What to expect at Abu Dhabi Art this year

As the Gulf gears up for another autumn rich with culture, the return of Abu Dhabi Art remains one of the most anticipated events on the region’s calendar.

The 17th edition, taking place from Wednesday to Sunday at Manarat Al Saadiyat, will bring together more than 140 galleries from 52 cities across 37 countries.

This year’s fair is also bittersweet – it marks the final outing before Abu Dhabi Art relaunches as Frieze Abu Dhabi. The transition will lend a sense of nostalgia to the event, as both the fair and its loyal audience reflect on 17 years of connecting through art.

Fair director Dyala Nusseibeh says exhibitor numbers have risen by 40 per cent this year compared to 2024. Victor Besa / The National

“Fairs are often described as platforms in art world discussions, but they are perhaps more understandable as communities, certainly in the case of Abu Dhabi Art,” says Dyala Nusseibeh, the fair’s director.

“I hope everyone enjoys this edition and is as excited as we are for the new chapter ahead as Frieze Abu Dhabi. What is certain is that we have collectively created very strong foundations for the growth ahead,” she adds.

“Abu Dhabi Art functions as both a dynamic commercial hub for the art market and a marketplace for ideas,” Nusseibeh explains. “Exhibitor numbers have risen by 40 per cent compared to 2024, underscoring the growing international interest in the UAE’s art scene amid shifting global dynamics. This global participation also allows Abu Dhabi Art to amplify regional narratives and share them worldwide, contributing meaningfully to cultural discourse.”

Under the Gulf Focus section at Abu Dhabi Art, Saudi Arabia's Hafez Gallery will present the emotive works of artist Sami Al Marzoogi. Photo: Abu Dhabi Art

Alongside the main showcase of international galleries such as Pace Gallery, Mennour, Galleria Continua and Hanart TZ, this year’s Focus section highlights artists from Turkey, the Gulf and Nigeria. The popular Collectors’ Salon also returns, presenting historically important objects, artefacts, rare books, maps and artworks.

The Nigeria Focus, presented in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy of Nigeria, underscores shared values between the UAE and Nigeria in supporting the creative economy.

Seven galleries will take part, featuring both established and emerging artists from the Osogbo School – a modernist art movement born in the 1960s that fused Yoruba cultural symbols with a post-independence visual language.

Nicole Asinugo, director of The Osahon Okunbo Foundation; Tola Akerele, founder, Soto Gallery; and Sosa Omorogbe, founder of The 1897 gallery are taking part in the Nigeria country focus. Victor Besa / The National

The Turkey Focus, curated by former Turkish gallerist Doris Benhalegua Karako, shines a light on modern masters from the country and their connections to the broader Middle East. A major highlight is a collection of works by Fahrelnissa Zeid, a pioneering artist whose extraordinary life and career spanned Istanbul, Baghdad, Paris, London and Amman.

“All three Focus geographies are vibrant centres of creative production, each with rich, yet often under-researched contributions to global art history, which has long been dominated by Eurocentric narratives,” says Nusseibeh.

“These regions have experienced profound social and political transformations in recent decades, and their artists have responded to these shifts with extraordinary innovation. There is significant growth potential in the market for artists in these sectors, making now an exciting moment for collectors to engage with their work.”

Artworks by Japanese artist Yoyoi Kusama at Abu Dhabi Art. Victor Besa / The National

The Gulf Focus celebrates the region’s dynamic art histories and its new generation of artists, presenting seven galleries from across the Arabian Peninsula. Dubai’s Gallery Isabelle will bring a group show spotlighting Emirati pioneers Hassan Sharif and Mohammed Kazem, alongside rising talent Alia Zaal, while Doha’s Wusum Gallery presents a solo exhibition dedicated to Qatari artist Tarek Darwish.

Kuwait’s Hunna Art, which champions female artists, will showcase works by Alymamah Rashed (Kuwait), Joud Fahmy (Saudi Arabia) and Zayn Qahtani (Bahrain), all at pivotal moments in their careers. “Their practices converge around questions of materiality, ecology and embodied storytelling,” says Hunna founder Oceane Sailly. “Rooted in the Gulf’s environments and mythologies, each artist engages distinct materials – from painting and sculpture to bio-based media – to explore the resonances between self, land and culture.

