Lawrie Shabibi

Lawrie Shabibi Lawrie Shabibi is a contemporary art gallery based in a 3000 sq ft warehouse in Alserkal Avenue in Dubai's Al-Quoz industrial district.

Lawrie Shabibi was founded in 2011 by William Lawrie and Asmaa Al-Shabibi and represents both emerging and established artists from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. For directions please see http://www.lawrieshabibi.com/about-us/

31/08/2026

We are pleased to present ‘The Butterfly’s Burden’, a solo exhibition by Egyptian artist Nada Elkalaawy, opening on 23 September 2026 🦋

Borrowed from the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, the exhibition’s title speaks to the tension between sensitivity, beauty, and emotional weight. Across a body of paintings developed through layered processes of accumulation and erasure, Elkalaawy explores memory, loss, regeneration, and the passage of time. Ephemeral forms including flowers, butterflies, domestic vessels, family photographs, and ghostly figures hold traces of shared human experience, drifting between past and present, presence and absence.

Opening Reception:
🗓 Wednesday, 23 September, 2026
🕓 Time: 6 – 9 PM
📍 Venue: Lawrie Shabibi, Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE

Artwork shown:
1: Nada Elkalaawy
‘Porcelain Apparition’, 2025
Oil on canvas
122 x 168 cm

2: ‘A Soft Burning’, 2026
Oil on canvas
168 x 122 cm

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AlserkalAvenue

We are pleased to announce the representation of Saif Azzuz in the Middle East and North Africa, the latest addition to ...
30/07/2026

We are pleased to announce the representation of Saif Azzuz in the Middle East and North Africa, the latest addition to our roster of international artists!💫 We co-represent the artist with Anthony Meier, Mill Valley, CA.

Saif Azzuz (b. 1987) is a Libyan-Yurok artist based in Pacifica, California, whose paintings straddle abstraction and surrealism in their sweeping use of colour, sensual movement, and evocation of the natural world. The paintings are full and alive, pressing their power up to the very edges of the canvas, resisting their frames. The shapes he makes are like liquid leaves - stretching, reaching, pulling, pushing, almost vibrating with the cycles of the seasons. Azzuz uses a series of personal gestural marks and an iconography derived from the traditions and native land of his peoples.

His work is held in public and private collections including The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, Dallas, TX; de Young Museum - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Facebook, Menlo Park, CA; Gochman Family Collection, NY; KADIST, San Francisco, CA; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada; Stanford Health Care Art Collection, Menlo Park, CA; UBS Art Collection, New York, NY; and University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN.Thomas; Facebook Collection; and the Gochman Family Collection.

🔗 Read more about Saif Azzuz on our website

Images shown:
1: Portrait of Saif Azzuz
2. Saif Azzuz, ‘Algae Bloom 1’, 2025, Acrylic on canvas, 203.2 x 152.4 x 3.81 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi.
3: Saif Azzuz, ‘For Derna (Rumman)’, 2026, Acrylic on canvas, 203.2 x 152.4 cm
4: Left to right: Saif Azzuz, ‘Blind eyes (long headed poppy) 1’, 2025; ‘Swamp Mallow’, 2025; ‘Ghaf tree (UAE)’, 2025.

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Marwan Bassiouni presents new works from his ongoing series ‘New British Views’ as part of ‘East of the Aldgate Pump’, a...
29/07/2026

Marwan Bassiouni presents new works from his ongoing series ‘New British Views’ as part of ‘East of the Aldgate Pump’, a presentation within ‘Backyard Biennial: East’ at Whitechapel Gallery.

By framing the British landscape from within mosque interiors, Bassiouni proposes a new way of looking at the West—one that reconsiders familiar places through shifting perspectives. His photographs invite viewers to reflect on landscape, belonging and the ways our understanding of place is shaped by where we stand.

‘New British Views’ is currently on view as part of ‘East of the Aldgate Pump’ in ‘Backyard Biennial: East’ at Whitechapel Gallery, London, until September 6, 2026.

Images are courtesy of the artist and Whitechapel Gallery, London.
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Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim’s work is currently on view in ‘Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now’ at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, a...
20/07/2026

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim’s work is currently on view in ‘Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now’ at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, as part of the museum’s recent acquisitions.

Inspired by a lifelong relationship with the landscape of Khorfakkan, Ibrahim’s practice draws on the Gulf of Oman and the Hajar Mountains, translating memory, place and lived experience into a distinctive visual language. Through handmade forms, drawings and sculptural works, he develops recurring symbols and inscriptions that evoke ancient markings, tracing time through repetition and connecting personal history with the natural world.

Bringing together historic Pop works with contemporary practices, ‘Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now’ considers how artists continue to engage with the visual language of everyday life, expanding the legacy of Pop through new perspectives on identity, culture and representation.

📍’Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now’ is now on view at the Guggenheim Museum, New York until January 10, 2027.

Image credits: ‘Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now’ , Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photography by David Heald.
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02/07/2026

In conversation with artist Areen Hassan, whose work ‘Threads (خيوط)’ is currently on view in ‘Cross Scripts’.

Working with textiles as vessels of memory, Hassan draws from the rich visual language of Palestinian embroidery, weaving together personal history, cultural inheritance, and processes of transformation. In ‘Threads’, the Islamic garden becomes a conceptual framework for ideas of continuity and renewal, while the work’s unravelled fibres speak to resilience, displacement, and the enduring nature of identity.

