A conversation with Mona Shomali and Haleh Jamali, two artists exploring female Iranian identity in a collaborative exhibition at the Asian Arts Initiative

‘In this life I was stripped of my humanity, but I have retrieved what is more sublime, more noble, through my dreams’ – Halim Al Karim

‘… This is what the people of Lebanon do. They keep going, rebuilding and restarting, no matter what keeps coming’

Iranian-American artist Eric Parnes on his artistic journey, the 15th Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, and the influence of Western pop culture in the Middle East

‘I leave Fayez Barakat’s gallery on Brook Street with a feeling I can’t quite fathom … Then again, my head is reeling with the choicest of wines’

‘The difference now is that I feel whatever I do actually matters … Cairo is very vibrant now. It’s an amazing place to be an artist’

Joobin Bekhrad on memory, martyrdom, and mourning in Iran, with reference to Sayeh Sarfaraz’s latest solo exhibition in Montréal

Rima Chahrour of Lebanese artist collective The Freaks looks at the use of dolls in the works of Zena El Khalil and Mohammad Rawas

‘This is a being unshaken by the ravages of time, defying practice, medium, and creed … The rock star is dead. Long live the rock star’