Save your dates for Art Dubai and more events in March

We have the definitive guide to the year’s busiest month of art in the UAE.

Hamad Al Falasi's Part No Apart is one of the artworks in the exhibition A Public Privacy, which opens on March 9. Courtesy Ductac

March Madness is upon us. With hundreds of professionals flying in for Art Dubai and Design Days Dubai, this is the time participating galleries and institutions launch the best shows of the year. Also on the calendar is the 12th edition of Sharjah Biennial, which boasts public projects, film screenings and plenty of opportunities for audience interaction.

February 28

Mirrors for Princes

Slavs and Tatars bring its exhibition to New York University Abu Dhabi Art Gallery. The art collective describe “the area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China” – where Europe and Asia merge – as the focus of their work. The show follows a three-month residency at the university, working with students and professors, and unpacking the genre of contemporary self-help books in light of ancient texts of similar content. The exhibition is the group’s most ambitious, immersive installation to date, with new work occupying the 650-square-metre space.

• Until May 30

March 1

Aide-mémoire: footnotes

Sharjah’s Barjeel Art Foundation opens the second iteration of Aide-mémoire (which is showing at Maraya Art Centre). Aide-mémoire: footnotes showcases the work of Adel Abidin, Jumana Manna, Mona Hatoum and Youssef Nabil. Both parts of the exhibition focus on the ways in which we see, remember and record personal encounters.

• Until October 1

The Invisible Landscape and Concrete Futures

In Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue, Salsali Private Museum will present a solo show from Palestinian artist Hazem Harb and curated by Lara Khaldi. It includes a series of collages, where archival photographs of Palestine pre-1948 are juxtaposed with concrete blocks, wave breakers, lines, and black squares and rectangles, all referencing architecture and destruction.

• Until June 1

March 3

In This Place

Etihad Modern Art Gallery in Abu Dhabi will be showing a group exhibition of works by Svilen Petrov, Kim Robertson and Karine Roche that explore the notion of how we respond to our environment. Each artist presents the UAE in their own way and offers an alternate reality.

• Until March 31

March 4

Images

At Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde in Dubai, renowned Emirati artist Hassan Sharif will open a solo show that juxtaposes some of his oldest pieces of art from the 1980s with brand new works. Also on display: a series of caricatures that he drew for newspapers in the 1970s. Sharif’s art, often presented in piles of waste, was a response to globalised consumerism.

• Until April 15

March 5

In the Shadow of the Pyramids

In Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue, Gulf Photo Plus photography gallery will feature the work of British Egyptian photographer Laura El-Tantawy, who has put forth an exhibition and a new book, both titled In the Shadow of the Pyramids. Through images spanning 2005 to 2014, its images go from questioning Egyptian identity to exploring the trials of the beleaguered country.

• Until February 1

Sharjah Biennial 12: The past, the present, the possible

After two years of careful preparation and engagement with artists all over the world, Sharjah Art Foundation lifts the curtain on the latest edition of the Sharjah Biennial. Curator Eungie Joo came up with this year’s title, opening a discussion about the role of contemporary art and freedom of expression. More than 50 artists are involved and artworks will be installed all over the city, in public areas, at the foundation and the old houses in the heritage district.

• Until June 5; free to the public

March 7

Sharjah Biennial 12 extension

Visit the off-the-beaten track spots in this year’s event. Buses leave from Sharjah on Saturday morning to take visitors to see the art in the Flying Saucer building in Sharjah, before heading to an abandoned ice factory in Kalba, where young Argentine artist Adrian Villar Rojas will show his work. Buses will run every Saturday throughout the duration of the biennial.

• Until June 5

March 9

A Public Privacy

The first exhibition to launch U.A.E. Unlimited Artistic Exploration, a new platform under the patronage of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan. It will showcase new works from emerging Emirati, regional and locally based artists, with rotating curators. The inaugural show, curated by prominent artists Mohammed Kazem and Cristiana De Marchi, addresses the relationship between the public and private spheres and features artists Shamma Al Amri, Hamad Al Falasi, Shaikha Al Mazrou and Mohammad Jumairy, Monira Al Qadiri and Vikram Divecha.

