Your ultimate guide to Art Dubai 2026

The galleries: over 50 local, regional and international names across contemporary, modern and digital practices

This special edition reflects Art Dubai's 20-year history and the present moment, bringing together leading local, regional and international galleries across contemporary, modern and digital practices. The fair's four sections – Zamaniyyat, Bawwaba, Art Dubai Digital and the newly launched Bawwaba Extended – each carry a distinct curatorial intention, together spanning a wide range of geographies, approaches and artistic generations. Emerging galleries sit alongside established names; modern masters alongside cutting-edge digital practice.

Galleries presenting at this year's edition include: Ab-Anbar, Agial Art Gallery, Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Art Fungible, ATHR, Galerie Atiss Dakar, AWL, Ayyam Gallery, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Blue Rose, Carbon 12, Pedro Cera, Galleria Continua, Dirimart, Dom Art Projects, Efie Gallery, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Foundry, Taymour Grahne Projects, GVCC, Mark Hachem, Hafez Gallery, Leila Heller Gallery, Hunna Art Gallery, Iragui, Iregular, Iris Projects, Gallery Isabelle, JD Malat Gallery, Labor, Lawrie Shabibi, John Martin Gallery, Meem Gallery, Nika Project Space, Galleria Franco Noero, Gallery One, Perrotin, Pinksummer, Plan X, Iyad Qanazea Gallery, Rarares Gallery, Rizq Art Initiative, The Rooster Gallery, Lilia Ben Salah, Shankay, Solo Gallery, SSK, Tabari Artspace, The Third Line, Waddington Custot and Zawyeh Gallery.

Essential Details:

• On view: May 14 – 17, 2026, across all fair days
• Venue: Madinat Jumeirah, Jumeirah Beach Road, Al Sufouh 1, Dubai
• Registration: Click here

Twenty years of the Gulf's most important cultural conversation – and this edition might be the sharpest yet

The Global Art Forum is one of Art Dubai's most distinctive contributions to the region's cultural life. Now in its 20th edition, it has built a reputation for conversations that go further than the programming typically found at art fairs – intellectually engaged, candid exchanges that connect art to politics, history, technology and the present moment. This year's edition, Before and After Everything, is organised by long-term Commissioner Shumon Basar and takes the Forum's own history as both its subject and its vantage point. Moving through a series of thematic ruptures – beginnings, the desert, history, media, uncertainty – it asks what each looks like now and what it looked like when Art Dubai first opened its doors, with particular emphasis on Dubai and the Gulf as a space of imagination and cultural encounter.

The speaker list is among the strongest in the Forum's history. Antonia Carver, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi and Sunny Rahbar open the day with a conversation about the early years of the contemporary art world in the Emirates. Sophia Al Maria contributes a screening of The Future was Desert, a two-part film revisiting the desert as both literal and conceptual landscape tied to the mythology of Gulf Futurism. The day closes with Aaron Cezar (Delfina Foundation), Reem Fadda (Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi) and Butheina Kazim (Cinema Akil) in conversation on uncertainty and the present moment, hosted by Art Dubai's Alexie Glass-Kantor.

Essential Details:

• Date: Saturday, May 16, 2026
• Venue: HUNA Talks Space, Madinat Jumeirah
• Timing: Full programme runs 2:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.; arriving early is advisable
• Sessions to prioritise: Before and After the Beginning (2:45 p.m.) for historical context from three of the UAE's most influential cultural figures; Before and After Uncertainty (6 p.m.) for a candid closing conversation on the present moment
• Registration: Click here

Collecting as a living practice: curators, artists and cultural practitioners in conversation on memory, archives and patronage

Framed by Dubai Collection's 2026 theme – Mapping Memories: Landscapes in Flux and Geometries of the Imagination – the Dubai Collection Talks programme brings together curators, artists, collectors and cultural practitioners to reflect on how collections preserve and activate artistic memory across the region. The conversations span curatorial practice, archives, patronage and public access, asking how collections can function as living spaces of research and dialogue rather than static repositories.

Two sessions take place on Sunday, May 17. The Curator's Corner, with Suheyla Takesh and Jumanah Abbas, is designed for students, artists and emerging practitioners – a space for direct engagement with curatorial decision-making. The second session brings together Nada Shabout, Maryam Al Falasi and Medha Nanda to consider how cultural memory is carried forward across generations in the UAE and the wider region, moderated by Myrna Ayad.

