What the House Knows

What does a house remember? That is the question at the heart of What the House Knows, a group exhibition at Stal Gallery in Muscat running from 20 September to 5 October 2026. Curated by the gallery's Volodymyra Sobolevska, the show brings together seven artists to consider the Omani house "as a space of belonging and continuity".

Dress and textile form one thread through the rooms. Saleem Sakhi's portraits foreground the colours and patterns of traditional Omani dress, from the kumma and dishdasha to the richly patterned garments worn by women, while Sarah Al Aulaqi turns to Dhofari culture through traditional cloth, head jewellery and the burqa, alongside the enduring craft of Omani tailoring.

Family and memory form another. Hafsa Al Tamimi's paintings consider motherhood and beginnings, including a large composition of a mother and child surrounded by loosely defined figures. Hassan Meer, the Omani artist long associated with Stal, presents a Father and Son diptych alongside works drawing on childhood and the legends of Oman's mountains, which he says have fascinated him since he was a child.

Elsewhere, Mohammed Al Zadjali builds intricate compositions from the patterns of traditional Omani interiors, and Wael Hamdan's Domes of the City series fills the picture plane with domes, windows and geometric forms. Anchoring the show is Omani Wedding by Anwar Sonya, a pioneer of modern art in Oman, whose crowded, colourful canvas marks a Cubist-inflected moment of experimentation in his career.

Spanning several generations of Omani artists, the exhibition offers a quietly personal portrait of domestic life in the Sultanate and of the traditions carried from one generation to the next.