Hunna Art inaugurates its new temporary space in Alserkal Avenue with the first solo exhibition of Emirati artist Wafa Al Falahi.
Opening reception: Tuesday 3 November 2026, from 6 to 9 pm
Exhibition dates: 4 November to 24 November, 2026
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm (closed on Mondays)
Venue: Hunna Art, Unit 49A, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai
Hunna Art is pleased to announce Feathers in the Reeds, Milk in the Mud, the first solo exhibition of Emirati multidisciplinary artist Wafa Al Falahi, curated by Océane Sailly, Founder and Director of Hunna Art. The exhibition marks the opening of the gallery's new temporary space at Unit 49A, Alserkal Avenue, and inaugurates a new chapter for Hunna Art within the cultural heart of Dubai.
Following the success of her solo presentation with Hunna Art at Art Dubai 2026, where her booth unfolded as an immersive spatial journal mapping cycles of birth, life, death and afterlife, Hunna Art is proud to present Al Falahi's first solo exhibition, extending that dreamlike cosmology into a new body of work.
Feathers in the Reeds, Milk in the Mud: the exhibition
Conceived as an imaginary bestiary, Feathers in the Reeds, Milk in the Mud is a playful exploration of the natural world and its relation to storytelling and imagination. Drawing on traditions of heraldry and the narrative device of animal fables, the works depict animal figures as they navigate dreamscapes. Bringing together paintings, sculptures and drawings, the exhibition unfolds as a carnivalesque journey that displays the imaginary creatures in their dancing, reverie and frolics whilst, through the sculptures, endowing them with uncanny form.
Al Falahi’s figures are pieced together from what has stayed with her after moving through a place: birds, bulls, cows, plants, flowers, landscapes and bodies of water. Recomposed through memory, childhood and fantasy, these fragments become the protagonists of fables without a fixed moral. Her figures dance, rest, wait, hide and converse in an untranscribable language of their own, moving between roles as the story turns: witness and predator, protector and prey, human and animal.
As in the oldest fables, the animal becomes a vessel for human emotions and desires, and the line between human and non-human grows ever thinner. Beauty sits alongside violence, innocence alongside desire, without any need for resolution. "Despite their strangeness, these worlds feel safe to me," the artist writes, "because everything within them seems to exist where it belongs."
"Wafa's first solo exhibition asks what happens when the human is no longer at the centre of the narrative," says curator Océane Sailly. "Her imagined ecosystems grant animals, plants and landscapes their own interiority and agency, and invite us to dwell in a world that feels both unfamiliar and strangely like somewhere we have already been. It is a privilege to open our new space in Alserkal Avenue with her work."
About the artist
Wafa Al Falahi (b. 2000) is an Emirati multidisciplinary artist whose practice traverses painting, sculpture and drawing to give form to the subconscious. Through processes reminiscent of Rorschach tests, her papier mâché, pastel and pigment compositions blur distinctions between human and animal, self and other. Childlike yet uncanny, her creatures and landscapes conjure the material presence of memory and dream. Deeply informed by her background in spatial design, she draws on clay, bioplastics and furniture-making, infusing her work with both tactile intimacy and sculptural presence.
Al Falahi holds a BA in Interior Design from the American University of Sharjah (2022). She is a former artist-in-residence at the Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi and has participated in the Athath Fellowship (2022), Tanween by Tashkeel (2023) and the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship (2024 to 2025). She curated Tasmeem 2024: Memory Box at ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai, and has exhibited at Dubai Design Week (UAE Designer Exhibition 5.0) and Maison&Objet, Paris. With Hunna Art, she took part in the group exhibition Under Her Wing (2025 to 2026) and presented a solo booth at Art Dubai 2026. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest Middle East, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, Identity, Mojeh, Villa 88 and Savoir Flair.
About Hunna Art
Founded in 2021 by Océane Sailly, Hunna Art is a contemporary art gallery devoted to a new generation of women artists from the Arabian Peninsula and the broader Arab world. Operating at the intersection of artistic experimentation and critical inquiry, the gallery accompanies artists whose practices are grounded in research and the exploration of new forms, supporting each project from its earliest inquiry to its presentation.
Hunna Art has built an international programme of exhibitions and collaborations with curators and galleries worldwide, further consolidated through participation in leading art fairs including 1-54, Abu Dhabi Art, Art Dubai, Art Paris and Cape Town Art Fair. Research forms the foundation of its practice: the gallery commissions critical essays and publishes artists' books conceived as integral components of artistic projects, among them the first monograph dedicated to Alymamah Rashed, published with Skira in 2026. Collaborations with international houses such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and Bvlgari further reflect the gallery's reach across cultural fields. In November 2026, Hunna Art opens a new temporary space in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.
Press information
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