari Artspace, DIFC
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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