Two decades of The Third Line: A Dubai art story
Also this week: Orfali Bros bistro, Aichi Triennale, and Mona Al Khaja’s colors.
Welcome back to Al-Monitor Dubai.
This week we are spotlighting The Third Line gallery as it celebrates its 20th anniversary in Dubai; Japan’s Aichi Triennale, curated by Sharjah’s Hoor Al Qasimi; a retrospective of pioneering Emirati artist Mona Al Khaja; and Abu Dhabi’s new partnership with Amazon to create an Arabic Digital Library.
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Happy reading,
Rebecca
P.S. Have feedback or tips on Dubai's culture scene? Send them my way at contactus@al-monitor.com.
1. Leading the week: "The Only Way is Through: The Twentieth Line"
Bady Dalloul. One Man Show. 2024. Collage. 30.7 x 23 x 6 cm. (Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line)
The Third Line, Dubai’s pioneering and much-loved gallery, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an exhibition curated by Shumon Basar titled “The Only Way is Through: The Twentieth Line.” The title draws inspiration from a colloquial phrase that often denotes a period of challenge or hardship that results in resilience and endurance.
Basar traces the story of the gallery since its founding in 2005 by Sunny Rahbar, Claudia Cellini and Omar Ghobash, presenting a tightly curated exhibition featuring works by every artist currently represented by the gallery. The show combines early and recent pieces from The Third Line’s two-decade archive with reflections on global history and the seismic socio-cultural, political and economic shifts of the past 20 years. Artists represented include Amir H. Fallah, Bady Dalloul, Farah Al Qasimi, Fouad Elkoury, Hassan Hajjaj, Hayv Kahraman, Huda Lutfi, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Sophia Al-Maria and Youssef Nabil.
“We are extremely happy and proud of our artists and of all of the work that we all did together to get here and to still be around 20 years later,” Rahbar told Al-Monitor. “The scene is very different now versus when we started in 2005. We are in a completely different moment. When we started in 2005, very few artists from the Middle East were being represented in Western institutions and galleries. It was very rare to see a Middle Eastern artist showing in major spaces or even an art gallery.”
Two decades later, she said, the landscape has transformed. The Third Line was not alone in championing regional art; Rahbar highlighted the Sharjah Art Foundation and its Biennial, along with other galleries in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, as pivotal in pushing Middle Eastern artists onto the world stage. Together, their efforts have brought greater visibility and recognition to the region’s art scene.
“I'm excited for the next 20 years which will be different. I think in the beginning we were trying to make ourselves known, heard and seen — all of us artists, writers and filmmakers. Now it is about continuing to be part of the conversation,” Rahbar noted.
As part of the anniversary celebration, the gallery is reviving a tradition from its early years: Flash Sales Specials. For these, Basar has selected rarely seen works from the gallery’s archives, grouped them by “search word” themes, and will display them in the Viewing Room for just 48 hours at a time. Announcements will be made on The Third Line’s social media platforms throughout the exhibition.
Date: Until Nov. 7
Location: The Third Line, Alserkal Avenue
Find more information here.
2. Word on the street: Three Bros
A dish at Three Bros in Wasl 51. (Courtesy of Orfali Bros)
The Orfali brothers are renowned across the UAE for their top-notch, innovative eateries, and they’ve added another hit with their latest venture, Three Bros — a relaxed neighborhood bistro at Wasl 51 offering inventive casual dining. The menu reflects the distinct personalities of brothers Mohamed, Wassim and Omar, with playful dishes such as the OB cheeseburger, pillowy pidzas, adobo chicken wings, TNT patatas and morel chawanmushi, a savory Japanese steamed egg custard.
Once you’ve been to Three Bros, you’ll be hooked. Remarkably, this unassuming bistro has been named the best restaurant in the Middle East and North Africa by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for three consecutive years, and in 2024 it earned a Michelin Star.
