Art in Abu Dhabi – here’s what the new season holds

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  Courtesy Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority

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  Courtesy Alif Art Gallery

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  Courtesy Julia Ibbini

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  Courtesy Art Russe

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  Courtesy Tezuka Productions

Warehouse 421

• Mina Zayed, November 19 to 21

This new art district, set to open in Mina Zayed, promises to be an exciting development on the capital’s cultural landscape. The launch will coincide with three exhibitions exploring the themes of memory and transformation.

Lest We Forget: Emirati Family Photographs 1950-1999 is a collection of personal photographs collected for the Venice Architecture Biennale last year that give a rare insight into the lives of Emiratis since the middle of last century.

1:100 The Warehouse Reimagined presents artistic representations of 3-D warehouse models that were submitted in response to an artists' call at the beginning of this year.

Mina Zayed: Through the Lens of Jack Burlot takes viewers through a day in the life of residents and workers in the Al Minya region. Burlot, a French photographer who first visited Abu Dhabi in 1974, captures daily happenings and personal moments in his collection.

Warehouse 421 is hosted by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, which supports many local artistic activities, including, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, the UAE national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. A short distance from Warehouse 421, an additional space will showcase works from the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship ­programme.

Abu Dhabi Art

• Manarat Al Saadiyat, November 18 to 21

The much-anticipated art festival returns for its seventh edition, showcasing 40 galleries and a host of world-class international artists. The public programme is extensive this year, and includes interactive art ventures such as Rimini Protokoll's Remote Abu Dhabi, in which 50 people will walk through the city wearing headphones. The biannual exhibition Emirati Expressions will also open during the fair.

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Central Asia Art Month Residency and Exhibition

• Abu Dhabi Art Hub, Musaffah, October 4 to November 2

Organised in partnership with Alif Art Gallery in Dubai, this month-long residency will give six leading artists from Uzbekistan the chance to learn about the culture, architecture and history of the UAE. Alexander Nikolaev, Dilyara Kaipova, Jamol Usmanov, Murad Karabaev, ­Sanjar Djabbarov and Timur ­Ernst Akhmedov will give presentations at a reception on October 10. Their group exhibition opens on ­October 31.

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No White Walls

• Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Until January 2

This artists’ collective comes together once a year for a four-month exhibition at the capital’s Fairmont hotel. Hung along a light-bathed corridor in the hotel that overlooks the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the work is diverse and refreshingly approachable. It includes the brightly coloured ­resin-based works of Emily Gordon, which offer a collage of parts of signs, jewellery, and imagery seen around the city.

Also on show are the textile works of Janine Ibbini, who in one powerful piece has used fabric gathered from yearly visits to Damascus to depicted sorrowful faces of Syrian men.

Her daughter Julia Ibbini has made architectural abstract landscapes that are created digitally and overlaid with hand-placed crystals, while Yiannis Roussakis, an artist represented by Etihad Modern Art Gallery, is showing photographic collages using several overlaid photographs. Mohammed Awwad is a new addition to the group this year. He lives and works in Amman and his fantastical digital works offer searing social commentaries. Jen Simon’s cartoon-like and bold-coloured landscapes complete the show.

Art Russe

• Emirates Palace, October 7 to December 10

The first major exhibition of 20th-century Russian and Soviet Art in the UAE will open at Emirates Palace next month. Held under the patronage of Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth and Social Development, the exhibition will introduce audiences to the artistic heritage of this important period of Russia’s history.

The Art Russe Collection of 20th Century Russian and Soviet Art: War and Peace will feature more than a 100 artworks from different genres, showcasing several distinctive styles that developed during the past century. It includes sculptures by Vera Mukhina, the still lifes of Alexander Gerasimov and Alexei Gritsai, the landscapes of Nikolai Andronov and Semeon Chuykov and the portraits of Abram Arkhipov and Alexander Bubnov, among others.

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Manga and Anime

• Etihad Modern Art Gallery, Khalidiya, November 1 to 31

Japanese Manga artists Leiji Matsumoto and Osamu Tezuka will be showing their illustrative art at Etihad Modern Art Gallery. Matsumoto, a designer and illustrator who created the famous Captain Harlock film character, displays a military-like attention to detail in his drawings and paintings. Tezuka is an anime expert best known for his comic-book series Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack.