Self-portrait with a cat I don’t have is Bady Dalloul’s first solo exhibition in the United Arab Emirates. Blending autobiographical anecdotes with stories of individuals he encounters, the artworks feature fragile heroes and ordinary people navigating systems larger than themselves. Dalloul repurposes everyday materials—including books, matchboxes, board games and magazines—to create surprising dialogues across cultures and genres. He elevates everyday narratives into epics, bridges high and low brow, and importantly, connects non-Western cultures, at times unexpectedly, outside of conventional delineations and Eurocentric gaze.

Specially made for this exhibition, Age of Empires, a new series of 50 works on paper, uses onmyōdō, a 19th-century Japanese astrology manual, to contemplate the life and death of imperial power. On the gallery walls, Matchboxes, a series of dozens of minuscule drawings framed in matchboxes, offer snapshots of everyday scenes, news broadcasts and political developments witnessed by the artist over the years, notably in his family’s native Syria. Inside a recreated apartment inspired by Dalloul’s live-in studio in Dubai, multiple small works retrace the last five years of his nomadic practice, which has taken him between France, Japan and the UAE. 

‘Self portrait with a cat I don’t have’ is titled after a modest self-portrait made in Tokyo. The title evokes Bady Dalloul’s habit of reflecting on his own life in his work, either by portraying himself or through other figures he identifies with, often shifting perspectives throughout the works. In particular, many artworks created in Japan are moving portraits of individuals he encountered, who offered a mirror to his own migration experience, and address representations of Arabs and South and West Asians in Japanese popular culture. His time in Japan notably deepened his connection to its culture, shifting his focus from abstract motifs to everyday objects and personal encounters.

Bady Dalloul’s meticulously handcrafted books brim with collages, writing and drawings that reimagine global politics and the fates of those caught in history’s web. Dalloul is particularly fascinated by how family stories intersect with politics, and how personal itineraries are often thrown into the throes of history, usually in rigged games decided by distant powers. Much of his art can be traced back to a childhood game of inventing countries—complete with borders, cultures and political histories—echoing historical events that deeply affected his home country and family. The artist’s work mirrors reality but distorts it with subtle dissonance, using humour and fiction to unsettle the making of truth and history.  

Bady Dalloul (b. 1986) is a multimedia artist whose work entwines historical events, personal facts and fiction. His works are imbued with sociological and historical reflections on his heritage and issues of global migration. Reflecting on territorial demarcations, Dalloul questions Western-centric historiography and knowledge production. Through drawing, video and objects, Dalloul engages a dialogue between the imagined and the real by questioning the logic of writing history.

Bady Dalloul has had solo exhibitions at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2025); Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar (2022); Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan (2019).

‘Self-portrait with a cat I don’t have’ is the second chapter of Bady Dalloul’s ‘Land of Dreams’ nomadic exhibition series, after the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (September 2024 – January 2025, curated by Martin Germann), and before Lisbon’s Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (opening September 2026, curated by Helena de Freitas).