Art Jameel, an organisation that supports artists and creative communities, presents Self-portrait with a cat I don’t have, the first institutional solo exhibition in the United Arab Emirates by multimedia artist Bady Dalloul, on view at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s hub for contemporary art and ideas.
Opening on September 20, 2025 through February 22, 2026, the exhibition weaves autobiographical anecdotes with intimate stories of Dalloul’s life, repurposing everyday materials to explore topics of identity, migration and the intersection of personal memory and global politics. To mark the exhibition’s opening, a public talk will take place at 4 pm on Saturday, September 20, 2025, at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, featuring Bady Dalloul in conversation with Art Jameel Senior Curator Lucas Morin; independent researcher, curator and writer Mizuho Yamazaki; artist Ala Younis; and publisher and bookmaker Ahmad Makia.
Rooted in a nomadic practice spanning France, Japan and the UAE, Dalloul is best known for his critical approach to storytelling. His work interrogates Western-centric historiography, reversing the trajectories of colonial expansion to connect non-Western contexts outside the Eurocentric frame. Blurring fact and fiction, his meticulously crafted works reveal fragile heroes and ordinary lives shaped by empire, displacement and memory—often with subtle dissonance, humour and a deep sense of cultural dialogue.
Specially made for this exhibition, Age of Empires presents a new series of 50 works on paper inspired by onmyōdō, a 19th-century Japanese astrology manual, used here to contemplate the life and death of imperial power. Through intricate drawings and layered visual cues, Dalloul reflects on how empires ascend, decline and leave lasting imprints on those caught in their wake. Japanese cosmological systems are interwoven with echoes from Middle Eastern and European histories, creating unexpected connections across cultures and centuries.
On the gallery walls, Matchboxes—a series of dozens of miniature drawings framed in matchboxes—captures everyday moments, news broadcasts and political developments witnessed by the artist over the years, many tied to his family’s native Syria. These intimate frames recall the elaborate Damascus craftsmanship of Dalloul’s upbringing, seen in games such as tawleh (backgammon) and barjis. Other works feature vintage game cases or objects like bento boxes, repurposed by the artist to make perfect frames, their dividers creating vignettes for storytelling.
Inside a recreated apartment inspired by Dalloul’s live-in studio in Dubai, visitors encounter multiple small works that retrace the last five years of his itinerant practice. This immersive installation blends the personal and the political, revealing how the artist’s daily surroundings feed into reflections on migration, cultural exchange and representation.
Curated by Art Jameel Senior Curator Lucas Morin, the title Self-portrait with a cat I don’t have is taken from a modest self-portrait made in Tokyo, and points to Dalloul’s recurring habit of portraying himself, or figures he identifies with, often shifting between observer and the observed. Many works created during his time in Japan are moving portraits of individuals he encountered, who offered a mirror to his own migration experience, and engage with representations of Arabs and South and West Asians in Japanese popular culture.
Nora Razian, Art Jameel Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes said: “Bady Dalloul’s work is sharply attuned to how personal trajectories are shaped—and at times upended—by global politics and history. The exhibition presents a series of meticulous works that draw on stories and characters the artist encountered in literature, on the news or in daily life. His practice of drawing and collage makes use of familiar everyday objects and images, repurposed with tenderness to open new conversations across cultures and geographies. Dalloul’s exhibition continues Art Jameel’s commitment to foregrounding innovative and singular practices that shed new light on our increasingly interconnected lives.”
Self-portrait with a cat I don’t have marks the second chapter in Dalloul’s nomadic Land of Dreams exhibition series, following its debut at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2024–25) and preceding its presentation at Lisbon’s Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian in 2026.
Press release from Jameel Arts Centre
Image: Bady Dalloul. Installation view of Self-portrait with a cat I don‘t have, Jameel Arts Centre. Photography by Daniella Baptista. Image courtesy of Art Jameel
