A house remembers. It remembers the people who have passed through its rooms, the objects they treasured, the clothes they wore and the celebrations that brought families together. It remembers stories repeated across generations and traditions absorbed through everyday life.
This idea lies at the heart of What the House Knows, a group exhibition opening at Stal Gallery in Muscat on September 20. Bringing together seven artists, Saleem Sakhi, Sarah al Aulaqi, Hassan Meer, Anwar Sonya, Mohammed al Zadjali, Wael Hamdan and Hafsa al Tamimi, it explores the Omani house as a keeper of identity, belonging and cultural memory.
“What the House Knows explores the Omani house as a space of belonging and continuity. What does a house remember? It holds the traces of those who have lived within it: patterns and objects, memories, stories, celebrations and traditions,” says Volodymyra Sobolevska of Stal Gallery.
The house is among the first places where culture is learned through observation, participation and the familiar rhythms of life.
Across the exhibition, figures, clothing, ornament and architecture become ways of examining how heritage survives through lived experience.
Hassan Meer moves between origins, generations and childhood imagination. His works range from the symbolic beginning represented in Adam and Eve to the relationship between generations in the Father and Son diptych. Elsewhere, he turns towards childhood memories and the mysterious legends associated with Oman’s mountains.
“Since my childhood, here in Oman, I have always thought and wondered about the powerful effects these mysterious legends have in controlling and directing the course of man’s life,” Meer says.
Hafsa al Tamimi considers motherhood and beginnings, exploring the mother as a source of memory and belonging. Her work reflects on the roots that shape an individual and the place to which one continually returns.
Anwar Sonya transforms an Omani wedding into a monumental canvas measuring 500 by 170 centimetres. Presented for the first time at Stal Gallery, it is filled with figures, patterned garments and the movement of celebration.
The work reveals an unexpected side of an artist long associated with Impressionism. Bold geometric shapes and repeated forms bring a distinctly Cubist influence to the composition.
“The painting Omani Wedding deserves attention because it allows us to see an important artist at a point of change,” Sobolevska says. “Sonya has spent much of his career developing a highly recognisable Impressionist style. Here, he presents an Omani wedding as a stylised figurative painting with a strong Cubist influence.”
Elsewhere, clothing becomes a means of reading identity. Saleem Sakhi’s portraits foreground the colours and patterns of traditional Omani dress, including the kumma, dishdasha and richly patterned garments worn by women. Clothing carries information about place, occasion and tradition.
Sarah al Aulaqi examines material culture through Dhofari traditional cloth, head jewellery and the burqa, alongside Omani tailoring. Her work reveals the cultural knowledge held within textiles and adornment, where craftsmanship carries meanings beyond appearance.
Mohammed al Zadjali turns to patterns within traditional Omani interiors. Repeated motifs connect generations, preserving something familiar even as they are interpreted anew.
For Wael Hamdan, memory resides within architecture. His Domes of the City collection considers spaces connected to the experience of place and home. Buildings may outlast their inhabitants, but their meaning emerges through human presence. Walls witness routines, gatherings, departures and returns.
Here, the exhibition’s title becomes most literal. A house may be silent, yet it is never empty of meaning. Heritage is continually lived through what people wear, the spaces they inhabit and the knowledge passed quietly between generations.
The exhibition turns its central question towards the visitor: What does your own house know? Which objects hold memories? Which traditions have shaped you without you noticing? And what will remain when the generation that remembers their origins is no longer there to tell the story?
The artists offer no single answer. Their works explore how a home holds traces of those who came before while shaping those who come next.
What the House Knows opens at Stal Gallery, Muscat, on September 20 at 7 pm and runs until October 5, 2026. Free guided educational tours led by Volodymyra Sobolevska will introduce visitors, students and researchers to the techniques, creative processes and stories behind the artworks.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
