SHARJAH.- Sharjah Art Foundation announced its programme for spring 2026, continuing its commitment to artistic exchange and collaboration with the international arts community.
Highlights from the season include the most extensive survey to date of Jorge Tacla, comprising more than 170 paintings and works on paper, as well as the first solo exhibition in the United Arab Emirates of Ahaad Alamoudi, who takes a closer look at shifting cultural identities and popular representations of the region. The spring programme features the reopening of Al Majarrah Park, an urban space redesigned in collaboration with the artist collective SUPERFLEX. The season continues with an exhibition of Rachid Koraïchi, whose five-decade practice engages deeply with signs, symbols and Islamic mysticism, and also includes the first presentation in the Gulf of paintings by the late artist Rodolfo Abularach. In June, an exhibition pairing Laila Majid and Inaam Zafar will examine the material and visual conditions of everyday life through sculpture, painting and photography.
Several exhibitions from 2025 will continue into the new year: Leda Catunda: I like to like what others are liking, the artist’s largest monographic exhibition outside Brazil; Image Keepers: Photographic Works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, the inaugural presentation at the new Photography Gallery; Of Land and Water: Works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, a group show on view at Kalba Ice Factory; and Photographic Encounters along the Gulf Coasts, a permanent display drawn from the collection of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi. Also on view is Mounira Al Solh’s mid-career solo exhibition, A land as big as her skin, at the Bonnefanten, Maastricht, co-organised by Sharjah Art Foundation.
Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual March Meeting returns from March 27 to 29, 2026, bringing together artists, curators and practitioners for talks, performances and discussions on key issues in contemporary art.
Another annual initiative, Vantage Point Sharjah 13, reflects the Foundation’s expanded vision for global, boundary-pushing lens-based practice. Featuring newly commissioned photographic series developed through an international open call, the 13th edition of the programme will be the first anchored in the new Photography Gallery.
Al Majarrah Park re-opening
January 2026
Permanent display, Al Majarrah, Sharjah
For this special commission, the artist collective SUPERFLEX worked in collaboration with Schul Landscape Architects and KWY.studio to develop a new plan for Al Majarrah Park, which is located alongside the creek in Sharjah’s heritage district. Outlines of old courtyards and houses are reflected in the design of different zones, and uneven walkways rise and fall like dunes, a reminder of the landscape surrounding the city. As an additional touch, the park features large-scale sculptures of everyday objects with personal significance for local residents, either as symbols of their time in Sharjah or reminders of their homelands.
Leda Catunda: I like to like what others are liking
Until February 8, 2026
Galleries 4 and 5, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah
Marking Leda Catunda’s largest monographic presentation outside of Brazil to date, this exhibition brings together a diverse body of work dating from the 1980s to the present. From large-scale installations to elemental watercolours, each piece embodies a sensuous negotiation between the handmade and the mass-produced, offering a whimsical critique of pop culture and consumerism.
Jorge Tacla
February 8–June 7, 2026
Galleries 1, 2 and 3, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah
Born in Santiago, with grandparents from Palestine and Syria, Jorge Tacla employs a unique method of painting time and space “in the negative” in order to record the imprint of major political and natural incidents on built environments. Presenting over 70 paintings and over 100 works on paper from the mid-1980s to the present, the exhibition marks Tacla’s largest solo exhibition to date.
Ahaad Alamoudi
February 8–May 3, 2026
Gallery 6, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah
A multidisciplinary artist based in Jeddah, Ahaad Alamoudi takes a closer look at the region’s shifting cultural landscape and its representations across popular media. The artist’s first solo exhibition in the UAE will present new commissions alongside existing works that explore rituals of repetition, embodiment and metamorphosis as pathways toward futurity.
March Meeting 2026
March 27–29, 2026
Al Qasimiyah School, Al Manakh, Sharjah
Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual March Meeting convenes artists, curators and art practitioners from around the world to discuss vital issues in contemporary art through a series of talks, lectures, performances and more.
Rachid Koraïchi
March 28–August 30, 2026
Gallery 5, Al Mureijah Square, and Calligraphy Museum, Sharjah
With a career spanning over five decades, Rachid Koraïchi has engaged a wide range of mediums including ceramics, textiles, wood, metal, marble, printmaking and painting. Curated by Salah M. Hassan, this exhibition explores the artist’s enduring fascination with signs and symbols through multifaceted installations inspired by Islamic mysticism.
Image Keepers: Photographic Works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection
Until April 26, 2026
Galleries 2 and 3, Photography Gallery, Al Manakh, Sharjah
Drawn from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, this selection of photographs or photography-adjacent practices navigate the sociopolitical terrain of the last six decades against a backdrop of the compressed and often fissured processes of modernisation and decolonisation.
Of Land and Water: Works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection
Until May 31, 2026
Kalba Ice Factory, Kalba
In works by nine artists and collectives from around the world, the ambitions of the postcolonial nation-state are juxtaposed with the grief of those who have been deprived of their native land or whose fragmented identities go unrecognised by the state.
Rodolfo Abularach
June 13–October 25, 2026
Gallery 4, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah
Born in Guatemala City and of Palestinian descent, Rodolfo Abularach is known for his dedication to depicting the human eye. Curated by Aram Moshayedi, the exhibition features a selection of the late artist’s paintings presented in the Gulf for the first time.
Laila Majid and Inaam Zafar
June 13–September 20, 2026
Gallery 6, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah
London-based Laila Majid and Lahore-based Inaam Zafar come together for this two-person exhibition looking closely at materiality and the images that structure our day-to-day life. Through sculptures, paintings and photographs, the artists explore the silhouettes, colours and tactile conditions that emerge from our everyday experiences.
Vantage Point Sharjah 13
August 8–November 29, 2026
Gallery 2, Photography Gallery, Sharjah
The 13th edition of Vantage Point Sharjah marks a new chapter for the programme as it moves into Sharjah Art Foundation’s dedicated Photography Gallery. Selected through an international open call, four artists will present commissioned photographic series developed with the support of the Foundation.
Photographic Encounters along the Gulf Coasts
Permanent display
Gallery 1, Photography Gallery, Al Manakh, Sharjah
Comprising 165 photographs and archival documents from the collection of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Sharjah, this exhibition brings together late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century glass slides made from photographs of people, places and activities along the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean littorals, many of which are being shown publicly for the first time.