Essential Details:

• Date: Sunday, May 17, 2026
• Venue: Auditorium, Madinat Jumeirah
• 2:00 – 2:45 p.m.: Curator's Corner – Suheyla Takesh, Director of the Barjeel Art Foundation, and Jumanah Abbas, Associate Curator, The Dubai Collection
• 4:00 – 4:45 p.m.: Intergenerational Memory and the Archive – Nada Shabout, Maryam Al Falasi, Medha Nanda; moderated by Myrna Ayad, Cultural Strategist, Writer and Editor
• Note: The Curator's Corner at 2 p.m. is particularly well suited to students and practitioners interested in curatorial methodology and institutional collecting
• Registration: Click here

Intimate artist talks across two days, co-programmed with the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

Co-programmed with the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, this series of artist talks takes place across two days of the fair. Rather than formal presentations, these are intimate conversations with both established and emerging artists – a format that tends to produce more direct and revealing exchanges than prepared remarks allow. The programme covers a wide range of practices: the museum as a networked, living space of encounter; storytelling shaped through voice, image, gesture and memory; weaving as both a material process and a way of thinking about relation and structure; artistic practices that move beyond the static object into participation and environment; and the question of land, ecology, sound and food systems as living sites of knowledge.

On Friday, May 15, Faustin Linyekula and Deepak Unnikrishnan open with Museum in the Becoming, followed by Nujoom Al Ghanem and Kevork Mourad in conversation on storytelling as a relational practice. Sunday, May 17 runs three sessions back to back: Samar Hejazi and Afra Al Dhaheri on Weaving Systems; Nahla Tabbaa and Manal AlDowayan on Beyond the Object; and Talal Al Najjar and Moza Al Matrooshi closing with Investigating Territories. All sessions take place at the Manameh Pavilion.

Essential Details:

• Co-programmed with: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
• Venue: Manameh Pavilion, Madinat Jumeirah
• Dates: Friday, May 15 and Sunday, May 17
• Friday, May 15 – 3:30 – 4:00 p.m.: Museum in the Becoming – Faustin Linyekula and Deepak Unnikrishnan; moderated by Stephanie Rosenthal and Abdelkader Damani, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
• Friday, May 15 – 4:15 – 4:45 p.m.: Storytelling as a Relational Practice – Nujoom Al Ghanem and Kevork Mourad; moderated by Reem Fadda, Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi
• Sunday, May 17 – 3:30 – 4:00 p.m.: Weaving Systems – Samar Hejazi and Afra Al Dhaheri; moderated by Abdelkader Damani
• Sunday, May 17 – 4:15 – 4:45 p.m.: Beyond the Object – Nahla Tabbaa and Manal AlDowayan; moderated by Amelia Jane Martin, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
• Sunday, May 17 – 5:00 – 5:30 p.m.: Investigating Territories – Talal Al Najjar and Moza Al Matrooshi; moderated by Saad Kabara, Art Dubai
• Note: Sunday's three consecutive sessions (3:30 – 5:30 p.m.) are worth blocking out for anyone with a particular interest in contemporary Emirati and regional practice
• Registration: Click here

Art meets media, wellness, design and global relevance – four conversations in one afternoon

Presented in collaboration with A.R.M. Holding and HUNA, the HUNA Talks programme takes a wider view of cultural production – bringing together voices from media, design, wellness, institutional leadership and creative entrepreneurship to consider how art intersects with contemporary life. Where the Global Art Forum focuses on critical discourse and art history, HUNA Talks looks at the broader ecosystem around artistic practice: the platforms that circulate ideas, the spaces that shape contemporary identity, the communities that sustain creative work.

Four sessions take place on Friday, May 15, covering art and media, art and wellness, art and design, and the question of how institutions build cultural relevance beyond their immediate contexts. The closing session – Shaping Global Relevance – features Laila Binbrek (Director, National Pavilion UAE at La Biennale di Venezia), Maya Allison (Executive Director, NYUAD Art Galleries) and Maitha Al Blooshi (Director of Emerging Arts, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority), moderated by William Mullally of The National. It addresses something this year's fair touches on across multiple sections: how local and regional artistic practice finds its place on a global stage.

