Leila Heller Gallery

“The Feeling of Being Alive” will be on view until Sunday at @artdubai @leilahellergallery Booth A13. You are warmly invited to visit. Pigmented Porcelain, 22K Gold Luster Hand-built, fired at 1250°C 2025 Special thanks to @ryan.koopmans for the images🙏🏻✨

Day 2 of Art Dubai Special Edition @artdubai ✨ Our Modern booth (A10) presents a focused historical dialogue celebrating pioneering figures of modern art from the Middle East and South Asia, featuring works by Parviz Tanavoli, Marcos Grigorian, Farideh Lashai, Jehangir Vazifdar, and Wassef Boutros-Ghali. Highlights include Parviz Tanavoli’s (@parviz_tanavoli ) iconic yellow Heech and Chair sculptures — poetic interpretations of the Persian word for “nothing,” inspired by Rumi’s poetry and Sufi mysticism. Marcos Grigorian’s (@marcosgrigorianfoundation ) Crossroads (1975), created with cracked earth on canvas, reflects his pioneering exploration of materiality and the connection between land and identity. Farideh Lashai’s (@lashaifoundation ) Untitled uses layered abstraction to create deeply colorful and dreamlike scenes. Jehangir Vazifdar’s The Beautiful Girl captures the artist’s modernist language through bold form, color, and a playful sense of figuration.

The emptiness of you جای خالی تو‌ #artdubai #content #contemporary #you #artmagazines

Art Dubai Special Edition (@artdubai ) begins today, May 14, at Madinat Jumeirah! Stop by Booth A10 & A13 to see our presentation of Modern and Contemporary works by our global group of artists. In our Modern booth, Wassef Boutros-Ghali’s vibrant abstract compositions reflect a lyrical engagement with landscape, architecture, and Mediterranean light through expressive forms and color fields. In our Contemporary booth, Kevork Mourad’s (@kevork_mourad ) immersive sculptural installation combines architecture, memory, and migration through intricately hand-cut forms that appear suspended between drawing and sculpture. #ADSpecialEdition #ArtDubai #LeilaHellerGallery

Join us on Tuesday, May 12, from 6–8 PM for the opening of “Wassef Boutros-Ghali: A Retrospective & Book Launch,” an exhibition presenting the work of the late Egyptian artist Wassef Boutros-Ghali alongside the launch of his catalogue raisonné at Leila Heller Gallery in New York. Spanning his distinct creative phases, the works in this exhibition reflect an enduring artistic legacy shaped across Cairo, Paris, and New York City. Boutros-Ghali’s practice was informed by both cultural hybridity and political upheaval, and his paintings mirror this duality, balancing a sense of instability with the order of architectural form. By uniting these works, the exhibition presents a cohesive narrative of his artistic development. The artist’s catalogue raisonné, prepared by Skira (@skira_arte ) was published in May 2026. #WassefBoutrosGhali #LeilaHellerGallery Artwork details in order of appearance: Wassef Boutros-Ghali, Square in a Square, 2015; Untitled, 2012; The King, 2021; Untitled, 2020; The Chinese Spoon, 2002; Eruption, 2002

Opening next week ✨ A selection of solo and group exhibitions will open Tuesday, May 12, in Dubai. • Sultan Bin Fahad (@sultanthe1st ): Blue Note explores the history of jazz, spirituality, and cultural identity | Opening May 12 in Gallery 1 • Kevork Mourad (@kevork_mourad ): The Echoes of Silent Bells presents layered works shaped by the artist’s memories of Aleppo, Syria | Opening May 12 in Gallery 2 • All in the Family brings together works by Farshid Shafiey (@farshid_shafiey ), Atieh Sohrabi (@atieh.sohrabi ), and Baran Shafiey (@baranshafiey ), exploring artistic expression across generations | Opening May 12 in Gallery 3 Join us for the opening reception from 6–9pm on May 12 at #LeilaHellerDubai.
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Artwork details in order of appearance: Sultan Bin Fahad, Music Is Us, 2023; Kevork Mourad, Afterlife II, 2023; Atieh Sohrabi, Await, 2025.

In his essay ‘We Are All Under the Great Wave Now’, Nick Hackworth (@nick_hackworth ) examines Douglas White’s (@douglaswhiteart ) fascination with Hokusai’s iconic print “The Great Wave” which inspired the work at the center of his current show in Dubai. While Hokusai’s work is commonly seen as “a universal, visual shorthand for the power of the ocean and natural force…The meanings of the original work are darker and nuanced…we find in the composition, three, often overlooked, low-slung fishing boats caught beneath the claw-like crest of the towering wave that is about to crash down upon them...Within the work, the great wave is an imminent threat. It is depicted, almost cruelly, at its point of maximum, gathered, kinetic energy. If the great wave must be a universal symbol it would be more accurately appropriated as a harbinger of massive threat or disruptive change, the scale of which dwarfs human agency.” It was that sense of imminence that White sought to capture in his epic sculptural work. Read the full essay at the link in bio.

