It looks as though Art Dubai has weathered the pandemic – and the same seems to apply to its participant galleries (and hopefully the buyers too).
The 15th edition of Art Dubai, which is back at Madinat Jumeirah from 11-13 March (previews on 9 and 10 March), is one of very few major international art events to take place this spring. In total it will have more than 100 exhibitors from 44 countries; those numbers represent an improvement on the last in-person edition of the art fair in 2020, which had around 90 galleries from 38 countries (about the same as the 2019 fair).
For 2022 we count 97 galleries in the three main sections of the Fair – 76 in Contemporary, 10 in Bawwaba (new works from the ‘Global South’ created in the past year or specifically for the fair), seven in Modern (20th century artists from the MENASA region) – plus a further 16 in the new Art Dubai Digital.
So Art Dubai 2022 will be the largest edition of the fair so far, and the broadest too. “This year’s programme … represents what is our most ambitious and extensive programme to date” says Pablo del Val, Art Dubai’s Artistic Director.
That’s mainly down to the new digital section, described as “a bridge between the crypto and art world” in the press release. Art Dubai Digital, curated by Chris Fussner of Tropical Futures Institute, will feature 17 international galleries and crypto/NFT platforms. It will also include an exhibition of new NFTs created by the 12 UAE-based and international artists taking part in this year’s expanded edition of Campus Art Dubai.
You want more Web 3.0? Bybit Talks is a series of “conversations” presented by the eponymous cryptocurrency exchange that promises to give visitors “greater understanding about the rapid growth in digital platforms”.
The details haven’t been announced, but we understand that among its guest speakers are Tamas Banovich, co-founder of Postmasters Gallery and its NFT operation PostmastersBC; Seth Goldstein, co-founder of Bright Moments, a DAO made up of 10,000 NFTs; and Jenn Ellis, co-founder of virtual art gallery Aora (“a thoughtful, considered and ambitious global platform that seeks to build in the virtual world with soul”). All three organisations are in Art Dubai Digital too.
This year’s programme also has many of the favourite extras that have always distinguished Art Dubai. A regular highlight, the Global Art Forum runs across four days and continues the focus on digital artefacts and crypto – presentations and discussions consider a range of topics from NFT art and curatorial projects, to crypto gaming and the metaverse, Web 3.0 and (of course) Dubai’s new crypto zone.
The list of confirmed contributors includes several people who will surely have something interesting to say (which in fact has always been the case with the Global Art Forum). Among them: Dorian Batycka of SPSK, a platform dedicated to supporting radical and socially engaged art projects via the blockchain; Ruba Al-Sweel from Art Jameel; sound artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst; VR/simulation artist Lawrence Lek; UAE blockchain advocate Saeed Al Darmaki; Belgian mega-collector Guy Ullens, and Ryan Zurrer, the Swiss venture capitalist and NFT enthusiast who last year paid $29 million for Beeple’s Human One (a seven-foot-tall sculpture composed of LED screens that display an astronaut strolling through a dystopian landscape).
Art ecosystem activities also include onsite non-selling exhibitions and newly commissioned site-specific works. Maryam Al Dabbagh and Mays Albaik are curating a show of works from the eight years of the Abu Dhabi based Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship (SEAF), in partnership with Warehouse421. SEAF has consistently produced a pipeline of good local artists, so this should be a good exhibition; we’re promised a reflection on threads and recurring research themes from the programme’s different cohorts that “will reflect a collective questioning of memory in relation to place, time, and a sense of rhythm and repetition”.
Art Dubai’s commission for 2022 is Sand Flow, a multi-site installation from the international artists collaboration INLAND. Initiated by Fernando Garcia-Dory from Spain, the project focuses on the economics of art and land, “organised utopia”, and the ways we interact with the biosphere.
“Sand Flow … will incorporate archaeology, hydrology, urbanism and transport as well as the Middle East’s rich oral storytelling traditions, heritage and crafts,” says the bumf; it will combine “visions of Dubai’s past, present and future and examining the ways in which the multiplicity of cultures and communities inhabit the city and their contributions to it”.
We’re not sure exactly where (or indeed what) the installation will be, except that it will be sited “at the fair and in a variety of locations across Dubai”.
Marina Fedorova’s ambitious COSMODREAMS project gets a temporary home at Art Dubai. In this “virtual space museum” Federova aims to create “a captivating and visually engaging imaginary world … [a] one of a kind creative realm” (her words) via an immersive experience involving large-scale paintings, sculptures, art objects, video art, and an AR environment developed specially for the exhibition. Sounds fun.
And Fair sponsor Julius Baer has commissioned light and media artist James Clar, well known as an active player in the Dubai art scene ten years ago before he moved back to New York, to create Cloud Seed, a large-scale interactive video installation that will immerse visitors in a real time simulation of raindrops and fog. Shame most of us won’t be able to experience this – lounge access is limited to VIP guests.
There’s more going on around town as part of Art Dubai Week (didn’t it used to be Dubai Art Week?) including several solo and group exhibitions taking place across the city – especially Alserkal Avenue and Sharjah Art Foundation. Check out the listings on our Agenda page.
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