Essential Details:

• Date: Friday, May 15, 2026
• Venue: Auditorium, Madinat Jumeirah
• Presented in collaboration with: A.R.M. Holding and HUNA
• 3:30 – 4:15 p.m.: Art x Media – Aya Mechelany, Sofiane Si Merabet, Farah Andrews; moderated by Anna Seaman
• 4:30 – 5:15 p.m.: Art x Wellness – Sophiya Faizal, Katia de Rham, Valentina Cereda; moderated by Rebecca Anne Proctor
• 5:30 – 6:15 p.m.: Art x Design – Karine Obegi, Rabah Saeid, Khalid Al Shafar; moderated by Khemena Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief, The Kurator
• 6:30 – 7:15 p.m.: Shaping Global Relevance – Laila Binbrek, Maya Allison, Maitha Al Blooshi; moderated by William Mullally, The National
• Timing: All four sessions run consecutively from 3:30 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.; arriving by 3 p.m. is advisable
• Note: HUNA Talks (Auditorium) and Conversations with Artists (Manameh Pavilion) run simultaneously on Friday afternoon – plan your time between venues accordingly
• Registration: Click here

Four sessions across two days on publishing, archives and cultural memory

The fair's book launch programme treats publishing as what it is: a form of documentation, research and cultural memory-making that deserves dedicated space in a programme of this kind. Sessions across Saturday and Sunday span modern art history, community storytelling, regional archives and the long-standing cultural exchange between the Indian subcontinent and the Arab world. Several launches are presented in collaboration with the Jameel Arts Centre, whose Art Jameel Shop is on-site at the fair.

The presentation of the Wassef Boutros Ghali Catalogue Raisonné by Leila Heller Gallery is a significant contribution to the documentation of modern Egyptian art. Nada Shabout's ‘All Manner of Experiments’: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, presented by NYU Abu Dhabi Gallery, addresses a chapter of 20th-century Arab art history that remains underexplored in international scholarship. Barjeel Art Foundation's Resonant Histories: India and the Arab World traces the cultural and artistic exchanges between the two regions through essays, conversations and research. The session on Becoming Kimmy – a comic following a cat's journey from life on the streets to a fostered home – explores community publishing, non-human perspective and the realities of independent print in an unexpected and accessible way.

Essential Details:

• Venues: Auditorium and Manameh Pavilion, Madinat Jumeirah
• Dates: Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17
• Publications: Available at the Art Jameel Shop booth at the fair
• Saturday, May 16 – 5:30 – 6:15 p.m. (Manameh Pavilion): Wassef Boutros Ghali Catalogue Raisonné – Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Leila Heller, Khemena Ahmad; moderated by Rebecca Anne Proctor (presented by Leila Heller Gallery, in collaboration with Jameel Arts Centre)
• Sunday, May 17 – 1:00 – 1:45 p.m. (Auditorium): Resonant Histories: India and the Arab World – Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi and Suheyla Takesh (presented by Barjeel Art Foundation)
• Sunday, May 17 – 1:30 – 2:15 p.m. (Manameh Pavilion): Cats, Comics and Community Publishing: Becoming Kimmy – Dr. Neha Vora and Azim Al Ghussein; moderated by Gaith Abdulla (presented by Bayt AlMamzar, in collaboration with Jameel Arts Centre)
• Sunday, May 17 – 5:00 – 5:45 p.m. (Auditorium): 'All Manner of Experiments': Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group – Nada Shabout, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Maya Allison (presented by NYU Abu Dhabi Gallery)
• Note: The 1 p.m. session (Auditorium) and 1:30 p.m. session (Manameh Pavilion) on Sunday run simultaneously in different spaces – plan accordingly
• Registration: Click here

Dubai Collection's exhibition traces how societies build, endure and pass themselves forward through art

Dubai Collection is the city's first institutional collection of modern and contemporary art, formed through long-term loans from private patrons and made accessible through a digital archive, research platform and year-round curated exhibitions. Rather than asserting a singular narrative, the collection reflects the complex realities of artistic practice across the region – and at Art Dubai 2026, it presents Made Forward', framed by its 2026 theme, Mapping Memories: Landscapes in Flux and Geometries of the Imagination.

The exhibition takes the social textures of cities and communities as its starting point – their rituals, traditions and indigenous systems of knowledge – and moves through four thematic threads that consider how societies construct, endure and transmit themselves forward. Drawn from over 20 private collections, it brings together artists from West Asia, North Africa and South Asia working across abstraction, realism and figuration, with key works by Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, Brahim Dhahak and Leila Nseir.