“These three artists represent the strength and diversity of a new generation of voices from the Arabian Peninsula,” she adds. “Artists whose practices are grounded in their local contexts, yet speak to global conversations. Rashed’s surreal anatomies evoke shifting ecologies through an intimate, subjective lens; Fahmy’s labour-intensive textile sculptures reclaim women’s agency through tactility and endurance; and Qahtani’s experimental use of organic matter proposes speculative cosmologies grounded in the Gulf’s material and spiritual heritage.”

When Your Light Lived Within Me - Lace Tree Series I-IV by Alymamah Rashed from Kuwait. Photo: Abu Dhabi Art

Saudi Arabia’s Hafez Gallery presents the works of Sami Al Marzoogi, Sara Alabdali and Raeda Ashour, whose practices span meditative ink studies, narrative landscapes and embossed surfaces. “Each artist engages with heritage as a living source,” says Kenza Zouari, project manager at Hafez Gallery.

“Whether through Al Marzoogi’s emotive colour and line, Alabdali’s integration of Hejazi culture and personal memory, or Ashour’s reimagining of Islamic ornament for modern contexts. Their practices complement and enrich one another, embodying the region’s diversity and relevance on the international stage.”

Bahrain’s Albareh Gallery delivers a curated selection of works by Nasser Al-Yousif, one of the founding figures of Bahrain’s modern art movement. The showcase traces his evolution from early paintings inspired by Bahraini folklore and architecture to late linoleum prints created after he lost his eyesight, in which vision is replaced by touch, rhythm and inner light.

The Lady and the Moon by Nasser Al-Yousif from Bahrain. Photo: Abu Dhabi Art

“A self-taught artist, he bridged tradition and modernity, infusing his work with the warmth of lived experience and the discipline of experimentation,” says gallery director Hayfa Aljishi. “His legacy continues to inspire a generation of artists who see in his practice both an artistic and human triumph – the belief that creativity endures beyond limitation.”

Another highlight this year is the unveiling of six site-specific commissions across key cultural landmarks in Al Ain, extending the fair’s reach beyond the city and into the emirate’s heritage heartland.

As part of the Beyond Emerging Artists 2025 programme, three artists from the UAE – Alla Abdunabi, Salmah Almansoori and Maktoum Marwan Al Maktoum – will debut dual-site commissions in both Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. This has been curated by internationally acclaimed artist Issam Kourbaj, who will also present a series of his own installations across Al Ain Museum, Al Qattara Arts Centre and Al Hili Archaeological Park.

“Abdunabi presents a poetic vessel at Al Jahili Fort – an empty water carrier placed beside a disused well, evoking longing and exile,” explains Nusseibeh. “Almansoori creates organic sculptures woven from palm fibres at Al Ain Oasis, in dialogue with the site’s natural textures and traditions. While Al Maktoum unveils a monumental installation near the Jebel Hafeet Tombs, exploring time, landscape and ancestry.

It Was Always You by Bahraini artist Zayn Qahtani. Photo: Abu Dhabi Art.

“More established artists are also contributing to the Al Ain commissions,” she adds. “Hesam Rahmanian and Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh from Abu Dhabi have conceived a sculptural Triumphal Arch at Al Hili Archaeological Park, inspired by a phrase from Andalusian mystic Ibn Arabi. The work transforms his words into intertwined letters that hover in space – a poetic fusion of language, form and imagination.”

Completing this year’s Al Ain commissions is renowned Nigerian artist Nike Davies-Okundaye – who is a fifth-generation weaver and a key figure of the Osogbo School. His work, The Market Square, will be presented at Al Ain Oasis, and is composed of monumental indigo-dyed textiles.

As the curtains prepare to close on Abu Dhabi Art in its current form, this year’s event stands as more than a farewell. It is a celebration of 17 years of cultural exchange, a reflection on the legacy it leaves behind and a confident step towards a new chapter under the famed Frieze umbrella – a defining moment in the UAE’s cultural evolution.

Abu Dhabi Art at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Cultural District; November 19-23; www.abudhabiart.ae