Art Dubai redux: the Special One

Efie Gallery_Abdoulaye Konaté_Source of Light_ Arabian Pattern_2024_Woven and Dyed Materials — Abdoulaye Konaté, Source of Light (2024). Shown by Efie Gallery

Art Dubai’s rescheduled and reshaped 2026 incarnation will return to Madinat Jumeirah from 15 to 17 May. It’s being labelled as Art Dubai Special Edition – to cover the changes, but also to acknowledge that this is the fair’s 20th anniversary.

The overall impression is that the Art Dubai team has cracked it. The fact that there are fewer galleries in the selling section has been more than compensated for by (largely non-commercial) collaborations and initiatives; some of these are genuinely impressive, and make the fair well worth revisiting … especially as entry is free.

Galleries

The basic shape is as before – a fair with Contemporary, Modern and Digital gallery sections – but there are some significant changes. For a start, of course, there are many fewer commercial galleries involved: we count 51 rather than the 120 or so originally signed up. Benedetta Ghione, Executive Director of the Art Dubai Group (right, in genial mood) 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”.

Just about all the UAE galleries are there (24 of them, and there are only a couple of obvious absentees by comparison with the 2025 roster; we have a full list at the end of this piece). And despite the obvious issues with air travel and insurance for people and artworks there are a smattering of Europeans too. In total nearly 20 countries are represented, which isn’t bad.

We understand that galleries that had originally signed up but subsequently dropped out will still be required to pay for their booths, with a spot reserved for them in 2027. Those galleries who are on the Special Edition roster won’t be required to pay booth fees – instead they’ll be charged a percentage of their sales, capped at the booth fee equivalent.

Free entry for visitors is a big plus that emphasises Art Dubai’s wider role (and the opportunities that have inadvertently been provided by the current situation). Ghione noted in the press release that “current circumstances mean that this may not be what we had planned to mark our 20th edition, but the galleries and wider programmes represent what makes Art Dubai both unique and special”. She also pointed out that Art Dubai has always been more than your usual art fair – it’s also been a flagship and a support system for the cultural scene here. So “this special edition will demonstrate the resilience of the UAE’s cultural scene as well as the power of collaboration, bringing together galleries, artists and institutions at a time when that role of convening feels more important than ever. Art Dubai’s story is Dubai’s story, and producing this special edition would only be possible in Dubai …”

There are free guided tours at 4pm, 5pm and 7pm on 16 May, and 2pm, 4pm and 5pm on 17 May. They last about 45 minutes and you need to preregister via the Art Dubai app.

Collaborations

Indeed, this time Art Dubai has more of a festival vibe, with a raft of non-commercial elements like installations, performances, screenings and its daily programme of talks and conversations – plus the always excellent Global Art Forum, which will be on the programme as usual.

The installations and site-responsive artworks across the fair include some substantial names from the local ecosystem. Among them are works by Khalid Al Banna (monumental sculptural works); Hashel Al Lamki (Maat, a suspended textile installation composed of reclaimed fabrics and reconfigured at the fair as a new spatial work); and Neda Razavipour’s Silk Road, a large-scale tapestry reflecting histories of exchange. Other commissions and installations come from Rashid and Ahmed Bin Shabib, Rami Farook, Kevork Mourad, Yaw Owusu, Neda Razavipour and Sudarshan Shetty.

Sudarshan Shetty, A Song, A Story | Sculpture I and II (2016). Presented by Leila Heller Gallery, Sudarshan Shetty’s works explore architectural forms and cultural elements of the Indian subcontinent

Exhibitions include Pulse, works by Mahmoud Said, Samia Halaby and Safeya Binzagr from the Barjeel Art Foundation’s probably unparalleled collection of modern Arab art; and a show from the Dubai Collection (privately owned works available for occasional loan for public exhibition: it’s run by Art Dubai) under the title Made Forward and exploring “how societies construct sustain and carry themselves forward” – this will have art from more than 20 private collections, including works by Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, Brahim Dhahak and Leila Nseir.

