Make Time for These Women at Alserkal Art Week
History Otherwise brings Arab women modernists to Concrete, with paintings, sculpture, textiles and exhibition posters that tell a revealing story of their own.
yapped Editors · Nov 10, 2026 · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · 2 min read
Quick facts
- Exhibition
- History Otherwise: Women Modernists from the Arab World
- Dates
- 15–22 November 2026
- Where
- Concrete, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz
- Collection
- Barjeel Art Foundation
Put Concrete on your Alserkal Art Week route. Opening this Sunday, History Otherwise brings together work by women artists from across the Arab world, including Samia Halaby, Inji Efflatoun and Mona Saudi.
The reason to go starts before the paintings. Exhibition posters dating from the 1940s to the 1990s show these women exhibiting, forming collectives and contributing to cultural life. They were there. The question is why later accounts of modern art so often gave them less room.
Start With the Posters
Give the opening archive some time. It sets up the exhibition’s central argument through evidence of careers already in motion, rather than treating these artists as recent discoveries.
Then follow the work through four sections: introspecting, documenting, abstracting and crafting. In plain terms, that means portraits and personal relationships, responses to social and political change, experiments with form, and the materials and techniques artists chose to use.
There’s plenty to look at across painting, sculpture and textiles. No need to settle on a favourite medium before arriving.
“They were there. The question is why later accounts of modern art so often gave them less room.”
Three Works to Look For
The announced selection includes Inji Efflatoun’s Untitled (1977), Samia Halaby’s White Cube on Brown Cube (1969) and Mona Saudi’s marble sculpture Continuity (1968).
Together, they give you a starting point for exploring different approaches within the collection. Take time with what catches your eye, then follow the connections between the rooms.
With the exhibition running for just eight days, this is one to put into your Art Week plans now. It won’t still be there when “we should go sometime” finally becomes a date.