Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Last chance to see Richard Mille Art Prize finalists at Louvre Abu Dhabi

Plus, new solo exhibition by Farhad Ahrarnia at Lawrie Shabibi celebrates the 1980s

Debutante Ball by Emirati artist Lamya Gargash was created using sand from the UAE. Victor Besa / The National

A new immersive experience at the Museum of the Future, an exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi by British-Iranian artist Farhad Ahrarnia, and the last chance to see the artworks shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize at Louvre Abu Dhabi are among the exhibitions to check out this weekend.

Earth Dreams at the Museum of the Future

Earth Dreams presents a series of “data paintings” created by the studio of acclaimed Turkish artist Refik Anadol, in collaboration with the Museum of the Future. The works envision a reality in which the natural world fuses with machine intelligence and human memory. The works have been created by referencing millions of nature photographs, as well as meteorological data and satellite imagery. The elements come together and have been animated using artificial intelligence, a signature approach of Anadol.

Monday to Sunday, 9am-7pm; running indefinitely; Museum of the Future, Dubai

Art Here at Louvre Abu Dhabi

The annual contemporary art exhibition features the works shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize. This year’s exhibition is titled Ouvertures (French for openings), Awakenings and Afaq (Arabic for horizon).

The exhibition includes Tunisian artist Nicene Kossentini’s Landscapes, which presents human traces in desert scenes across five screens. The work offers a poetic take on the passivity with which we observe global catastrophes, from climate change to war. Debutante Ball by Emirati artist Lamya Gargash, meanwhile, is a two-metre beach ball, created using 3D-printing and made entirely of UAE sand.

In Tilling the Soil, Franco-Tunisian artist Ferielle Doulain-Zouari has arranged a tessellation of hand-moulded clay bricks. Half of the 250 bricks were made in Tunisia using traditional methods, the others were made in the UAE. For Brides of the Sky, an installation of two steel sculptures, Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr drew inspiration from a tale about a group of women in a Syrian fort who withstood a Mongol invasion in the 12th century. Shared Motion by Sarah Almehairi is a sculptural audiovisual installation that renders the word “wind” across four languages: English, Urdu, Farsi and Hindi.

Monday to Thursday, 10am-6.30pm; Friday to Sunday, 10am-8.30pm; until December 15; Louvre Abu Dhabi

Way of the Forest at 421 Arts Campus

Way of the Forest features 19 artists from the Global South. The exhibition examines eroding ecological histories, containing works that challenge ravenous development agendas while seeking ancient forest wisdoms. The artists ask questions about the right to land. They confront extraction policies and highlight the stories of indigenous people who become casualties of corporate capitalism and its greed for natural resources.

The exhibition was first presented as part of contemporary arts festival Colomboscope in the Sri Lankan capital in January and has been adapted for the UAE.

Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-8pm; until December 29; 421 Arts Campus, Abu Dhabi

No Scheherazade at Lawrie Shabibi

No Scheherazade marks Ahrarnia’s fourth solo exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi. The title alludes to the narrator of The Thousand and One Nights and provides an interesting premise to navigate a show, which the gallery describes as a “dissection/celebration of Princess Diana, Keith Haring and all things '80s”.

The works displayed are created with Ahrarnia’s idiosyncratic approach of embroidered images and wood, on a backdrop that takes several cues from the music video of Prince’s Sign O’ The Times.

Monday to Saturday, 10am-6pm; until January 28; Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai