Huguette Caland (1931-2019) was a prominent artist and figure who paved the way for freedom of artistic expression. Born in Beirut, she was Lebanese by birth, French by marriage, and American by choice.

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

We listed four exhibitions you should not miss this week in the region. …

The 1989 exhibition “Contemporary Art from the Islamic World” at London’s Barbican Centre was the first large scale exhibition of artists from Islamic backgrounds. The exhibition also introduced the term ‘modern Islamic art’, a debatable term.

Do not miss these four exhibitions in the region this week.

With Art Dubai and a number of exciting new exhibitions, Dubai is now…

The exhibition scene in Paris and Dubai is looking quite dashing this week. Do not miss these four shows!

In the Exhibition Archives series, we examine and discuss significant shows of modern and contemporary Arab art around the world.

The exhibition scene in Dubai is looking pretty dashing this autumn. There are plenty of shows to check out presenting a variety of approaches and a plethora of focuses – surely something for everyone’s taste.

Mathqaf is pleased to introduce Syrian-Swiss artist, Houda Terjuman. Based in Marrakech, her…

Laila Elsawi is a 24-year-old visual artist based in Egypt.

Amna AlFalasi is an Emirati sculptor, who aims to create figurative forms that celebrate the strength and the complexity of the human spirit.

Ahmed Morsi is a Cairo-based artist and architect who creates expressive portraits.

Today we have the pleasure to introduce you to Nujud Altammami, a Riyadh-based…

Mathqaf is pleased to introduce you to Mykérinos, a Chicago-based artist. She grew…

Dear friends, please meet Mohamed Lekleti, a Moroccan artist based in Montpellier.

Mathqaf is pleased to present Eliana El Morr, a Beirut-based artist. She is…

Mathqaf is pleased to introduce Gilbert Loutfi. Born in Beirut in 1980, Loutfi…

Our new columnist, Mawadah Nofal, investigates a profound question: why is art important?

To celebrate the upcoming holiday season (we are definitely counting the days already!!), we wanted to present to you the books we are saving for the winter break.

Loulwah Kutbi analyses Naguib Mahfouz’s The Beggar (1965).

  “ نار جدة و جنتها، وجهان لعملة واحدة” “Jeddah’s hell and heaven…

“What is home? It’s not a map, not a birth certificate. It’s not…

Taher Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan writer whose present conviction for writing came…

What’s better than getting completely lost in a mesmerising book – whether fiction or not. Here are eight books from (and of) the region we cannot wait to read this August.

Have you ever wondered about the history of museums in West Asia and North Africa? When were the region’s first museums established? What kind of museums were they?

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha was founded in 2010 with…

Welcome to a sweet little nostalgia trip.

With our fourth playlist we wish you the most magical and beautiful holiday season of 2020.

Hello friends! Baya is mostly known as the Algerian artist who inspired Picasso….

With this playlist we invite you to a joyful, rebellious soirée

Mathqaf wishes you a Happy V Day! To celebrate check out our new…

Far away from the city lights, we invite you to join us on a night in the desert.

Hello friends! After a short break, we are back with a new summer…

Our newest playlist pays homage to Lebanon.

An absolute icon, Googoosh is celebrated as Iran’s daughter and the queen of…

Hussian Bargouthi was a Palestinian author, essayist and philosopher born in 1954 in…

At My Age, I Still Hide to Smoke (Dir. Rayhana Obermeyer) is set…

Rachid Bouhamidi’s (American, b. 1981) ‘From Palm Springs to La Palmeraie’ is open at Galerie Tindouf, Marrakech, until 11 June.

Renowned Moroccan writer, Goncourt prizewinner and Nobel prize nominee Tahar Ben Jelloun’s (b. 1947) new solo exhibition has just opened at L’Atelier 21 in Casablanca.

Hunna Art, Océane Sailly’s 2021 founded contemporary art gallery representing women artists based in or from the Gulf, and Raffles The Palm Dubai present an energetic group of emerging Gulf-based artists.

Aidha Badr’s mesmerising solo exhibition ‘When I Desire You A Part Of Me Is Gone’ closes on 5 June 2022 at Jossa by Alserkal.

Our newest playlist invites you to relax, take it easy (pun intended!) and lay low.