Essential Details:

• Presented by: Dubai Collection
• On view: Across all public days, May 15 – 17, during fair hours
• Venue: Art Dubai fair, Madinat Jumeirah
• Registration: Click here

A live literary programme of spoken word, open-mic sessions and participatory poetry running across all four days

Unwritten Poetry brings a live literary dimension to the fair, creating a space for the words we often leave unspoken: memories of joy, gestures of love, moments of togetherness, quiet acts of hope. The programme combines poetry performances, live writing activations and community-led open-mic sessions, drawing together UAE-based poets, spoken word artists and storytellers across languages, cultures and personal narratives.

The recurring Poetry Showcase runs across Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, while Live Poetry Writing invites visitors into direct conversation with poets who respond with personalised poems on the spot. Friday's programme introduces two distinct additions: a participatory activation by the Emirates Literature Foundation and Dubai International Writers' Centre, which invites visitors to pin written reflections on how art moves them onto a collective board; and a special edition of Blank Space Open Mic – one of the UAE's longest-running community-led platforms, founded in 2015 – featuring poets, musicians and storytellers in an evening of live performance and collective expression.

Essential Details:

• Venue: Hall 2, Madinat Jumeirah
• Thursday, May 14: 2 – 4 p.m. and 8:15 – 9 p.m.: Poetry Showcase
• Thursday, May 14: 4 – 7 p.m.: Live Poetry Writing
• Friday, May 15: 3 – 6 p.m.: Frames of Feeling – Emirates Literature Foundation and Dubai International Writers' Centre participatory activation
• Friday, May 15: 8:15 p.m.: Blank Space Open Mic
• Saturday, May 16: 3 – 4 p.m. and 8:15 – 9 p.m.: Poetry Showcase
• Saturday, May 16: 4 – 7 p.m.: Live Poetry Writing
• Sunday, May 17: 1 – 3 p.m.: Poetry Showcase
• Sunday, May 17: 3:30 – 5 p.m.: Live Poetry Writing
• Featured poets: Adel Awad, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Alysia Knowles, Aroma, Danabelle Guitrrez, Dania Dawn, Hesa Al Dahel, Hiba Rasheed, Jared Maxillom, Jaysus Zain, Enas Suleiman, Jennah Fakhouri, Maryam Al Shawab, Meshkat Babiker, Mohammed Al Gaith, Najma Swaleh, Nathalia Khawand, Nima Elnour, Rawad Raidan, Reem Al Suwaidi, Samuel Cole, Sara Al Janabi, Sara Al Nuaimi, Shahad Al Thani, Syed Haider
• Books featured in the space courtesy of: The Emirates Literature Foundation
• Registration: Click here
  

DXB Store and the Art Jameel Shop bring over 50 UAE-based makers, designers and creatives to the fair floor

Running across all public days of the fair, the pop-up store programme brings together two distinct but complementary presentations. DXB Store returns to Art Dubai with a selection of newly produced works and objects by UAE-based makers, designers, collectives and creative practitioners – small-batch, limited-edition and one-of-a-kind pieces spanning functional objects, accessories, apparel, stationery and design. Art Jameel Shop joins this year's edition with a curated selection of art and design publications, editions and original gifts, many handmade by local and international practitioners. It is one of the few places at any art fair where a considered, locally rooted object at an accessible price point can be taken home the same day.

Participating creatives include: Ali Al Hosani, Aljoud Lootah Design and Side Note, Alligator Sunday, Areen, Augustine Paredes, BARZAKH, Canava Design, Charlie Koolhaas, CHILLOUT Accessories, Dastaangoi, Duette Studio, Eman Al Hashimi, Fatima Alketbi, Fatma Haidar, Flick Cameras, Friendly Fires, GUNK, K100, Kapil Bheminar, KAOS, Kattan Design, Kaybox Made, Khalid Mezaina, Leukleather, Life of Loofah, Lina Ghalib, Losing Dog Co., Manabu Ozawa, MARBIE, Marriam Abbas, ODIS Studio, Paper Cast, Pots and Pines, Raad Haider, Ranim Halaky, Rat Wooomjn, Reem Jeghel, Ruba Al Araji, Sara Ahli, Sara Almulla, Sheikha Bin Daher, Si Mozelle, Studio Tools, Talal Al Najjar, Taqwa Alnaqbi, The Argoub Club, Trace, URBN FBRC, Wafa Al Falahi, Wolfpakistan, Zaid Farouki and Zajal Gifts.

