Art Jameel, an organisation that supports artists and creative communities, presents Three Tired Tigers, a major group exhibition featuring more than 40 artists from 25 countries, inviting us to rethink our everyday lives from a primarily four-legged perspective. On view from November 2, 2024 to March 16, 2025, the exhibition draws from politics, history, economics and urbanism to stage a playful yet serious exploration of human-animal relationships across shared geographies.
Three Tired Tigers follows a line of inquiry extending to the many wildlife encounters that unfold across our built environment. Despite the realities of urban life—optimised for human production and consumption, radically separated from nature and with animals often kept for food or as pets—these living beings still find ways to bridge the interspecies divide and compel us to reflect on what coexistence truly means. The exhibition ties into Dubai’s local context of urban wildlife, making a direct connection to the street cats near Jameel Arts Centre. This cross-species conversation extends to the wider Middle East and beyond, featuring stories of bears in the Kurdish mountains, starving lions in Palestine, cats near Pakistani museums, displaced dogs in Istanbul and parakeets in Beirut.
Spanning five galleries, this landmark exhibition immerses visitors in the urban habitats animals have come to occupy—from public and institutional spaces at ground level to the open skies above, including zoos and museums, the street and public squares down to the city’s edges and corners. The works reveal how these species have survived and even thrived through centuries of human classification and control, staking their own claims in the modern world.
Nora Razian, Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes, Art Jameel, said: “We are thrilled to be hosting 40 artists from diverse backgrounds and geographies who all offer a fresh and often overlooked perspective on how our lives intersect with animals in large urban settings, that are traditionally conceived around human needs and ambitions. The exhibition urges us to rethink the way we design, inhabit, and share our urban environments, and unfolds across five galleries featuring site-specific installations, works on canvas, loans from partner institutions and Art Jameel Collection works; plus a new mural specially commissioned for this exhibition. At Art Jameel, we have long been interested in the role the arts play in rethinking architecture and sustainability, exploring how these fields can intersect to shape more thoughtful, balanced ways of living together.”
Curated by Art Jameel’s Lucas Morin, the exhibition is within a series of major, highly original group exhibitions incubated at Art Jameel, in part through research in the Jameel Library, that are sparked by local sensibilities and interactions with artists, yet are of global relevance. These shows are grounded in discursive themes that are rarely addressed through contemporary art, nurturing debate and reflection and encouraging active participation by audiences. Artists include: Noor Abuarafeh; Asim Abu Shakra; Abbas Akhavan; Farah Al Qasimi; Heba Y Amin; Atelier HOKO; Sophia Balagamwala; Sammy Baloji; Jumana Bayazid El Husseini; Anna Boghiguian; Kasper Bosmans; Cheng Xinhao; Ali Cherri; Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group; Bouie Choi; Jason Dodge; Mohieddine Ellabbad; Annika Eriksson; Simryn Gill; Kadhim Hayder; Khalid Jauffer; Hayv Kahraman; Sudhira Karna, Madhumala Mandal, Rebati Mandal, Selo Yadav and Sumitra Yadav; Kee Ya Ting and David Tan, with Migrant Ecologies Projects; Candice Lin; Ali Milad; Benoît Piéron; Pilar Quinteros; Walid Raad; Khalil Rabah; Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook; Lin May Saeed; Mark Salvatus; Walid Siti; Shimabuku; Mariam Suhail; Risham Syed; Robert Zhao Renhui (The Institute of Critical Zoologists).
Press release from Jameel Arts Centre
Image: Installation view of Three Tired Tigers at Jameel Arts Centre. Photography by Daniella Baptista. Image courtesy of Art Jameel
