Sharjah Art Foundation today announces its programme for summer and autumn 2026, continuing its commitment to artistic exchange and collaboration with the international arts community.

Earlier this month, Sharjah Art Foundation kicked off its summer programming with the two-artist pairing Laila Majid and Inaam Zafar: Body Quotidian. The show will be on view in Al Mureijah Square through September 2026.

Marking its debut this summer, SAF Radio is a new online initiative dedicated to broadcasting music, voices and stories from the region and beyond. Other highlights include the launch of Sunday Cinema Club, a summer film programme at the Photography Gallery. In August, the Photography Gallery will host Vantage Point 13, which commissions new photographic series from six artists selected through an international open call. The autumn will see the return of many of the Foundation’s recurring programmes, including the fifth edition of Perform Sharjah, as well as the ninth editions of both Sharjah Film Platform, a festival of independent and experimental films, and the annual art book fair Focal Point.

Internationally, works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection will be on view in two exhibitions developed with partner institutions. Aranya Art Center Guangzhou is currently hosting In Absence and in Presence: Works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection with more than 70 works by 28 artists on display through the end of August. In November, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin will present a selection of works from the Foundation’s Collection that platform artistic practices and commissions from Palestine and neighbouring countries.

Photographic Encounters along the Gulf Coasts remains on permanent display in Gallery 1 at the Photography Gallery.

Inaugural Events

SAF Radio
Online platform
sharjahart.org

The Foundation launches SAF Radio, a new online radio platform dedicated to broadcasting music and sound-led storytelling from the region and beyond. Rooted in Sharjah and guided by a bilingual approach to programming, SAF Radio explores how musical traditions continue to evolve across generations and listening experiences, bringing contemporary sounds and emerging creative practices together with select archival recordings from the Foundation's collection. Its inaugural highlight is a seasonal music programme titled Aswaat, conceived as a continuous listening experience shaped by feeling and atmosphere rather than fixed genres. The first season comprises 12 hour-long episodes, each designed as an immersive listen.

Sunday Cinema Club
5 July – 30 August 2026
Photography Gallery, Al Manakh, Sharjah

Sunday Cinema Club offers weekly film screenings of regional classics, genre films and animated movies. Featured films include Mirai (2018) by Mamoru Hosoda, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Stanley Kubrick and West Beirut (1998) by Ziad Doueiri. Each screening is followed by a talk or workshop that further explores the film's theme, cinematic language or social background.

Exhibitions

In Absence and in Presence: Works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection
Until 30 August 2026
Aranya Art Center Guangzhou

Aranya Art Center Guangzhou presents more than 70 works across painting, sculpture, photography, video and textile by 28 artists from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection. Curated around the concept of land as seen through the perspectives of artists from West Asia, South Asia, Africa and their diasporas, the exhibition follows unique trajectories of artistic practice and experiments in these regions from the 1950s to the present.

Laila Majid and Inaam Zafar: Body Quotidian
Until 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 13
8 August – 29 November 2026
Gallery 2, Photography Gallery, Sharjah

The 13th edition of Vantage Point marks a new chapter for the programme as it moves into Sharjah Art Foundation's Photography Gallery. Selected through an international open call, six artists—Adam Rouhana, Guanyu Xu, Latifa AlBokhari, Luisa Dörr, Maheder Haileselassie and Sathish Kumar—will present commissioned photographic series developed with the support of the Foundation. 

Sharjah Art Foundation Collection at Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
19 November 2026 – May 2027
House Galleries, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Organised by IMMA and Sharjah Art Foundation, the exhibition presents selected works from the Foundation's Collection that platform artistic practices and commissions from Palestine and neighbouring countries. The exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, installations and video works dating from the 1960s, with a focus on Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara (1933–2020).

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.

Annual Events

Perform Sharjah
11 October – 29 November 2026
Various locations across Sharjah and Khorfakkan

Sharjah Art Foundation's season of performances returns this October with the fifth edition of Perform Sharjah, expanding its presence across the cities of Sharjah and Khorfakkan. With a diverse lineup reflecting and celebrating Sharjah's rich cultural fabric, the season will create shared experiences to connect people through art in familiar and unexpected spaces.

Sharjah Film Platform 9
30 October – 8 November 2026
Mirage City Cinema, Al Mureijah Square, and other cinemas in Sharjah

The ninth edition of Sharjah Film Platform, the Foundation's annual festival of independent cinema and experimental filmmaking, includes the UAE premieres of a selection of films nominated by an international committee, all of which will compete for the Sharjah Film Platform Awards.

Focal Point
11 – 13 December 2026
Bait Obaid Al Shamsi, Sharjah

Sharjah Art Foundation announces the ninth edition of Focal Point, Sharjah's annual art book fair, celebrating the breadth and innovation of contemporary publishing. Bringing together a diverse range of printed materials and publications from artists' presses, bookmakers, self-publishers and non-commercial cultural producers, the fair continues to champion experimental approaches to the medium of print.

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 Mohammad Al Qasimi, Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums and has long been known as the cultural hub of the United Arab Emirates. It was named UNESCO's Arab Capital of Culture for 1998 and the UNESCO World Book Capital for 2019.

Media Contact

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