Essential Details:

• On view: Across all public days, May 15 – 17, during fair hours
• Venue: Art Dubai fair, Madinat Jumeirah
• Publications: Art Jameel publications available at the Art Jameel Shop booth alongside the book launch programme
• Registration: Click here

Guided listening sessions, live performances and DJ sets running nightly across all four days of the fair

The Listening Bar brings a dedicated sonic programme to the fair, running each day from late afternoon into the evening. Rather than background music, the programme treats sound as its own form of engagement – opening each day with a guided listening session led by a different practitioner, before moving into live performances and DJ sets that carry the evening through to close.

The four days cover a wide range of approaches: Rami Afifi, Hakim and Yassine, and Nile.ist each lead their own guided listening session across Thursday, Friday and Saturday respectively, setting a contemplative tone before the programme shifts into live music. Evenings feature artists including Sandra Ivette Duo, James Kelly, Jay Abo, Imelda Gabs, BuFari, Jimi Elgohary, That's Julian and, on Saturday night, an extended live set from The Geometry of Synthesis featuring Madam Void, PHO, Tacit and Memoryall visuals. Sunday closes the fair with Elijah Semine and a DJ set from Frezidante.

Essential Details:

• Thursday, May 14: 4 – 6 p.m.: Guided Listening Session by Rami Afifi
• Thursday, May 14: 7 – 8 p.m.: Live – Sandra Ivette Duo
• Thursday, May 14: 8 – 10:30 p.m.: DJ Set – James Kelly
• Thursday, May 14: 10:30 – 11:30 p.m.: Live – Jay Abo
• Friday, May 15: 5:15 – 6:30 p.m.: Guided Listening Session by Hakim and Yassine
• Friday, May 15: 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.: Live – Imelda Gabs
• Friday, May 15: 8:30 – 10:30 p.m.: DJ Set – BuFari
• Friday, May 15: 10:30 – 11:30 p.m.: Live – Jimi Elgohary
• Saturday, May 16: 5 – 6:30 p.m.: Guided Listening Session by Nile.ist
• Saturday, May 16: 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.: Live – That's Julian
• Saturday, May 16: 9:30 – 11:30 p.m.: Live – The Geometry of Synthesis: Madam Void, PHO, Tacit, Memoryall visuals
• Sunday, May 17: 3 – 4 p.m.: Live – Elijah Semine
• Sunday, May 17: 4 p.m.: DJ Set – Frezidante
• Registration: Click here
  

A co-curated moving image programme spanning 13 works from Alserkal Avenue galleries

'Moving' is a co-curated moving image programme developed in partnership between Art Dubai and Alserkal Avenue, bringing together 13 works by artists represented by Alserkal Avenue galleries who are also participating in the fair's special edition. Presented across both venues from May 14 to 17, the selection foregrounds works that prioritise atmosphere, gesture and rhythm over linear narrative – pieces experienced as much as watched. Artists include Abeer Sultan, Anahita Razmi, Bady Dalloul, Dima Srouji, Faisal Samra, Huda Lutfi, :mentalKLINIK, Mohammed Kazem, Mounir Fatmi, Raed Yassin, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Sudarshan Shetty and Sumayah Fallatah.

Working across animation, found footage, performance documentation and experimental film, the works share recurring preoccupations: memory and displacement, the body under pressure, the politics of repetition, and the quiet systems embedded in overlooked everyday life. Some pieces return to personal and collective history – Dima Srouji builds meaning through archival juxtaposition; Sadik Kwaish Alfraji layers drawing and animation into a non-linear account of his father's generation; Raed Yassin revisits a childhood memory through popular cinema and religious song. Others find their subject in gesture and endurance – Faisal Samra holds a figure against an unseen force; Sumayah Fallatah extends a repeated gesture into a slow, meditative rhythm; Mohammed Kazem observes a traffic officer at a roundabout until coordination itself becomes the subject.

Essential Details:

• Presented by: Art Dubai in partnership with Alserkal Avenue
• Venues: Across both Alserkal Avenue and the Art Dubai fair, Madinat Jumeirah
• Dates: May 14 – 17, 2026
• Registration: Click here

Twenty works tracing the history of modern art in the Arab world, presented to mark Art Dubai's 20th anniversary

To mark Art Dubai's 20th anniversary, the Barjeel Art Foundation presents Pulse – a selection of 20 works from its collection tracing key moments in the history of modern art in the Arab world. Founded in Sharjah in 2010, the Barjeel Art Foundation has become one of the most significant institutional voices for modern Arab art, having organised over 40 exhibitions and supported loans to more than 170 international institutions.