🌟 We are looking for passionate and dedicated interns to join our Dubai and New York teams for a three month summer internship program! Gain hands-on experience in gallery operations, exhibitions, curatorial programming. 📩 Send your CV to [email protected] (Dubai) or [email protected] (NY)

Déjà Vu, a multi-gallery exhibition conceptualized by Alserkal (@alserkalavenue ), is on view for one more week. The 14-day selling exhibition features 50+ artists represented by 20 of the UAE’s leading contemporary art galleries. Head to Concrete on Alserkal Avenue to view the works of Katya Traboulsi (@katyatraboulsi ), from her Perpetual Identities series, on view until Friday May 8th.

Lounging on a navy-blue Roche Bobois sofa at her New York City apartment, gallerist and avid collector Leila Heller (@leilaheller_ny ) is entirely in her element. Bright canvases dress the walls behind her: works by both European and Middle Eastern artists collected over time, many of whom she has exhibited at her eponymous galleries (@leilahellergallery ) in New York and Dubai. The latter opened 20 years ago in Alserkal Avenue, the largest such space in the creative district. There is nothing singular about Heller’s choice of art or the way she presents it. Instead, there is range—a constellation of stories that continue to orbit her life. “I love creating salon-style walls in my home,” she says in her spirited voice. “It’s all little works by different artists that come together as a group. I’ve always loved doing that in every exhibition of mine as well. I would encourage my artists, besides their big paintings, to also give me smaller works, so that I can make these salon-style arrangements.” Tour inside Leila Heller’s New York apartment at the link in bio. *This story was featured in the April/May 2026 Issue of Architectural Digest Middle East. Photography: @pernilleloof , @thomasloof | Styling: @martinrbourne | Words: @aidannovaa تسترخي ليلى هيلر، صاحبة المعرض وجامعة الأعمال الفنية، على أريكة زرقاء داكنة من تصميم روش بوبوا في شقتها بمدينة نيويورك، وهي تشعر براحة تامة. تزدان الجدران خلفها بلوحات فنية زاهية الألوان: أعمال لفنانين أوروبيين وشرق أوسطيين جمعتها على مرّ السنين، وقد عرضت العديد منهم أعمالهم في معارضها التي تحمل اسمها في نيويورك ودبي. افتُتح معرضها الأخير قبل عشرين عامًا في السركال أفينيو، وهو الأكبر من نوعه في الحي الإبداعي. لا شيء بسيط في اختيار هيلر للفن أو في طريقة عرضها له. بل على العكس، هناك تنوّع كبير، وسلسلة من القصص التي لا تزال تُحيط بحياتها. تقول بصوتها المفعم بالحيوية: "أحبّ أن أُنشئ جدرانًا تُشبه الصالونات الفنية في منزلي. إنها عبارة عن أعمال صغيرة لفنانين مختلفين تجتمع معًا في مجموعة واحدة. لطالما أحببتُ فعل ذلك في كل معرض أقيمه. أشجع الفنانين، إلى جانب لوحاتهم الكبيرة، على إهدائي أعمالًا أصغر حجمًا، حتى أتمكن من إنشاء هذه التنسيقات الفنية المميزة." قم بجولة داخل شقة ليلى هيلر في نيويورك عبر الرابط في البايو.

Mehdi Farhadian: Revealing the Unseen, published by @skira_arte and now available, accompanies the artist’s (@mehdifarhadian ) solo exhibition now on view at Leila Heller Gallery Dubai for one more week. Revealing the Unseen presents a compelling body of work in which history, imagination, and memory converge. Farhadian’s paintings unfold like scenes from an imagined travelogue, inviting viewers into layered landscapes and interior settings that exist somewhere between reality and fiction. Within these carefully constructed spaces, human figures, animals, and symbolic objects appear like performers on a stage, guiding the viewer through narratives that blur the boundaries between the visible and the unseen. This book, comprising scholarly essays accompanied by over 150 colour images, provides a comprehensive insight into Farhadian’s oeuvre. Farhadian invites viewers into a world they may have never physically experienced, known, or consciously remembered. Instead of erasing history, he seeks to illuminate hidden facets, using the seemingly faded qualities and ahistorical additions to evoke the challenges of uncovering the truth about Iran’s complex past.