This week’s editorial musings
from magpie’s nest
The quote: For me, painting is but another word for feeling | John Constable …
Art Dubai reborn Art Dubai’s revised attendance list for what is being called a Special Edition features 50 galleries rather than the 120 or so originally signed up. Just about all the UAE locals are there (23 of them: we couldn’t spot any major absentees) and despite the obvious issues with air travel and insurance for people and artworks there are a smattering of Europeans too (albeit mostly galleries that have a UAE outpost). No Indian galleries, though. Fair Director Benedetta Ghione told The Art Newspaper “there is a constituency of galleries for whom the fair didn’t make sense, for a number of reasons – timing, logistics or the specific projects that they were planning to bring”.
As promised, there will be extended non-commercial collaborations with local institutions – Sharjah Art Foundation, Barjeel Art Foundation, Art Jameel, Alserkal Avenue and more – plus a “major” presentation from the Dubai Collection: a programme of large-scale installations and site-responsive artworks across the fair: and of course Art Dubai’s flagship Global Art Forum, commissioned as ever by Shumon Basar. Art Dubai Special Edition runs 15-17 May, at the Madinat Jumeriah as usual …
Alserkal stretches the week Alserkal Art Month is a kind of stretched version of the Alserkal Art Weeks of old that runs 18 April to 19 May with a busy schedule – many of the galleries are opening new shows on 18 April, a curated group show called Déjà Vu (with gallery contributions) opens in Concrete 25 April, and there’s a mass of workshops, open studios, talks (including the excellent Majlis Talks), tours (love those Slow Art visits to the galleries), and much much more. The aforementioned collaboration with Art Dubai is a co-curated programme of moving image works to be screened at both venues …
Don’t trust us Microsoft’s recently revised Terms of Use for Copilot include the line “Copilot is for entertainment purposes only” and “don’t rely on Copilot for important advice” which might come as a bit of a surprise to the 15m users who have it as part of Enterprise Microsoft 365 subscriptions …
Park ‘n’ buy Dubai drivers who use Parkin parking can redeem or offset their parking fees by shopping at a participating business. You pay the fee, make a qualifying purchase (as decided by the merchant), get your parking validated by the merchant, and see the cashback credited instantly to your Parkin wallet. So far only a handful of businesses have signed up, though – if you’re interested, this is the link …
A home for Barjeel Looks like the Barjeel Art Foundation Museum, which we first flagged up a couple of years ago, is really happening – a few days ago Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi Instagrammed a visit to the site, which seems to be well beyond first pour: a 3,600m2 building designed by Abdelmoneam Essa of Architecture Corner Consultants, it’s expected to open in January. The Barjeel Foundation has definitively one of the best collections of modern and contemporary Arabic art and it will be good to see more of it in a permanent home …
Biennale bother The European Commission has given the Venice Biennale 30 days to respond to allegations that it has violated EU sanctions against Russia by including the Russian Pavilion in the 2026 edition. According to a report in La Repubblica the commission is prepared to “suspend or terminate” a €2m grant for the 2028 Biennale …
Curatress? Annissa Gultom, director of RAK’s National Museum, thinks she may have found the first female Emirati cultural curator via a 1979 bxw pic captioned “Aisha Mubarak Abdullah has broken new ground in the traditional Muslim society in Dubai by becoming the Curator of the Dubai Museum” …
Crypto hell Americans lost more than $11bn to crypto related scams last year, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report. The agency received over a million complaints in 2025, and the total amount for all cyber-enabled crimes topped $20bn …
Growth but not as we knew it The costs of the war from damaged infrastructure, lost export revenues, and weaker business activity mean a sharp slowdown for most Gulf economies, according to the IMF. For the UAE it has a forecast for economic growth this year of 3.1%, down from 5.8% in 2025; but that’s still double the IMF’s prediction for the Middle East as a whole. Qatar is a big loser, with 2.8% growth last year turning into minus 8.6% for 2026. A rebound is forecast for 2027, assuming things get no worse …
Opp Fashion and jewellery designers in the UAE are invited to pitch for a place at a three-day market (8–10 May) at Enso Studios in Al Khayat Avenue. Apply via email or DM …
Theatre of war revisited Our piece about the two upcoming short play festivals has been attracting a lot of comments below the line. Short+Sweet Dubai and X Fest DXB both start on 18 April …
Wham BAM BAM Auctions has rescheduled its inaugural sale of art, which now takes places at 4pm on 2 May at Bayt AlMamzar (which is the BAM bit). There will be 21 lots, “a modest and intentional first edition, designed to establish a secondary market structure that can mature steadily over time, built at a scale that allows us to remain attentive, responsive, and closely connected to the community it was shaped for”. Info here …
Where we were A Map Of Us is a marvellous, emotional website – anyone can drop a memory on to a pin anywhere in the world. Most of them turn out to be poignant declarations of love and loss. Like “I thought this city would be the destination but hey now how could it be without you there” …
IPAF winner The 2026 International Prize for Arabic Fiction – $50,000 and funding for an English translation – has gone to Algerian novelist Said Khatibi for Swimming Against the Tide, a novel that spans Algeria’s history in the second half of the 20th century. Jury chairman Mohamed Elkadhi said the book “does not confine itself to describing the past; it draws the outlines of the future” …
Make more of your Louvre Louvre Abu Dhabi has introduced more free guided tours that offer “fresh perspectives on the museum’s galleries and exhibitions”. They run daily Tuesday to Sunday until the end of June; the themed ‘Storytelling’ tours start at 4.30pm, the ‘Discover Louvre Abu Dhabi’ tours start at 10.30am and 12.30 pm, the ‘Picasso, the Figure’ tour starts daily at 2.30pm. All last about 45 mins. And there are are new free drop-in workshops – painting on Sunday afternoons (three hours) and drawing on Wednesdays (two hours). They’re all free, but spaces are limited so it makes sense to prebook a spot …
Do it for Doha Doha Design District has a Public Art Open Call for “creatives from across the region and beyond” to propose their installations for Msheireb Downtown Doha. Selected work will be displayed on loan for a couple of years. Deadline 14 May …
Useful app of the week Todoist Ramble is a way of brain-dumping everything in your head as an audio recording. Todoist then does an impressively good job of turning it into projects, tasks, and deadlines. Try it here …
Something for the weekend Freefall ’95 is a fast-paced, arcade-like game with you as the sole survivor of a mid-air disaster plummeting towards earth. While falling you can collect points by doing radical tricks or dangerous stunts and collecting falling items – while dodging dangerous debris and other hazards, of course. Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 Seems it’s arguable that the Biblical plague of frogs in Egypt began with one huge frog …
Earworm of the week Kiss Facility : Kotshena
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