The works span the 20th century and map a shifting visual language across geographies, materials and approaches – from early forms of self-representation to experiments in abstraction that registered the social, cultural and political transformations of their time. Artists include Mahmoud Said, Samia Halaby, Mohamed Melehi and Safeya Binzagr, among others. Curated by Rémi Homsa, the exhibition functions as both historical account and active argument for the enduring significance of this body of work – and for visitors less familiar with the history of modern Arab art, it is one of the most rewarding entry points at this year's fair.

Essential Details:

• Presented by: Barjeel Art Foundation
• Curated by: Rémi Homsa
• On view: Across all public days, May 15 – 17, during fair hours
• Venue: Art Dubai fair, Madinat Jumeirah
• Registration: Click here

Three live works across theatre, choreography and sound – running across all four days of the fair

Presented by the Sharjah Art Foundation, Against Stillness brings together three distinct works by artists working across theatre, choreography and sound, each engaging with memory, the body, colonial history and loss from its own angle.

Lawrence, directed by Muhanad Kareem Kzar, stages a confrontation with the colonial narratives codified in T. E. Lawrence's autobiography Seven Pillars of Wisdom, drawing on the director's own family history alongside archival records and artificial intelligence to ask hard questions about who writes history and how. Body as a Witness, choreographed and performed by Safa Al Balushi, asks whether a body burdened by the memory of violence can ever fully reclaim itself – a question the work holds without offering easy resolution. Tears Through the Soul, a musical performance by Astral LXXXII, uses synthesised frequencies, vocal processors and looping systems to guide audiences through the resonances of memory in times of siege. All three works resist comfortable conclusions. That is their value.

Essential Details:

• Presented by: Sharjah Art Foundation
• Venue: Sharjah Art Foundation Space, Hall 2, Madinat Jumeirah
• Thursday, May 14 (Preview Day, by invitation): Lawrence – 6 p.m.
• Friday, May 15: Lawrence – 2:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.
• Saturday, May 16: Body as a Witness – 2:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.
• Sunday, May 17: Tears Through the Soul – 12:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m.
• Note: Lawrence is the most structured theatrical work of the three – worth prioritising if attending across multiple days
• Registration: Click here

Seven large-scale installations across Madinat Jumeirah, from Emirati geometric abstraction to soft architecture and ancestral memory

A series of large-scale installations is presented across Madinat Jumeirah throughout the fair, spanning a wide range of materials, concerns and geographies. The works cover geometric abstraction rooted in the UAE's built environment, explorations of shifting value and cultural exchange, meditations on memory and displacement, and reinterpretations of traditional architectural form. Several involve extended collaborations with artisans across multiple countries.

The seven installations span a broad range of concerns. Emirati artist Khalid Al Banna presents two geometric works exploring the tension between mass and void in the UAE's urban landscape; Yaw Owusu's Heart of a Place uses coins from Ghana, the UAE and the US to examine how value shifts across economies and contexts; and Hashel Al Lamki's Maat draws on collaborations with artisans in Mallorca, Kerala and Cairo, using recycled burial and bridal fabrics to reflect on collective wisdom. Kevork Mourad's paired works Tower and Memories of Stones evoke Armenian ancestral memory through floating, tower-like forms; Sudarshan Shetty's A Song, A Story | Sculpture I and II incorporates teak wood, lanterns and a patio pond to reference architectural forms of the Indian subcontinent; and Neda Razavipour's Silk Road weaves Persian and Flemish motifs into what she describes as soft architecture. The Manameh Pavilion by Rashid and Ahmed Bin Shabib – the signature image of this edition – reinterprets a traditional elevated seating structure as a contemporary proposition on sustainability, and doubles as an active event space for talks and book launches throughout the fair.

Essential Details:

• On view: across all public days, May 15 – 17, during fair hours
• Venue: Across Madinat Jumeirah
• Registration: Click here

Nightly DJ sets from local and international names at Fort Island's Art Bar – from 9 p.m. every night

After each day of programming closes, the fair shifts to Fort Island where the Art Bar transforms into Art Dubai After Dark – a nightly music and dance programme running from 9 p.m. The line-up draws from both local and international DJ talent, making it as much a part of the Art Dubai experience as anything happening on the fair floor during the day.

Essential Details:

• Venue: The Art Bar, Fort Island, Madinat Jumeirah
• Dates: Thursday, May 14 – Sunday, May 17
• Start time: 9 p.m. nightly
• Registration: Click here