A Guide to the Best Art Galleries in Kuwait

Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) is a non-profit private organisation founded in 2011 by art collector Amer Huneidi. CAP is dedicated to developing and supporting the arts in Kuwait and throughout the region. The gallery aims to encourage and support emerging and established artists and art lovers through their exhibitions. With a public arts library, a rotating schedule of film screenings, studio space for hire, a series of lectures and workshops led by both local and international artists, a trip to CAP could easily become a full day out. CAP is divided into three parts: CAP main exhibition space for curated and collective exhibitions, the Art Room and the Design Room. CAP’s growing public art library includes books and magazines about art and design, architecture, artist biographies and much more.

Established in 1982, Boushahri Gallery is the brainchild of Jawad Boushahri, the Chairman of Boushahri Group as well as one of Kuwait’s renowned sculptors and supporters of the arts. As one of the oldest private art galleries in the Middle Eastern region, Boushahri Gallery has opened multiple avenues for rising local and internationally acclaimed artists alike. The mediums displayed are primarily sculptures, ceramic arts, photographs and paintings. Although originally set up to highlight Kuwaiti arts and artists, in recent years established international sculptors and painters have displayed their works at the gallery. Boushahri Gallery also holds a variety of activities such as creative competitions for budding artists. The gallery also includes an extensive art library alongside the exhibition space.

Established in 1983, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah (DAI) is a cultural organisation based on a Kuwaiti private art collection owned by Sheikh Nasser Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah, founder of The al-Sabah Collection and his wife, DAI director general, and co-founder Sheikha Hussah Sabah al Salem al Sabah. The collection preserves and presents all aspects of art, including carpets, manuscripts, jewellery, ceramics, scientific instruments, metalwork, wood and glass works. It now includes more than 35,000 objects from the full geographic and chronological range of the Islamic world, from Spain to China.

Since its inception in 1994, Dar Al Funoon has played a major role in not only promoting emerging artists from the region but also encouraging and inspiring the public to take interest in the world of contemporary art. The intention is to help these individuals to develop their professional career and demonstrate the diversity of contemporary art in a wide range of styles, ideas, approaches and forms. Some artists whose paintings have been displayed include Reza Derakshani and Hussein Baalbaki. The Dar Al Funoon Gallery also hosts art and fashion fusion events such as exhibitions created by Abdullah Al Saab.

For more than 40 years, the Sultan Gallery has played an important role in introducing Arab artists to broader audiences and helping to establish a vital dialogue among artists and institutions working internationally. Located in a renovated warehouse, the Sultan Gallery’s exhibition space is easily transformable to suit the artist whose work is being displayed. Although the Gallery pays special attention to contemporary photography, it also takes pride in supporting up-and-coming artists, and occasionally displays experimental works incorporating the use of sound, video and performance art. Since its inception, many leading Arab and Kuwaiti artists have held exhibitions here.