Dubai: Walking through "Cross Scripts" at Lawrie Shabibi feels less like entering a conventional gallery exhibition and more like stepping into a dialogue that has been unfolding across cultures, disciplines, and generations. Bringing together artists, designers, architects, and makers from the Middle East and beyond, the exhibition questions the very categories through which creative practices have long been understood. Here, painting converses with furniture, jewellery exists comfortably beside sculpture, and craftsmanship emerges not as a decorative afterthought but as the intellectual foundation of contemporary artistic practice.
Installation views of 'Cross Scripts', Group exhibition, 6 June - 31 July 2026, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai. Photography by Musthafa Aboobaker.
At its core, Cross Scripts is an exhibition about making, about the shared language of material, process, and cultural memory. Rather than separating fine art from design or functionality from aesthetics, the exhibition embraces their intersections, revealing how objects can simultaneously embody beauty, purpose, history, and experimentation. The title itself becomes an apt metaphor, suggesting multiple visual languages crossing paths while retaining their distinct identities.
Installation views of 'Cross Scripts', Group exhibition, 6 June - 31 July 2026, Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.
One of the exhibition's greatest strengths lies in its carefully orchestrated curatorial rhythm. Rather than grouping works according to medium, the exhibition allows ideas to flow naturally across the galleries. Geometry appears as architecture, ornament transforms into abstraction, and traditional craftsmanship evolves into contemporary conceptual expression. Visitors are encouraged to make unexpected connections between artists whose practices may initially appear unrelated but gradually reveal shared concerns with structure, repetition, memory, and materiality.
A strong visual dialogue unfolds through the works of Mehdi Moutashar, Sarah Almehairi, Bernhard Buhmann, and Driss Ouadahi, each approaching geometry from remarkably different perspectives. Moutashar's lifelong engagement with Islamic geometric systems transforms mathematical precision into poetic abstraction, while Almehairi explores evolving spatial relationships through sculptural forms and layered compositions. Buhmann investigates perception through colour and structure, whereas Ouadahi constructs architectural landscapes that quietly reflect migration, urban identity, and the complexities of contemporary cities. Together, these works demonstrate that abstraction is never detached from culture but deeply rooted within lived experience.
Installation views of 'Cross Scripts', Group exhibition, 6 June - 31 July 2026, Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.
Another compelling thread within the exhibition explores ornament not as embellishment but as a conceptual language. Kamrooz Aram challenges conventional Western narratives surrounding abstraction by reintroducing decorative traditions into contemporary painting. His works encourage viewers to reconsider ornament as a sophisticated intellectual framework rather than a secondary aesthetic element. The exhibition successfully positions ornament as both historical inheritance and contemporary innovation.
Nature also appears throughout the exhibition, though never through direct representation. Instead, artists reinterpret landscapes, gardens, and botanical forms through symbolic and architectural lenses.Hamra Abbas revisits Mughal floral traditions using the exquisite craftsmanship of pietra dura, creating sculptural works that echo historical monuments while feeling entirely contemporary. Areen Hassan similarly references Islamic gardens through symmetry, repetition, and organic geometry, transforming natural forms into contemplative reflections on memory, belonging, and cultural continuity.
Installation views of 'Cross Scripts', Group exhibition, 6 June - 31 July 2026, Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.
Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of Cross Scripts is its seamless integration of collectible design into a contemporary art context. Rather than functioning as separate disciplines, furniture and functional objects become sculptural propositions in their own right. MODU Method, founded by Omar Al Gurg, presents furniture that balances architectural precision with understated elegance, while KAMEH demonstrates how regional craftsmanship can evolve through collaboration between architects and traditional artisans.
The exhibition further dissolves disciplinary boundaries through the work of Ishmael Randall-Weeks, whose sculptural furniture references Constructivism, Japanese woodworking traditions, and modernist design without becoming confined to any single historical movement. His works invite viewers to question whether functionality limits artistic expression or, conversely, enriches it. Likewise, Timo Nasseri's ceramic Teardrop Vessels occupy a fascinating space between vessel and sculpture, their quiet geometries reflecting philosophical explorations of symmetry and cosmic order.
Installation views of 'Cross Scripts', Group exhibition, 6 June - 31 July 2026, Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.
Craftsmanship remains the exhibition's emotional centre. Rather than romanticising traditional techniques, the participating artists reinterpret inherited knowledge through contemporary visual languages. Farhad Ahrarnia's intricate khatam marquetry, Nada Debs' refined furniture, and Nadine Kanso's Bil Arabi jewellery each celebrate artisanal mastery while simultaneously demonstrating its remarkable adaptability. These works reveal that tradition is not static heritage but a living practice capable of continual reinvention.
Installation views of 'Cross Scripts', Group exhibition, 6 June - 31 July 2026, Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.
An equally enriching dimension is the collaboration with Iwan Maktabi, whose presentation of works by Zein Daouk, Carlo Massoud, Mary-Lynn Massoud, and Rasha Nawam expands the exhibition's conversation into textiles, ceramics, furniture, and collectible design. Their inclusion reinforces the exhibition's broader narrative, that contemporary creativity increasingly flourishes through interdisciplinary collaboration rather than rigid classification. What distinguishes Cross Scripts is the generosity of its curatorial vision. The exhibition resists spectacle in favour of thoughtful observation. Each gallery unfolds with measured restraint, allowing visitors to appreciate subtle relationships between materials, textures, and ideas. Stone, wood, ceramic, metal, textiles, and pigment all become equal participants within a conversation about culture, craftsmanship, and innovation.
Ishmael Randall-Weeks, Wind Variations (Ventifacts), (2023) - Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi
As visitors move through the exhibition, it becomes increasingly clear that the objects on display are not simply things to be admired but carriers of histories, techniques, identities, and lived experiences. Furniture acquires sculptural presence. Jewellery becomes language. Decorative motifs become philosophical inquiry. Every object quietly questions how we assign value and meaning within contemporary creative practice. Ultimately, Cross Scripts succeeds because it refuses easy definitions. Rather than asking viewers to distinguish between art, design, craft, or architecture, it demonstrates how these disciplines have always informed one another, particularly within the cultural landscapes of the Middle East. The exhibition reminds us that making itself is perhaps the most universal creative language, a process through which memory, material, culture, and imagination continually intersect.
In an era where interdisciplinary practice increasingly shapes contemporary visual culture, Cross Scripts offers a timely and intelligent reflection on the evolving relationship between objects and ideas. It is a thoughtfully curated exhibition that celebrates craftsmanship without nostalgia, innovation without excess, and cultural heritage without limitation. More importantly, it invites audiences to reconsider not only what creative objects are, but what they are capable of becoming. Exhibition Dates: 6 June - 31 July 2026
Reviewed by the Editorial Team I Noura Hamed - Art4you Magazine