Art Dubai is the Middle East’s leading international art fair, taking place every March in Dubai, UAE. Over the past 17 years, Art Dubai has cemented its role in being a major catalyst in the local, regional, and international conversations on art from the Middle East and surrounding regions (MENASA – Middle East, North Africa & South Asia), broadening conversations about art from the Global South beyond traditional Western-led geographical scopes and narratives.
Art Dubai 2024 will feature 4 sections:
Art Dubai Contemporary welcomes applications from commercial art galleries from around the world. Final selections are based on the curatorial strength of the gallery's proposal and programme, and applications are reviewed by the Art Dubai Selection Committee composed of Andrée Sfeir-Semler (Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut/Hamburg), Priyanka Raja (Experimenter, Kolkata/Mumbai), and Ursula Krinzinger (Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna).
Art Dubai Modern is curated by Dr Christianna Bonin, art writer, curator, educator, and Assistant Professor of Art History at the American University of Sharjah. The section will highlight the cultural dynamics that gave rise to today’s Global South. The post-World War II geopolitical landscape of these regions created intricate connections and cultural links, in particular for the many artists, musicians, architects, and filmmakers who studied in Soviet metropoles through Cold War-era exchanges. Reflecting the polyphonic nature of these relations, the Modern Section will encompass artists and works from Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It will showcase a plurality of voices revolving around a significant dimension of twentieth-century modern art, uncovering new art practices and perspectives for Art Dubai’s audiences.
Bawwaba (meaning gateway in Arabic) is curated by Emiliano Valdés, Chief Curator of the Museum of Modern Art, Medellin, and Associate Curator for the 10th Gwangju Biennale, and will present 10 solo presentations featuring artworks created within the past year or conceived specifically for the fair. Bawwaba will showcase artists from across the Global South who think of art as a place of reckoning and healing, confronting social and political issues, engaging in critical dialogue, and creating a sense of community and belonging. Through a variety of mediums, these artists explore art as a catalyst for change, transformation, and healing, and the section will investigate how these processes change across regions.
Art Dubai Digital explores the intersection of new media art and technologies in order to expand our understanding of contemporary culture. The section will be curated by Auronda Scalera and Alfredo Cramerotti, co-directors of IAM-Infinity Art Museum in the metaverse and the Multiplicity-XXnft curatorial and publishing platform. Continuing their investigation of new tendencies in digital arts, AI, AR, VR, and NFTs, they will present Art Dubai Digital through the lens of advanced technologies and offer possible approaches for the future of art and its perception.