Looking for cool exhibitions to check out? Don’t miss these four shows this week.

In Search of Light: Hala Ezzeddine, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut

The Agial Art Gallery presents a solo show on the Lebanese artist Hala Ezzeddine (b. 1989), who paints expressive portraits discussing difficult destinies. Her practice has been described as an ethnographic one. Recently, for instance, Ezzeddine has created portraits of the Syrian refugees, she worked as a teacher of the fine arts in her hometown Arsal.

The exhibition closes on 9 January 2021.

CAP Collection: Spotlights, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait

The CAP Kuwait celebrates the end of the year with an exhibition presenting artworks from their permanent collection. The collection show includes regional and international artists, the kinds of Jeff Koons, Etel Adnan, Damien Hirst, Laila Shawa, Farid Belkahia, Marc Chagall, Shirin Neshat and Shafic Abboud.

The exhibition closes at the end of January.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Maureen Paley, London

Maureen Paley presents its second solo exhibition by British-Lebanese contemporary artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b. 1985). The show comprises of Hamdan’s recent body of work, including: Once Removed (2019), a dual-channel video installation, which was first shown in the Sharjah Biennial 14; and For the Otherwise Unaccounted (2020), a new work consisting of thermographic prints, text panels and wooden shelves. In a reiteration of Hamdan’s research, this recent body of work developed to investigate reincarnation, not as a scientific fact, but as a medium for justice.

The exhibition closes on 31 January 2021. Don’t forget to book in advance!

Wafaa Bilal, 168: 01 at The House of Wisdom, Sharjah

The newly inaugurated futuristic library, the House of Wisdom, presents a major solo exhibition and project by Iraqi-born and New York-based artist, Wafaa Bilal (b. 1966). The exhibition reveals the neglected historic loss of a priceless cultural heritage in Iraq, where more than 70,000 books were destroyed by a fire at the library of the College of Fine Arts at University of Baghdad in 2003. The premise of Bilal’s exhibition is a participatory project, where the ‘168: 01’ installation is conceived as an exchange between viewers to replace white books with new educational text and art books as a donation, to rebuild the library of Fine Arts in Baghdad. In return, donors will receive a limited edition artist book from the exhibition.

Support the project here.

The exhibition closes on 21 March 2021.

Featured image: Courtesy of CAP Kuwait and Damien Hirst.