The Sharjah Art Foundation performance programme, Against Stillness, is “rooted in the transformative potential of refusing to stay still in one’s circumstances” – which seems appropriate enough. The schedule:

15 May 4.45 pm and 7.45pm: Lawrence by Muhanad Kareem, in collaboration with Mohamad Ali Yousef Salama and Abdulla Ali Khameis Alkhadeim
A direct confrontation with the colonial narratives around TE Lawrence and the Great Arab Revolt (1916–1918) as described in Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Kareem draws on his own family history as well as archival records and artificial intelligence to question the motivations behind how this particular history was written.
16 May 2.30pm and 7.45pm: Body as a Witness by Safa Baluchi, in collaboration with Amro Zidan and rayane haddad
Baluchi questions whether a body burdened by the memory of violence can ever fully reclaim itself, or if its testimony will always be torn between what has been imposed upon it and what it seeks to recover.
17 May 12.30pm and 4.45pm: Tears Through the Soul by Astral LXXXII
Sonic frequencies tinged with grief and loss to guide the audience through the resonances of memory, capable of enduring through times of siege.

There are also “expanded partnerships” with local institutions to emphasise “the fair’s role as a platform for collaboration and exchange”. Those include collaborations with Art Jameel, the National Pavilion UAE, the Ministry of Culture, the National Pavilion UAE, and Expo City’s House of Arts.

And there are two pop-up shops. DXB Store has small-batch, limited-edition and one-of-a-kind pieces by more than 70 UAE-based makers, designers, and creatives practitioners – functional objects, accessories, apparel, stationery and “design objects”. The Art Jameel Shop brings a selection of art and design publications, limited editions and original gifts, the kind of thing that we see in the Jameel’s own shop – which is a recommendation, not a criticism.

Communication

The programme of talks and discussions is very busy, led by the 20th edition of the Global Art Forum; organised as ever by Shumon Basar, the Forum has the theme Before and After Everything, “a focused and timely reflection on the forces shaping cultural thought today”. It runs on the afternoon of 16 May:

2.30-2.45pm: Welcome by Global Art Forum Commissioner Shumon Basar
2.45pm-3.45pm: Before and After the Beginning
Antonia Carver Director, Art Jameel
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi Founder, Barjeel Art Foundation
Sunny Rahbar Co-Founder, The Third Line
Hosted by Shumon Basar
Three of the Emirates’ most influential cultural protagonists time-travel back to the beginnings of the UAE’s contemporary art scene in the 2000s: what was and wasn’t there — people, places, dreams — and how did we get to where we are today?
3.45-4pm: Before and After the Desert
Artist, writer and filmmaker Sophia Al Mari
Al Maria’s films are wry reflections on how deserts are often cinematic shorthands for pre-modern civilisations, which have played key roles in regional incursions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
4.15-5.15pm: Before and After History
Binna Choi Curator, Korean Pavilion of the 61st Venice Biennale
Hazem Harb artist
Ruba Al Sweel artist and writer
Hosted by Isaac Sullivan, Chair of Art and Digital Media at Zayed University
This discussion with artists, curators and historians all of whom use time as a kind of medium, asks ‘what is history today? Whose history? And has amnesia overtaken memory?’
5.15-6pm: Before and After Media
Sarra Alayyan Deputy Editor, Dazed MENA
Fady Nageeb Content Director, Dazed MENA
Hosted by Shumon Basar
Dazed MENA defines what a magazine in the post-digital age might credibly be. Two of Dazed MENA’s founding team share their inner workings — editorially, ideologically, commercially — in a contemporary context where offline is the new luxury and breaking news occurs at breakneck speed.
6-7pm: Before and After Uncertainty
Aaron Cezar Founding Director, Delfina Foundation
Reem Fadda Director of Culture Programming at DCT Abu Dhabi
Butheina Kazim Founder, Cinema Akil
Hosted by Executive Director Curatorial, Art Dubai Alexie Glass-Kantor
The sense that established narratives are ending, giving way to the unknown, is intuitively felt by many. In this conversation with cultural institution builders from London, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, we confront current uncertainties — and ask, ‘what is to be done? And how?’

Also catching the eye – a selection from the talks programme:

