Highlights among new exhibitions opening on Galleries Night

Several art galleries coordinated their exhibition openings with Art Dubai. Here are a few of the notables.

Asteroid Farming by the Saudi artist Hadil Moufti is part of her series Tales From Other Lands. Courtesy of Hadil Moufti / Showcase Gallery

Several galleries in Dubai have coordinated their new-exhibition openings with Art Dubai. Here are some of the highlights.
From Emirati artists
At Cuadro Fine Art Gallery, DIFC, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim's solo exhibition Turab is one of the strongest shows in town. Ibrahim, who was born in Khor Fakkan in 1962, has spent a great deal of his artistic practice searching for the organic, abstract forms that all humans relate to without being able to explain why. Turab is accompanied by a quote describing the moment the artist was "overcome with the feeling of being at one with nature" and then began to shed his layers "piece by piece and commence with creating an artwork".
• Until April 9
A feminist slant
Femafia at Ayyam Gallery, DIFC, will showcase the work of the Iranian artist Afshin Pirhashemi. His series of 10 photorealistic portraits show women often holding guns or covered in what appears to be blood, defiantly lying on minimalist backgrounds.
• Until April 30
At Carbon 12 in Alserkal Avenue, Anahita Razmi takes on issues of identity and gender with Sharghzadegi – another exhibition inspired by the role of women in Iran. The title is a fictional word playing on the concept of Orientalism. The work is presented through videos, textile collage and photographs.
• Until May 10
 
A touch of masculinity
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke explores modern myths of macho culture and masculinity in Fahrenheit311at Lawrie Shabibi. Referring to the melting point of the steroid hormone testosterone, the Abraaj Prize winner Kaabi-Linke addresses themes of war and heroism, pride and ignorance – making connections to the seven deadly sins.
• Until May 14
 
Imagination runs riot
Hadil Moufti's Tales From Other Lands attempts to show the colours of emotions and a place somewhere between dreams and realities. Her quest is to capture the spirit of an imaginary world and to evoke intrigue. Catch her work at Showcase Gallery in Alserkal Avenue.
• Until April 30
At The Third Line, in Al Quoz, Ala Ebtekar imagines a journey to light underscored by the "illuminationist cosmogony" of the mystical philosopher Shahabuddin Suhrawardi. The show, titled Nowheresville/Nä-Koja Abäd,is an imagined landscape of a man who lives at the farthest point away from the light.
• Until April 18
 
A historical standpoint
Hazem Harb's The Invisible Landscape and Concrete Futures is a nostalgic yearning for a land lost to occupation. Questioning the notion of architecture being destructive rather than protective, Harb's show, based largely on photographs of pre-1948 Palestine, is a large, moving exhibition that has taken him eight years to complete. It is showing at Salsali Private Museum in Alserkal Avenue.
• Until June 1
In line with Art Dubai's Marker section, which focuses on art from Latin America, Green Art Gallery, also in Alserkal Avenue, presents the Berlin-based Venezuelan artist Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck's Modern Entanglements. A key work in the show, addressing the sticky issues of government propaganda and whistle-blowers, features excerpts from a secret meeting between John F Kennedy and David Ben-Gurion that took place in 1961, printed on an abstract painting.
• Until May 5
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