• Until April 8 at Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre

Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Solo Exhibition

Fann-A-Porter, the Arab art gallery that opened at the Kempinski at Mall of the Emirates in Dubai last year, will be showing works by Emirati artist Mohamed Al Mazrouei – a painter, poet and writer whose abstract expressionism has earned him international acclaim.

• Until March 30

March 11

Sustaining Identity

For their annual exhibition that is open to all UAE-based artists, Tashkeel in Dubai will open a group show seeking to explore sustainability within contemporary art and to present a platform to express how sustainable practices are integrated into architecture and social structure.

• Until April 30

March 14

Sikka Art Fair

The annual festival will run over 10 days in Dubai’s Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, where wind towers and old houses will come alive with artworks, musical performances, pop-up shops and food stalls.

• Until March 24

Looking At Sculpture

Majlis, Dubai’s oldest art gallery, will open an exhibition of 10 international sculptors.

• Until March 31.

Sculptural Perspectives

This is the first exhibition of the CollaCurating project initiated by Areej Kaoud, where curating art and artist collaboration come together. The show uses two works from Saudi artist Manal Al Dowayan as a dialogue on how perspective becomes susceptible to transformation. A Tashkeel imitative at Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.

• Until March 31

Download Update?

The Global Art Forum, the discussion platform that runs concurrently with Art Dubai, travels this year for the first time to Kuwait. The ninth edition takes place on March 14 and March 15 in Kuwait, and March 18 to March 20 in Dubai. Its title Download Update approaches the theme of technologies and their effect on the world of art and culture. The forum is co-directed by Turi Munthe and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, with Shumon Basar serving as director-at-large. Presented by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) and supported by Dubai Design District (d3).

• Until March 20

March 15

Something Different

Dubai’s Meem Gallery presents a solo show from Iraqi master Dia Azzawi. Unusually for an artist known for his paintings, this exhibition will consist of sculptures and tapestries.

• Until April 25

March 16

Design Days Dubai

The region’s largest design fair and the only place in the Middle East and South Asia where you can pick up collectable design items as well as keep tabs on the latest developments in design studios region-wide. The fourth edition has 44 exhibitors from 20 countries presenting modern and contemporary creations. Expect to see a range of items from designers ranging from Zaha Hadid to Emirati designer Aljoud Lootah.

• Until March 20

Galleries Night, Art Night

Galleries Night at Alserkal Avenue and Art Night at DIFC are coordinated openings by the Dubai galleries that offer visitors the chance to enjoy art, music, food and good conversation.

• Galleries Night runs from 6pm to 9pm; Art Night at DIFC's Gate Village runs from 7pm to 10pm

March 17

Simeen Farhat at Jamm Gallery

A solo show in Dubai by Pakistani artist Simeen Farhat, it is a display of text-based calligraphic letters cast from resin and worked into sculptures. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, they are purposely indecipherable.

• Until April 16

Timeless Colours through Lebanese Generations

Lebanese artists Michel El Mir and Louma Rabah display their abstract expressionist paintings in a dual artist show at Noon Art Gallery. This hotel, with its increasingly interesting roster of artists that display there, is proving itself to value art above all. Noon Hotel Apartments is situated behind Mall of the Emirates in Al Barsha, Dubai.

• Until March 30

March 18

Art Dubai

The region’s biggest art fair returns for its ninth edition with 92 participating galleries from 39 countries. The range falls under three categories – contemporary, modern and marker, which focuses on a different geographical region each year. Contemporary is the biggest section – most of the gallery booths fill two halls in Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. Modern focuses on art from the 1970s-90s and gives historical backing to the works in the other halls. Marker focuses on Latin America and is a group exhibition curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas. The Abraaj Group Art Prize for artists’ proposals from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia is a key element of the fair.

• Until March 21

March 21

View From Inside: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art

The internationally acclaimed exhibition makes its Middle East debut with a specially curated exhibition for the Abu Dhabi Festival based on the 2014 FotoFest Biennial. Taking place at The Gallery in Emirates Palace View From Inside: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video & Mixed Media Art will showcase a diverse selection of leading contemporary Arab artists.

• Until April 20

March 27

Arte Market

Arte Market offers a selection of art, craft and design products from UAE-based artisans. To round off the month of artistic indulgence, why not head to Dubai’s Times Square Mall to purchase something for your home?

• From 12pm to 7pm on the second and fourth Fridays of every month