Qatar Museums has unveiled the full programme for the inaugural Rubaiya Qatar, a new international visual arts quadrennial opening in Doha this November. Announced on 13 October, the edition brings together more than 120 artists from over 45 countries across three exhibitions and public-art installations, running 21 November 2026 to 30 April 2027. Organised by ALRIWAQ Arts + Architecture under the patronage of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, it will occupy ALRIWAQ, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Katara QM Gallery, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and public spaces. The centrepiece is Unruly Waters, opening 21 November at ALRIWAQ with further presentations at the Museum of Islamic Art and MIA Park. Curated by Tom Eccles, Ruba Katrib, Shabbir Hussain Mustafa and ArtReview editor-in-chief Mark Rappolt, the exhibition features more than 30 new commissions and explores water as a way of understanding movement, trade and ecological change. Named artists include Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sophia Al Maria, Alia Farid, Lydia Ourahmane, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Ayoung Kim and Yuko Mohri, working across film, sculpture, painting, installation, performance and sound. A striking historical thread runs through the show: alongside the contemporary commissions, it presents artefacts recovered from the Cirebon shipwreck, a late ninth- to tenth-century merchant vessel salvaged from the Java Sea in 2003. The cargo, evidence of a Maritime Silk Road connecting Asia, Africa and the Middle East long before European colonialism, is set in dialogue with the Museum of Islamic Art's collection and new commissions, framing the Gulf as a crossroads of winds, tides and migration routes. Two further exhibitions open on 22 November: Our Common Currents at the Katara QM Gallery, curated by Lina Patmali, and Seething Sea at Mathaf, curated by Wadha Al Aqeedi, with more than 80 works by over 50 artists reflecting on the Gulf's relationship with the sea. New public-art installations will be unveiled by artists including Jitish Kallat, Minerva Cuevas, Ibrahim Mahama and Nazgol Ansarinia, extending a programme begun with Tiravanija's bread-sharing pavilion at MIA Park. The quadrennial anchors Evolution Nation, Qatar Museums' campaign marking 50 years of the National Museum of Qatar and 20 years of Qatar Museums.