Dubai · 12/06/2026
MADE IN THE UAE
Seven artists. Seven countries of origin. One city. On view 12 June – 1 July 2026.
In October 2025, JD Malat Gallery put out an open call. What came back — more than 300 submissions from artists living across the Emirates — said something about the moment the UAE's art scene is in right now. The panel expanded its original selection from five to seven, because the quality of what arrived made it difficult to stop at five. The seven finalists are Ahmed Emad (UAE/Egypt), Anila Ashraf (Pakistan), Camelia Mohebi (UAE), Elizaveta Pugacheva (Russia), Samo Shalaby (Egypt/Palestine), Sasan Nasernia (Iran) and Yousif Albadi (Sudan). Between them, they represent almost every corner of the world — which is exactly the point. Dubai's creative ecosystem is built on this kind of layering: people who arrived from somewhere else and made work here, in dialogue with a city that is itself still figuring out what it is. The works span painting, sculpture and mixed media, and they don't share a single visual language. Sasan Nasernia reinterprets Persian and Arabic calligraphy through his own "Crazy Kufic" abstraction. Anila Ashraf makes wheel-thrown ceramics that sit somewhere between sculpture and functional object. Samo Shalaby — a Central Saint Martins graduate — makes theatrical paintings that pull from surrealism, fashion and historical symbolism simultaneously. Camelia Mohebi's layered practice moves through healing and spirituality. Yousif Albadi turns architecture and light into meditations on memory. Elizaveta Pugacheva works across painting, graphic and textile, drawing on digital culture and migration. Ahmed Emad combines engineering precision with expressive portraiture and material experimentation. Made in the UAE is not a survey of what UAE art looks like. It's a snapshot of what it could become — seven distinct answers to a city that is still writing its own story.
