Zarina
Urdu Worlds, an exhibition of works by Zarina and Ali Kazim, opens at the Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai on January 16 through May 31, 2026.
Urdu Worlds marks the inaugural contemporary art exhibition dedicated to the Urdu language in the UAE. Curated by Hammad Nasar, the exhibition is a visual conversation around language between Ali Kazim and Zarina, and the first comprehensive presentation of Kazim’s works in the GCC. The show explores how language provides the tools with which we create and shape our internal ‘worlds’. Words, rather than simply describing our surroundings, give rise to our private lived experiences and shared cultural understandings.
Despite their distinct personal histories and artistic practices, the two artists are united by a profound sensitivity to the Urdu language. Born in Aligarh, India, Zarina’s itinerant life across continents led her to find home in Urdu, weaving its script, proverbs and poetry into her delicate print works. Multimedia artist Ali Kazim, based in Lahore, Pakistan, grounds his ‘Urdu world’ in a sense of place while exhibiting an eclecticism of influences that reflects the composite and layered history of the language.
Urdu Worlds highlights the power of art as a bridge to access the imaginative worlds of artists though we may not share a written language. Inviting viewers to adopt the unfamiliar vocabularies of these worlds, it raises questions about the appropriation of language by institutions to construct narratives of belonging and exclusion. The exhibition draws attention to the ability of words to articulate identity, and the consequent urgency of maintaining a connection to our native languages in an era of migration and exile.
Artworks for Urdu Worlds have been loaned from Cristea Roberts Gallery, Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation, the Ishara Art Foundation and the Prabhakar Collection, Jhaveri Contemporary, Sharjah Art Foundation, and the private collections of Clemy Sheffield, Mrs Fane, Dr Furqaan Ahmed, Hasan Askari, The Jones Family Collection, Keir McGuinness, Sasheen and Shehzad Anwar, Shazad Ghaffar and Moni Mohsin, Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja, Taimur Hassan, and Zafar Ahmadullah and Tarika Singh.
Learn more about the exhibition at the Ishara Art Foundation website.