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/

30/09/2026

For Frieze Masters 2026, we are pleased to return to the fair’s Spotlight section with a solo presentation of Maliheh Afnan (1935–2016) organised in collaboration with the Estate of Maliheh Afnan.

Our booth highlights the development of her practice from the 1970s to the 1990s: we are particularly pleased to include a rare 1970s work from her Torched series, paintings on cardboard made in response to the Lebanese Civil War, together with select portraits, Personnages, that were the subject of her 2019 solo at the MAN Museum Sardinia.

Lawrie Shabibi at Frieze Masters 2026
Maliheh Afnan | Booth S-22 | Spotlight
October 14 – 18, 2026
The Regent’s Park, London, UK

Video: Rose Issa, Maliheh Afnan: Traces, Faces & Places, 2014. Courtesy of Rose Issa, via YouTube.

______

NOW OPEN | ‘The Butterfly’s Burden’, a solo exhibition by London-based artist Nada Elkalaawy.Borrowed from the poetry of...
23/09/2026

NOW OPEN | ‘The Butterfly’s Burden’, a solo exhibition by London-based artist Nada Elkalaawy.

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.

The works in ‘The Butterfly’s Burden’ emerged from Elkalaawy’s own experience of recent loss and grief, while also giving form to manifestations of hope. They are shaped by a series of dualities: foreground and background, familiarity and surreality, happiness and sadness, hope and despair, life and death. The narratives remain intentionally ambiguous and untethered from a specific place or moment, allowing fragments of personal experience to move towards broader reflections on human connection.

The exhibition opens today and runs until 7 November, 2026.

______

A little throwback and a little look ahead, featuring artworks we’ve showcased and works you’ll be seeing us present soo...
10/09/2026

A little throwback and a little look ahead, featuring artworks we’ve showcased and works you’ll be seeing us present soon!

Artwork shown:
1. Maliheh Afnan
‘Lost City’, 1987
Mixed media on paper
60.5 x 54.5 cm

2. Mehdi Moutashar
‘Quatre carrés / Four squares’, 1984
Collage
76 x 55.5 cm

3. Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim
‘Untitled’, 1989
Oil on canvas
133.5 x 94.3 cm

4. Mona Saudi
‘Mother/Earth,’ 1981
Jordanian Jade, on marble base
55 x 50 x 19 cm

5. Nabil Nahas
‘Untitled’, 1981
Acrylic on canvas
61 x 61cm

____

A glimpse inside Nada Elkalaawy’s studio, where the works for ‘The Butterfly’s Burden’ have been taking shape 🦋Through l...
03/09/2026

A glimpse inside Nada Elkalaawy’s studio, where the works for ‘The Butterfly’s Burden’ have been taking shape 🦋

Through layers of paint, collage, accumulation and erasure, Elkalaawy brings together flowers, butterflies, domestic objects, family photographs and ghostly figures, exploring memory, loss, regeneration and the passage of time.

‘The Butterfly’s Burden’ opens on 23 September 2026.

🗓 Wednesday, 23 September, 2026
🕓 6 – 9 PM
📍 Lawrie Shabibi, Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

_____

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

_________
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.

______

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.
____

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.
______

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.
___________

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

__________

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

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Lawrie Shabibi posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Lawrie Shabibi:

Shortcuts

Share

Category