In this interview Engie Ezeldin, a 25-year-old interdisciplinary artist based between Cairo and New York City, talks about her practise, her approach to creation and shares insights into her position as an Arab woman living between the US and Egypt.

In the wake of the transition to modernity, postmodernity and the increasingly secular…

Today we have the pleasure to introduce you to Abdullah Samir, a Cairo-based…

Etel Adnan is a visual artist, essayist, and poet whose multicultural and distinct…

Zineb Mezzour, a Moroccan-Swiss visual artist and data scientist, talks about her journey in the arts, imaginary travel to the undersea, an expedition to heal her blues and search for inner peace.

Do not miss these four exhibitions in the region and beyond this week….

Our newest playlist, Chill Vibes Only, invites you to relax and let go.

Beirut’s exhibition scene has taken a more serious tone this summer – and quite understandably so. These six exhibitions invite visitors to reflect on Lebanon’s future, but also offer avenues for escape.

Do not miss these four exhibitions in the region and beyond this week. …

It’s no secret that the pandemic created a huge shift in the art…

It’s been a decade since the wave of protests and revolutions that started in Tunisia and Egypt in mid-January 2011. To commemorate these events, we present this playlist – a moment of self-reflection and an array of feelings: rage, sadness, nostalgia.

To mark the occasion of the International Women’s Day, we present to you this playlist dedicated to the great artists of the region.

In 1989, the National Museum of Women in the Arts reached out to…

This week’s playlist celebrates our favourite Arab performers – the incomparable divas.

In our reading list on Modern and Contemporary Art in Iraq, we present…

In this piece our monthly columnist Mawadah Nofal argues for the urgency of museums to actively engage in decolonisation instead of approaching it as a yet another buzzword to be overused in the annual report.

“What race are you, are you Arab or African?    I’m like Othello, Arab…

In the Exhibition Archives series, we examine and discuss significant shows of modern and contemporary Arab art around the world.

The Dubai exhibition scene is looking pretty dashing this summer. Here are our top picks for you to escape the burning heat, and to be inspired and challenged in equal measure.

My most enduring memory of Dr Ramzi Dalloul (1935-2021) was at a dinner…

Sabrine Boulati, a Tunisia-based graphic designer, creates playful and engaging digital collages.

Egyptian writer, physician, and psychiatrist Nawal El-Saadawi was born in 1931 in the…

Today we are excited to inaugurate our new series, the Book of the Week, with an introduction to the novel “A World without Maps”.

Do not miss these four exhibitions in the region and beyond this week….

The exhibition scene in Amman this August is looking quite inviting. Check out these four must-see shows.

The Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum in Doha, despite of the common criticism towards its eclectic and ‘chaotic’ presentation, is a fantastic example of indigenous museology and vernacular museographic practices reminding us of the importance to examine private museums displaying a collector’s artifacts and objects in relation to the collector’s life.

Boston-based interdisciplinary artist Amro Arida creates captivating media and video art.

2020 was not an easy year for museums, yet digital and online worlds present them a multitude of opportunities.

Let these tunes seduce you into a surprisingly pleasant September. Yalla!

Our in-house museologist and new columnist Elina Sairanen discusses the world’s first museum.

Assia Djebar’s A Sister to Scheherazade is framed by the story of Scheherazade…

Hind Bouqartacha is a Rabat-based photographer and videographer working with portraiture and conceptual, commercial and editorial photography.

Our new series “Watch This Artist” explores the different forms of contemporary creation in West Asia and North Africa.

To celebrate the opening of Shasha Movies, world’s first streaming platform for SWANA cinema, we picked four films from their March programme.

Contrary to what we can read from the Western media outlets, the Gulf museology is so much more than starachitects’ mega-museum projects.

Mathqaf’s second playlist invites you to dream.

Four exhibitions you should not miss this week in the region.

A brief overview looking at the region’s modern art museums and their histories.

Mathqaf’s first playlist presents to you a constellation of songs we just can’t stop listening to.

Mathqaf مَثقَف aims to engage with art history, museology and contemporary practices from West Asia and North Africa (WANA) to broaden the historical and theoretical discourses on regional art and culture.

Feminism; a discourse, a movement, a thought – subjective to the interpretation of…