‘Cross Scripts’ is currently on view until 31 July 2026.
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We are pleased to share that Mohamed Melehi’s ‘Composition’ (1976) is currently on view in ‘Project a Black Planet: The ...
30/06/2026

We are pleased to share that Mohamed Melehi’s ‘Composition’ (1976) is currently on view in ‘Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica’ at the Barbican Centre, London.

Bringing together more than 300 works from Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, North America and Western Europe, the exhibition explores the enduring influence of Pan-African thought on artistic and cultural production, tracing histories of solidarity, liberation and exchange across the African continent and its global diasporas.

Created during a pivotal period in Melehi’s career, ‘Composition’ exemplifies the artist’s iconic wave motif—an exploration of movement, energy and connectivity that became central to his practice. As a leading figure of Moroccan modernism and the Casablanca Art School, Melehi developed a visual language that drew upon Morocco’s cultural and visual heritage while engaging with the wider discourse of international modernism.

Presented within ‘Project a Black Planet’, ‘Composition’ highlights Melehi’s enduring contribution to conversations surrounding abstraction, cultural identity and artistic self-determination. His work continues to resonate across generations, reflecting the interconnected histories and cultural exchanges that have shaped modern and contemporary art.

‘Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica’ is on view at the Barbican Centre until 17 January 2027.

Image credit: ‘Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica’, Installation View, 11 Jun – 6 Sep 2026 © Max Colson/Barbican Art Gallery

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Marwan Bassiouni’s body of work, ‘New Swiss Views’, is currently on view at the Swiss Design Awards 2026 in Basel, Switz...
18/06/2026

Marwan Bassiouni’s body of work, ‘New Swiss Views’, is currently on view at the Swiss Design Awards 2026 in Basel, Switzerland.

Presented alongside the ‘New Swiss Views’ publication, the display features a selection of photographs from the series, which examines themes of identity, faith, and belonging within the contemporary Swiss landscape.

📍 Booth No. 3, Messe Hall 1.1
📅 15–21 June 2026
📌 Basel, Switzerland

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Currently on view at Art Jameel’s ‘Global Positioning System’, Dima Srouji’s ‘The Rule of Superposition 2 ‘ reimagines J...
17/06/2026

Currently on view at Art Jameel’s ‘Global Positioning System’, Dima Srouji’s ‘The Rule of Superposition 2 ‘ reimagines Jerusalem through its layered surfaces and hidden depths.

Drawing on years of archaeological research, the installation brings together mapped sites including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock alongside imagined future excavations and existing subterranean remains. Through graphite rubbings and traced surfaces, Srouji reveals the city not as a singular narrative, but as a complex fabric of memories, histories, and contested realities.

In dialogue with Global Positioning System’s exploration of navigation, movement, and the politics of mapping, the work questions how knowledge is constructed, preserved, and erased, offering an alternative way of understanding place through touch, memory, and material traces.

‘The Rule of Superposition 2 ‘ is now on view at Jameel Arts Centre as part of the exhibition ‘Global Positioning System’ until October 4, 2026.

Image credits: Installation view, ‘Global Positioning System’ at Jameel Arts Centre, 2026. Image courtesy of Art Jameel. Photography by Danko Stjepanovic.

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GALLERY CLOSURE | Please note that our gallery will be closed on Monday, 15 June, in observance of the Islamic New Year....
15/06/2026

GALLERY CLOSURE | Please note that our gallery will be closed on Monday, 15 June, in observance of the Islamic New Year.
We wish everyone a peaceful and prosperous New Year and look forward to welcoming you back on Tuesday, 16 June.

NOW OPEN! ‘Cross Scripts’, our summer show, brings together creatives whose practices move fluidly between categories, r...
06/06/2026

NOW OPEN! ‘Cross Scripts’, our summer show, brings together creatives whose practices move fluidly between categories, resisting the distinctions that have traditionally separated art, design, architecture, and craft.

Across painting, sculpture, furniture, jewellery and textiles, the exhibition traces a series of overlapping visual languages. Geometry becomes ornament. Utility becomes sculpture. Traditional techniques are reimagined through contemporary forms. Historical references, material traditions and systems of making are translated and reimagined, revealing unexpected connections between makers working across different generations and geographies.

Featuring Hamra Abbas, MODU Method by Omar Al Gurg, Farhad Ahrarnia, Sarah Almehairi, Kamrooz Aram, Bernhard Buhmann, Nada Debs, Areen Hassan, KAMEH, Bil Arabi by Nadine Kanso, Mehdi Moutashar, Timo Nasseri, Driss Ouadahi, and Ishmael Randall-Weeks, alongside works by Zein Daouk, Carlo Massoud, Mary-Lynn Massoud, and Rasha Nawam, presented by Iwan Maktabi.

Artworks are courtesy of Bil Arabi by Nadine Kanso, MODU Method by Omar Al Gurg, Kamrooz Aram, Green Art Gallery, Sarah Almehairi, Bernhard Buhmann, Carbon 12, Studio Nada Debs, KAMEH, Areen Hassan, Iwan Maktabi, Carlo Massoud, Mary-Lynn Massoud, Zein Daouk, Rasha Nawam and Lawrie Shabibi.

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Address

Dubai

Opening Hours

Monday 10:00 - 18:00
Tuesday 10:00 - 18:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 18:00
Thursday 10:00 - 18:00
Friday 10:00 - 18:00
Saturday 11:00 - 18:00
Sunday 10:00 - 18:00

Telephone

+97143469906

Website

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