15 May 3.30-4.15pm: Art x Media
Aya Mechelany Founder & Editor in Chief of KHAMSA
Sofiane Si Merabet Artist and Writer
Farah Andrews Head of Features at The National
Moderated by Anna Seaman, Writer & Journalist
This discussion considers the role of media in building a voice of our own, exploring how regional platforms are not only documenting Dubai’s creative scene, but broadcasting, interpreting, and shaping it in real time.
15 May 3.30-4pm: Museum in the Becoming
Faustin Linyekula Dancer and Choreographer
Deepak Unnikrishnan Writer and Associate Arts Professor, Literature and Creative Writing, NYUAD
Moderated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project and Abdelkader Damani, Chief Curator at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project
How museums are spaces of encounters and exchange and thrives within a networked environment where diverse forms coexist, adapt, and sustain one another. In this perspective, the museum’s collection is not conceived as a site of assimilation, but as a space of dynamic interrelation.as been imposed upon it and what it seeks to recover.
15 May 4.15-4.45pm: Storytelling as a Relational Practice
Nujoom Al Ghanem Poet, Artist and Filmmaker
Kevork Mourad Artist
Moderated by Reem Fadda, Director of Culture Programming at DCT Abu Dhabi
This conversation explores storytelling as a practice shaped through voice, image, gesture and memory – how artists carry stories across time, place and medium, and how narrative can become a space for witnessing, remembering and reimagining.
15 May 45.30-6.15pm: Art x Design
Rabah Saeid Creative Director, Styled Habitat
Khalid Al Shafar Founder & Director, KHALID SHAFAR
Moderated by Khemena Ahmad Editor-in-Chief, The Kurator
A conversation on how art and design contribute to the construction of identity, asking how cities build a visual language of their own and how narrative can inform the spaces, objects and cultural ecosystems that define them.
17 May 12.30pm and 4.45pm: Tears Through the Soul by Astral LXXXII
Sonic frequencies tinged with grief and loss to guide the audience through the resonances of memory, capable of enduring through times of siege.
17 May 2-2.45 pm: Curator’s Corner
Suheyla Takesh, Director of the Barjeel Art Foundation talks with Jumanah Abbas, Associate Curator, The Dubai Collection about curatorial practice – how themes are developed, works are selected, and narratives are shaped
17 May 4.15-4.45pm: Beyond the Object
Nahla Tabbaa Artist, Chef and Curator
Manal AlDowayan Artist
Moderated by Amelia Jane Martin, Public Engagement Section Head, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
This conversation considers artistic practices that move beyond the artwork as a static object and into the realm of participation, experience, ritual and environment – how artists create conditions for encounter, transformation and collective meaning-making, expanding what art can hold and how it can be experienced.

Galleries

*Hashel Al Lamki, Here. Shown by Tabari Artspace*

Local (and locally represented) galleries at the fair:

Aisha Alabbar Dubai
AWL Girona / Al Ain / Los Angeles
Ayyam Gallery Dubai
Carbon 12 Dubai
Dom Art Projects Dubai
Efie Gallery Dubai
Foundry Dubai
Gallery Isabelle Dubai
Iris Projects Abu Dhabi
Iyad Qanazea Gallery Abu Dhabi
JD Malat Gallery Dubai / London
Lawrie Shabibi Dubai
Leila Heller Gallery Dubai / New York
Meem Gallery Dubai
Nika Project Space Dubai / Paris
Perrotin Paris / Hong Kong / New York / Seoul / Tokyo / Shanghai / Los Angeles / London / Dubai
Rarares Gallery Dubai
Rizq Art Initiative Abu Dhabi
Shankay Porto / Dubai
Tabari Artspace Dubai
Taymour Grahne Projects Dubai / London
The Third Line Dubai
Waddington Custot Dubai / Paris / London
Zawyeh Gallery Dubai / Ramallah

Other Middle East galleries:

Agial Art Gallery Beirut
Athr Jeddah / Riyadh / AlUla
Bluerose Beirut
Dirimart Istanbul / London
Gallery One Ramallah
Hafez Gallery Jeddah
Hunna Art Gallery Kuwait
Saleh Barakat Gallery Beirut

Galleries from elsewhere:

Ab-Anbar Gallery London
Art Fungible Hong Kong
Galerie Atiss Dakar Dakar
Galerie Frank Elbaz Paris
Galleria Continua San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Havana / Sao Paulo / Rome / Paris
Galleria Franco Noero Turin
GVCC Casablanca / Paris
Iragui Paris
Iregular Montreal
John Martin Gallery London
Labor Mexico City
Lilia Ben Salah Paris
Mark Hachem Lebanon / Paris / New York
P420 Bologna
Pedro Cera Lisbon / Madrid
Pinksummer Genoa
Solo Bucharest
SSK Ukkel
The Rooster Gallery Vilnius

Art Dubai Special Edition runs at the Madinat Jumeirah as usual, with these times for pubic access:

15 May 4pm – 9pm
16 May 2pm – 9pm
17 May 12pm – 6pm

Entry is free at those times, but you need to preregister here or via the Art Dubai app – you’ll also need the app to get in (that’s where your ticket will be: one ticket gives you access to all three days). Parking there is a real lottery – take public transport or a cab if you can.

More information is here.

Art Dubai redux: the Special One

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