Location: Wasl 51, Al Wasl Road, Jumeirah
Find more information here.
3. Dubai diary
A view of the opening of the Aichi Triennale in Japan. Courtesy of Aichi Triennale
- The Aichi Triennale in Japan opens under UAE leadership
The Aichi Triennale, one of Japan’s leading international art events, opened its sixth edition on Sep. 13. This year’s edition was curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, making her the first non-Japanese artistic director in the triennale’s history.
The exhibition’s title is inspired by “A Time Between Ashes and Roses,” from a verse by the Syrian poet Adonis, a leading voice in the contemporary Arab world.
The triennale curated by Qasimi centers on transcendence — on blossoming from the ashes. The works collectively propose a vision of the future framed through geological time rather than contemporary national or territorial perspectives, which often shape our understanding of the divide between humanity and the environment.
The exhibition features 60 artists and collectives from 22 countries and territories, whose practices explore cultural memory, material experimentation and popular imagination.
Date: Until Nov. 30
Location: Aichi Arts Center in Nagoya, Seto City
Find more information here.
- ‘Caravan of Colors Through Time: A Retrospective’ on Mona Al Khaja
This exhibition celebrates four decades of work by Emirati artist Mona Al Khaja, born in Sharjah in 1958. It presents her vibrantly colored canvases, tracing her journey from formative years at Cairo’s Faculty of Fine Arts — where she studied under mentors such as Emirati pioneer Najat Makki — to later explorations of symbolism, color and abstraction. The works highlight her mastery of watercolors and acrylics, creating vivid landscapes through a distinctly Emirati perspective.
Date: Until Nov. 5
Location: Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Alserkal Avenue
Find more information here.
- Abu Dhabi partners with Amazon to create Arabic Digital Library
Announced at the opening of the International Congress of Arabic and Creative Industries at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena, the project was unveiled by Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi. The new Arabic Digital Library will combine the center’s curatorial expertise with Amazon’s technological capabilities to make Arabic books more accessible than ever.
While a launch date has yet to be confirmed, the initiative will complement the Dubai Digital Library, launched in 2018, which has since expanded to over 245,000 titles, including books, periodicals, newspapers, magazines and research papers.
Find more information here.
4. Book of the week: "The Blue Between Sky and Water"
A poignant and powerful read for our times, this book by Susan Abulhawa tells the story of four generations of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip. After being violently expelled from their ancestral farming village of Beit Daras, a Palestinian family struggles to rebuild its life in a Gaza refugee camp.
Many of the men have either fled the battlefields and prisons or joined the resistance to preserve their dignity, leaving the women to become both breadwinners and protectors of their families. At the center of the narrative is Nazmiyeh, the matriarch of a household of sisters, daughters and granddaughters, who rises to each challenge as both collective and personal crises threaten their survival.
5. View from Dubai
Farah Al Qasimi. Sandcastles. 2014. Archival Inkjet Print. 69 x 86 cm. Edition of 5, 2A. (Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line)
Emirati multidisciplinary artist Farah Al Qasimi’s playful photographs of sandcastles across Dubai are part of a series in which she explores various aspects of Emirati culture and heritage. These works transport her back to her own childhood, growing up in a city shaped by the rapid pace of development. Amid the throes of change, she focuses on quiet in-between moments when sandcastles can playfully be made while glistening skyscrapers rise — often, as she alludes, exposing a sense of alienation among residents. Her sandcastles also reveal another side of Dubai and offer a place of respite amid the constant transformation of the urban landscape
6. By the numbers
- Dubai is set to add over 5,000 hotel rooms across 19 properties in the second half of 2025, and another 6,000 rooms next year, according to real estate consultancy Cavendish Maxwell’s H1 2025 Dubai Hospitality Market Report.
- The report also shows that visitor numbers rose by 6.1% year on year, reaching 9.9 million in the first half of 2025, which drove up occupancy rates to 81%.