Sharjah Art Foundation kicks off its spring season on 8 February 2026 with the opening of two concurrent solo exhibitions that offer distinct yet resonant perspectives on collective memory, visual culture and the forces that preserve, destroy and propel contemporary societies.

Jorge Tacla: Time the destroyer is time the preserver
8 February–7 June 2026
Galleries 1, 2 and 3
Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah

Titled after a line from a T.S. Eliot poem, Time the destroyer is time the preserver examines how enduring truths can be excavated in the aftermath of destruction. Structured as eight chapters, Jorge Tacla’s largest solo presentation to date confronts hierarchies of human suffering; the false binaries of victim and perpetrator; and the structural violence connecting seemingly disparate incidents.

Amid a visual culture dominated by machine vision, Tacla’s paintings reassert the urgency of human memory in navigating the complexities of representation and interpretation. Rather than painting a building or landscape directly, he depicts it ‘in negative’, defining the subject through the absence of colour. In this way, these works operate as meta-images that probe how events are inscribed within individual and collective consciousness.

The exhibition is curated by Her Highness Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, with Abdulla Aljanahi, Curatorial Assistant at the Foundation.

Ahaad Alamoudi: Sunkissed
8 February–3 May 2026
Gallery 6
Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah

Drawing on motifs of the sun, sand and development, Sunkissed examines how collective identity and visual expression intersect amid the Gulf’s rapidly transforming landscape. Comprising recent and newly commissioned works by Jeddah-based artist Ahaad Alamoudi, the exhibition explores strategies of communication, both fluid and fragmented, between speculative futures and venerated histories.

Alamoudi’s vivid snapshots of contemporary Khaleeji aesthetics are infused with humour and pop cultural fluency. Viral memes, talking falcons, automated toy cars and insect light traps function as tools to process accelerating change. Together, the works trace how desires for development are absorbed, mimicked and rearticulated in everyday life, as the artist exposes how narratives of progress circulate and are continually renegotiated within the collective. 

Playfully capturing the tension between developmental goals and their real-world manifestations, the exhibition offers insight into the whimsical and often contradictory processes shaping Khaleeji cultural life.

Sunkissed is curated by Amal Al Ali, Curatorial Assistant at Sharjah Art Foundation. 

About Jorge Tacla

orge Tacla is a Chilean-born artist who lives and works between New York and Santiago. Much of his work surveys spaces of social rupture, situated in the joints of the architectures that arise in the wake of catastrophe. He perceives the devastation resulting from such events as an opportunity to investigate structural systems that would otherwise remain unseen. Tacla studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, and moved to New York in 1981. Since that time, his paintings have been exhibited internationally in galleries, museums and biennials. He has also produced several permanent installations, including murals for a museum in Santiago and a civil court in New York. In 2019, the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art acquired his papers, including Tacla’s drawings, correspondence, photographs, notebooks and clippings. Spanning nearly 40 years, these holdings provide a look into the fluctuating histories of the New York and Santiago art worlds. 

About Ahaad Alamoudi

Ahaad Alamoudi explores themes of history and representation, engaging particularly with how cultural identity and visual language manifest within Saudi Arabia’s rapidly transforming context. Through photography, video and print installations, her work examines the country’s evolving social and cultural landscape and reimagines historical narratives within contemporary frameworks. Her solo exhibitions include Moving Mountains at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah (2024) and Heat Burns at Athr Gallery, Jeddah (2020). She has also participated in group exhibitions, such as Colour Bar, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (2019); Screens Series, New Museum, New York (2019); Alobour, 21,39 The Saudi Arts Council (2019); and Out of Place, Athr Gallery, Jeddah (2019). Alamoudi holds a BA in Visual Communication from Dar Al Hekma University, Jeddah (2014) and an MA in Print from the Royal College of Art, London (2017). She is currently pursuing a PhD at Royal College of Art, London.           

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. Her Highness Sheikha 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