Sharjah Art Foundation today 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 27 to 29 March 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 stretches along 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 everyday objects contributed by local residents, reimagined as large-scale sculptures. 

Leda Catunda: I like to like what others are liking
Until 8 February 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
8 February – 7 June 2026
Gallery 1, 2 and 3, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah

A third-generation of Palestinian and Syrian immigrants in Chile, 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
8 February – 3 May 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
27-29 March 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
28 March – 30 August 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 26 April 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 31 May 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
13 June – 25 October 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
13 June – 20 September 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 
8 August – 29 November 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.

About Sharjah Art Foundation

Sharjah Art Foundation is an advocate, catalyst and producer of contemporary art within the Emirate of Sharjah and the surrounding region, in dialogue with the international arts community. The Foundation advances an experimental and wide-ranging programmatic model that supports the production and presentation of contemporary art, preserves and celebrates the distinct culture of the region and encourages a shared understanding of the transformational role of art. The Foundation’s core initiatives include the long-running Sharjah Biennial, featuring contemporary artists from around the world; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; ambitious and experimental commissions and a range of travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications.

Established in 2009 to expand programmes beyond the Sharjah Biennial, which launched in 1993, the Foundation is a critical resource for artists and cultural organisations in the Gulf and a conduit for local, regional and international developments in contemporary art. The Foundation’s deep commitment to developing and sustaining the cultural life and heritage of Sharjah is reflected through year-round exhibitions, performances, screenings and educational programmes in the city of Sharjah and across the Emirate, often hosted in historic buildings that have been repurposed as cultural and community centres. A growing collection reflects the Foundation’s support of contemporary artists in the realisation of new work and its recognition of the contributions made by pioneering modern artists from the region and around the world.

Sharjah Art Foundation is a legally independent public body established by Emiri Decree and supported by government funding, grants from national and international nonprofits and cultural organisations, corporate sponsors and individual patrons. Hoor Al Qasimi serves as President and Director. All exhibitions are free and open to the public.

About Sharjah

Sharjah is the third largest of the seven United Arab Emirates and the only one bridging the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Reflecting the deep commitment to the arts, architectural preservation and cultural education embraced by its ruler, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums and has long been known as the cultural hub of the United Arab Emirates. In 1998, it was named UNESCO's 'Arab Capital of Culture' and has been designated the UNESCO ‘World Book Capital’ for the year 2019.

Media contact

Alyazeyah Al Marri 
alyazeyah@sharjahart.org  
+971 (0)6 5444113