8 Shows to See in the MENA Region This Autumn

Autumn is always the busiest season for art in our region, and this year is no exception. Big openings have dominated the headlines, from Penone at the National Museum of Qatar to The Matter of Light at Dom Art Projects in Dubai, but some of the most rewarding shows of the season are quieter ones. So we've rounded up eight exhibitions across eight cities that we think are worth the trip. Keep reading to find out more.

1. Ala Younis: Huge Likeness, AUB Art Galleries and Collections, Beirut

There is no better place to start than Beirut. At the Rose and Shaheen Saleeby Museum in Hamra, the American University of Beirut is showing Huge Likeness, a solo exhibition by Ala Younis. Trained as an architect at the University of Jordan, Younis usually starts from a single fragment, a building, a photograph or a publication, and follows it through the history of modernity and politics in the Arab world. At the heart of the show is Plan for Greater Baghdad (2015), first shown in Okwui Enwezor's All the World's Futures at the 2015 Venice Biennale, which tells the story of the gymnasium Le Corbusier designed for Baghdad, through slides taken by the Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji. It is joined by newer works that grew out of her time in AUB's libraries and archives. On view until 10 January 2027.

2. Reza Lavassani: Presence: Khayyam, Lajevardi Foundation, Tehran

In Tehran, the Lajevardi Foundation is showing a new series by Reza Lavassani (b. 1962), who represented Iran at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 with a papier-mâché installation. Inspired by the poetry of Omar Khayyam, each work is made by pushing a needle through cardboard, hole after hole, until the perforations add up to delicate geometric patterns that catch the light. Rather than illustrating the famous quatrains, Lavassani uses them to think about order and impermanence, and the result is quietly mesmerising. On view until 30 November 2026.

3. Undertow / Contre ; Courant, B7L9 Art Centre, Tunis

Running alongside the eighth Jaou Tunis biennale, Undertow / Contre ; Courant at B7L9 Art Centre in Bhar Lazreg, on the outskirts of Tunis, looks at the Mediterranean as a route of passage, colonisation and exile. Curated by Amanda Abi Khalil and Danielle Makhoul, a collaboration between Art Explora and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, it brings together 19 artists and the research group Forensic Oceanography. Look out for Akram Zaatari's new floor piece in the shape of the Mediterranean basin, which records the footprints of visitors, as well as works by Bouchra Khalili, Randa Maroufi, Mounira Al Solh, Hiwa K and Rania Stephan. On view until 31 December 2026.

4. Archipelago of Whispers, 421 Arts Campus, Abu Dhabi

At 421 Arts Campus in Mina Zayed, Archipelago of Whispers, curated by Deniz Kirkali and Elham Puriya Mehr, is all about the knowledge that travels through whispers, gossip and storytelling. Interestingly, much of it is made for the ears. Saudi artist Ayman Zedani shares recordings of Arabian Sea humpback whales in Between Desert Seas (2021), Emirati artist Farah Al Qasimi draws on the 1980s Arabic version of Sesame Street, and Lebanese artist Omar Mismar shows a new work alongside pieces by Ruba Al-Sweel, Gizem Karakaş, Yen Chun Lin and Aliaskar Abarkas. On view until 10 January 2027.

5. Artists' Rooms, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai

Jameel Arts Centre's latest Artists' Rooms offer three solo shows in one visit. Walid Siti, who was born in Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1954 and has lived in London since 1984, traces 40 years of work around the motif of the mountain, including his War Series of drawings and etchings from the Iran-Iraq War, shown together for the first time, and a new monumental sculpture, Into the Mountains. Next door, Saudi painter Lulua Alyahya (b. 1998) has her first solo exhibition in the UAE, with tender, funny paintings of Gulf masculinity set against deserts and skylines, while Shezad Dawood fills the third room. On view until 31 January 2027.

6. Arab Design Now 2026, Design Doha

Design lovers should head to Doha, where the second Design Doha biennial opens on 5 November. Its headline exhibition, Arab Design Now, curated by Noura Al Sayeh at Building i22 in Msheireb Downtown Doha, brings together a whopping 81 designers and 78 new commissions from 27 countries, from architecture and furniture to craft, sound and social design. Encouragingly, it gives as much weight to the makers and artisans behind each object as to the finished design, with films documenting places from Nubian houses on the Nile to the marshes of southern Iraq. On view from 5 November 2026 to 31 January 2027.

7. As the Image Unfolds: The Language of Athar, Tasweer, Al Wakrah

Just south of Doha, at Bayt Al Wakrah, Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar is showing the work of its residency artists, Ghada Al Mawlawi, Mohammed Fakhroo and Raja Aderdor, made around the idea of athar, the Arabic word for traces. Al Mawlawi photographs the heirloom dishes and hospitality of her two grandmothers, Fakhroo turns his camera on souqs, shops and markets, and Aderdor collects handwritten signs, taxi stickers and shop fronts in Qatar and Morocco. It is a small show, but a touching one. On view until 15 December 2026.

8. There is no later. Later is here., Arter, Istanbul

Finally, Istanbul. Drawn from the Arter Collection and curated by Delfin Öğütoğulları, this group show takes its title from Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road and asks why the end of the world is easier to imagine than the end of the systems wearing it down. Halil Altındere, Necla Rüzgar, Can Altay, Nasan Tur and Hrair Sarkissian show alongside Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell and Gerhard Richter. Even better, entry is free on Thursdays and for visitors under 24. On view until 28 March 2027.

So, what can we take away from this? From a pinhole drawing in Tehran to a whale song in Abu Dhabi, this autumn's best shows are less about spectacle than about attention, and many of them are led by artists from our region rethinking archives, memory and craft. We're eager to see what the rest of the season brings.

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