Alserkal Art Week will return to Dubai's Alserkal Avenue from 15 to 22 November 2026, with a programme built around the theme of Smouldering: the creative energy that endures through periods of upheaval and renewal. At its centre is a major exhibition at Concrete celebrating the women who shaped Arab modernism, a chapter of art history that has often been pushed to the margins.

Curated by Suheyla Takesh and Remi Homs, the Concrete show draws on the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation and features artists including Fahrelnissa Zeid, Samia Halaby, Inji Aflatoun and Etel Adnan. Working through decolonisation, rapid urban growth, political change and shifting gender roles, these artists forged new visual languages from local materials and techniques, and the exhibition positions their experiments as central, not supplementary, to the story of modern art in the region.

Beyond Concrete, the week spans 17 new exhibitions across the Avenue's galleries, alongside Majlis Talks curated by Egyptian artist and Alexandria Biennial curator Moataz Nasr under the title Sharing the Sensitive. Guest projects include a survey of the late Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour at Warehouse 46, a Barbados-linked presentation of Russell Watson's Temple Manuscripts, and shortlisted work for the Art Circle Award at Warehouse 50B.

The closing weekend adds film screenings, slow art walks and children's gallery tours, while the Chanel Culture Fund's moving-image programme Fracture: The Window takes over The Yard's screens. Together, the programme pairs a historical correction with a snapshot of the Avenue's current gallery scene, framing resilience and memory as living concerns rather than retrospective themes.