Art Dubai paints bigger canvas with its most extensive edition to date

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Art Dubai’s 15th edition will take place March 11-13 at Madinat Jumeirah, with its most extensive edition to date.

This year, the fair features over 100 contemporary and modern galleries from over 40 countries, including more than 30 first-time participants.

Visitors can expect presentations of artworks in different mediums, by artists from South East Asia, Global South and naturally, the Middle East. This year also marks the debut of a new section — Art Dubai Digital — that will bridge the art and crypto worlds.

Galleries are divided into four sections: Contemporary, which presents galleries from around the world, ranging from emerging art scenes to established centres, presenting solo or group shows and offering new global perspectives to help cultivate a culture of discovery; Modern, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, featuring solo presentations of museum-quality works by 20th century masters from the Middle East and North Africa; Bawwaba (meaning “gateway” in Arabic), exclusively featuring works made in the past year or specifically for the fair.

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This section offers visitors a curated reading of current artistic developments across wide geographical scopes across the  Global South via ambitious solo artist presentations; and the new Art Dubai Digital, featuring several international platforms working with NFTs; contemporary galleries with projects devoted to new media and digital art; galleries that have been working with digital art since the 1980s; and NFT e-commerce sites and organisations that are turning existing physical art into NFTs.

INLAND, represented by Fernando Garcia-Dory, is commissioned by Art Dubai and will present Sand Flow, a new multi-site installation at the fair and in a variety of locations across Dubai.

Guests keenly examining a work of art at Art Dubai.

The work will manifest in a range of places and moments, combining 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.

It incorporates archaeology, hydrology, urbanism and transport, as well as the Middle East’s rich oral storytelling traditions, heritage and crafts.

Filipino-American light and media artist James Clar (Silverlens) is commissioned by Art Dubai’s partner Julius Baer to create an interactive video installation titled Cloud Seed, for the Julius Baer lounge at the fair.

The installation will immerse visitors in a large-scale real time simulation of raindrops and fog, using custom technology, to create a slowly morphing visual system that reflects our control of the environment.

Through the commission, Julius Baer wants to showcase the emergence of mega trends, such as digital disruption and how artists are using cutting-edge technology in their practice.

The A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme features artist-led workshops for children aged 5-17 years. With a focus on sustainability, the programme will be led by Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru, who will work with participants to retrieve and repurpose everyday materials from their homes and schools, transforming them into works of art.

The first A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme takes place at Art Dubai before expanding to take place in 80 schools - reaching more than 5,000 children across Dubai.

Art Dubai has launched Campus Art Dubai 9.0 Blockchain Edition, a new eight-week NFT strand within the fair’s education programme. Powered by Materia, the course was led by a host of local and global leading experts in the blockchain and NFT art sector and supported 12 UAE and international artists. They will showcase their works at this year’s edition.

‘Speculative Links’ commissioned by and in partnership with Warehouse421 and Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship (SEAF), will also be on exhibit.

Curated by Maryam Al Dabbagh and Mays Albaik, the show presents a selection of works from the fellowship’s eight-year tenure. Including painting, textile, video and photography, it will reflect a collective questioning of memory in relation to place, time and a sense of rhythm and repetition.

Figurative artist and painter Marina Fedorova will explore the effects of technological advancements on our lives and environment through an interactive installation, COSMODREAMS.

The installation combines traditional art and digital technologies in the form of large-scale paintings, sculptures, life-size objects and virtual reality video with interactive panels.

The fair’s educational programme features a series of talks for a range of audiences and an eight-week course on crypto and NFTs for select local and international artists.

The Global Art Forum brings together leading creators and thinkers, including noted collectors Guy Ullens and Ryan Zurrer, pioneering artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst and Hito Steyerl and UAE blockchain advocate, Saeed Al Darmaki, to examine the worlds of digital artefacts and crypto economies.

Art Dubai Modern Talks will examine the life, work and influences of 20th century Modern masters from the MENA region with leading Emirati curator Munira Al Sayegh and Nima Sagharchi, Director of Middle Eastern, Islamic and South Asian Art at Bonhams.

Bybit Talks gives visitors greater understanding about the rapid growth in digital platforms, explaining more about the basics of cryptocurrency, digital media and NFT art with guest speakers Tamas Banovich, co-founder of Postmasters, Seth Goldstein, co-founder of Bright Moments and Jenn Ellis, co-founder of Aora Space.

Art Dubai is held in partnership with A.R.M. Holding. The fair is sponsored by leading Swiss wealth management group, Julius Baer. The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is the fair’s strategic partner. Bybit is the lead partner of Art Dubai Digital.

Art Dubai is the premier platform to see and buy modern and contemporary art from the Global South.