Umm Kulthum: A Tribute to a Legendary Voice of Egypt
The life of a singer much loved across the Arab world is told in a Western-style musical in London. Can such an adaption succeed?
Protest Art Turns a Concrete Tunnel into a Vibrant Gallery
Artists among the protesters in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square use murals, graffiti, street theater and music to emphasize the call for Iraqi unity and an end to foreign intervention in their government.
The Artist Jumana Manna Preserves Palestinian Heritage Through Film, Music, and Seeds
A Berlin-based artist with Palestinian heritage incorporates archival material into works that seek to give audiences access to the inner lives of Palestinians before the “catastrophe” of 1948.
Kuwait Shuts Down an Art Exhibit. Is the ‘Most Open’ Gulf Society Closing?
Artists believe the shuttering of Shurooq Amin’s show by Kuwaiti authorities is the latest indicator of the country’s decline in freedom of expression.
The Value of Creativity in the Mediterranean Cauldron
An Italian professor suggests that those living in the Mediterranean region take their natural tendency toward creativity as a philosophy and way of life and invest in it even more.
A New York Exhibition Unravels the Complexities of Contemporary Algerian Art
Waiting for Omar Gatlato, the first major survey of contemporary Algerian art in the United States, asserts the need to consider the cultural specificity of art from postcolonial nations.
Land Art in the Desert: A Dramatic Exhibition Challenges Artistic Ideas
An exhibition at Al Ula, in Saudi Arabia, put Arab and international artists in dialogue with one another, the local community and the land. It didn’t happen without controversy, however.
New Cairo Museum Honors Naguib Mahfouz but Doesn’t Inspire
Egypt celebrates its most famous modern writer in the long-delayed museum, which finally opened last year. Visitors may wish, though, that it had taken a more engaging approach.
Devastated Middle Eastern Heritage Sites Are Recreated Digitally
At a virtual exhibition, museum-goers can experience four of the most famous historical sites in the Middle East.
A ‘Horizon of Infinity’: The Promise of Arab Abstract Art
An exhibition in New York makes the case that Arab artists developed abstraction in parallel with Western achievements rather than as a derivative example of the genre.
