Top 3 exhibitions this week: Christie’s Dubai offers up next art sale and more

Telling Kurdistan’s story through photography at NYUAD and Enjoy contemporary art at the Sharjah Biennial.

An installation by the Argentine artist Eduardo Navarro at Sharjah Biennial. Courtesy Sharjah Biennale

Calling all collectors with deep, deep pockets

Christie's Dubai has announced its next Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art sale will take place on March 18, with an auction of watches the following day. Among the works going under the hammer is Jamal Al Mahamel II by the Palestinian artist Suleiman Mansour, which depicts the painter's longing for his homeland. The lot is estimated at US$200,000-$300,000 (Dh735,000-Dh1.1 million). Further highlights include works by Hamed Ewais, Tahia Halim, Shafic Abboud and Huguette Caland. A rare 2009 Patek Philippe watch (model 5104), is expected to fetch $450,000 -$650,000. For more information, visit www.christies.com.

Telling Kurdistan’s story through photography

Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas is speaking about the groundbreaking project Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History at New York University Abu Dhabi tomorrow evening. At once a visual history for a country without a national archive and an online archive of collective memory, Kurdistan draws on Meiselas's own photographs as well as diverse historical images from a wide range of sources, including missionaries, travellers, anthropologists and colonial administrators. Gathering Photographs, Shaping Collective Memory will take place at NYUAD tomorrow from 6.30pm at the Saadiyat campus conference centre. To register, visit nyuad.nyu.edu/en/.

Enjoy contemporary art at the Sharjah Biennial

This week saw the start of the three-month long celebration of art that is the Sharjah Biennial. Sharjah Biennial 12: The past, the present, the possible will welcome 50 artists from around the world, many of whom are presenting new works, including the Vietnamese-born Danish conceptual artist Danh Vo, Eduardo Navarro from Argentina, the Turkish abstract expressionist Fahrelnissa Zeid and the home-grown talents of Hassan Sharif and Abdullah Al Saadi. Work will be on display at the Sharjah Art Foundation's galleries and Al Mureijah heritage area, as well as a number of new venues as art takes over the emirate. Sharjah Biennial 12 runs until June 5. For a full programme of talks and events visit www.sharjahart.org.