Art Dubai 2024 guide: Everything you need to know

Art Dubai, now in its 17th year, is one of the biggest art fairs in the region. It’s an all-consuming immersive experience that is both exciting and educational.

Featuring 120 galleries from more than 40 countries, the event will take place at Madinat Jumeirah from Friday to Sunday. Art Dubai will be spread across four permanent sections, and will also feature new commissions, talks and a packed programme for the whole family.

From contemporary to modern art, local and regionally focused artists, plus exploring subjects such as climate change, here is your guide to what’s happening at this year's Art Dubai.

Art Dubai Contemporary Gallery

Gallery There Are Other Fish In The Sea by Albarran Bourdais. The Art Dubai Contemporary section will showcase the most current works by artists from around the globe. Photo: Art Dubai

Ranging from emerging art galleries to established centres, the Art Dubai Contemporary section will showcase a global insight into what is happening and what is being created by a range of creatives from across the world right now.

The section has more than 70 gallery booths representing countries and artists from India, Spain, France, Germany, Turkey, Singapore, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Iran, the UAE and many more.

Bawwaba

Artists from the Global South have come together to present works at the Bawwaba section of the event to explore the theme of healing.

Bawwaba, which translates as gateway in Arabic, will showcase 10 solo presentations featuring artworks created within the past year or specifically for Art Dubai.

Curated by Emiliano Valdes, chief curator of the Medellin Museum of Modern Art and associate curator for the 10th Gwangju Biennale, the works, across mediums and styles, grapple with the idea of healing not only on a personal and spiritual level, but also through the prism of society, historyand politics.

Art Dubai Modern

Always one of the most thought-provoking galleries at the fair, Art Dubai Modern will present works under the title This Other World: Envisioning Modern Art After 1960.

The section highlights the work of artists from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia who were active after 1960 and particularly their artistic output, influences and cultural links to the Soviet Union.

This fascinating facet of art history is curated by Christianna Bonin, assistant professor of art history at the American University of Sharjah, with works by artists from Uganda, Syria, Ukraine, Lebanon and Sri Lanka.

Art Dubai Digital

There is no bigger conversation right now in the art world than the expansion of new media art and technologies, also known as digital art.

The Art Dubai Digital space at the fair is one of the most comprehensive places to gain insight on how contemporary culture is framed within digital art and how the diverse medium is growing.

Curated by Auronda Scalera and Alfredo Cramerotti, co-directors of IAM-Infinity Art Museum in the metaverse and Multiplicity-XXnft curatorial and publishing platform, the digital art section will include works that predict new themes, trends and formats in digital art through a range of media. These include digital video, augmented reality, virtual reality, extended reality, artificial intelligence, robotic art and immersive art experiences.

Worlds In A Box By Sahil Naik

Artist Sahil Naik will present Worlds In A Box, a workshop for children to engage with art. Photo: Sahil Naik

Worlds In A Box By Sahil Naik will introduce young culture enthusiasts to the importance and power of creativity.

The Arm Holding Children’s Programme, the cultural education programme in the UAE developed in partnership with Art Dubai, selected artist Sahil Naik for their 2024 programme titled Worlds in a Box.

Naik’s sculptural, architectural and arts education practice will take children through a journey of creation using the built environment as inspiration. Focusing on the themes of ecology and nature, the workshops will invite children to think about a central question – how do younger generations imagine future cities, and what will they comprise?

Children also have a dedicated Creative Play Area at Art Dubai led by trained care workers, so parents can freely explore the fair.

The Worlds In A Box workshops are free of charge with entry into Art Dubai 2024.

Global Art Forum 17: Whether Or Not

The Global Art Forum 17 will focus on extreme between extreme weather and extreme change. Photo: Art Dubai

Art Dubai’s flagship transdisciplinary summit, Global Art Forum, includes lectures, panels discussions and performances. The forum will explore the relationship between extreme weather and extreme change.

Titled Whether or Not, this year’s Global Art Forum will present a range of established writers, academics, artists and curators to explore the theme.

Through a number of thought-provoking discussions, the Global Art Forum will refocus the idea that extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts, storms, smog may have roots in the Old Testament, but are a part of every facet of the modern world.

This year’s event is organised by commissioner Shumon Basar and curator Nadine El-Khoury and will be taking place on Thursday and Friday.

Dubai Collection

Dubai Collection is the city’s first institutional collection of modern and contemporary art. Built in partnership with patrons who support the initiative through a loan system, all artworks in Dubai Collection reflect the values and spirit of Dubai and the UAE.

This year at the festival, Dubai Collection presents Encounters, a showcase of diverse work from UAE artists from several generations across genres and styles.

Encounters includes works by pioneering artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, conceptual artist Afra Al Dhaheri and the sculptural experimentation of Shaikha Al Mazrou.

Artist’s Talks

There will be more than 50 sessions throughout the art fair discussing varying facets of the art world. Photo: Art Dubai

Aside from Global Art Forum 17, Art Dubai will also have a wider series of talks to support the region’s cultural ecosystem and engage the public on artistic concepts and practices across the spectrum.

Artists, curators, technologists and thinkers shaping the future of the creative industries through their work will be in discussion with each other and moderators in more than 50 sessions throughout the festival.

These include the Digital Summit series of talks where experts will delve into the expanding field of digital art, the Collector’s Talks series where individuals and institutions will discuss all aspects of collecting, The Art Business Conference where key issues in today’s art market will be discussed and Conversations with Artists, where the public can get a better understanding of artists and their processes and practices.

Art Dubai 2024 will take place at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai from Friday to Sunday. More information is at www.artdubai.ae

The specs

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Price: Dh13,400,000

On sale: now

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Museum of the Future in numbers

78 metres is the height of the museum
30,000 square metres is its total area
17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
Dh145 is the price of a ticket