Arab Express

With the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opening in Doha in 2010 and branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim Museum currently being built in Abu Dhabi, it's clear that the Middle East is getting serious about its fine art. This timely exhibition – the first of its kind in Japan – introduces over thirty artists from the Arab world, whose work offers a snapshot of a region going through tumultuous change. Unsurprisingly, some of the artists have been been touched by tragedy themselves, whether it's Halim Al-Karim – who spent nearly three years hiding out in the desert in order to avoid serving in Saddam Hussein's army – or the late Ahmed Basiony, felled by police snipers in Cairo's Tahrir Square in January 2011.