'The DNA of the city': What to expect at Art Dubai 2025

The National speaks to annual event's artistic director to gauge what's in store at the international fair

Art Dubai 2025 will take place at Madinat Jumeirah from April 18 to 20. Pictured: Mother and Child by Chandraguptha Thenuwara exhibited at last year's event. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Expect to see several fresh faces at Art Dubai 2025.

The fair will be returning to its home in Madinat Jumeirah once again between April 18 and 20, this time featuring exhibitions from more than 100 galleries, 20 per cent of which will be showcasing work in the international art fair for the first time.

The list of participants was devised with the “DNA of the city” in mind, says Pablo del Val, artistic director of Art Dubai.

“The biggest responsibility that an art fair has is towards its own community,” he says. “The better galleries that you bring and with more exciting works, the better acquisitions and the better collections that the city will have.”

While expanding the fair is certainly a tenet, Del Val says he is keen on ensuring that only quality art makes the cut. As for the works that may end up in a private or institutional collection in the region, they need to be “done with brains and heart".

The contemporary section will have a large number of first-time exhibitors. Chris Whiteoak / The National

For instance, several first-time exhibitors, including galleries from Casablanca, Tokyo, Mexico City and Prague, will feature in the contemporary section.

“The contemporary section is where we have a larger number of new players, with fantastic galleries coming on board,” Del Val says. The section is chiefly concerned with highlighting art from under-represented communities, and has a robust representation from across the Middle East, Africa, as well as West and South Asia.

While the contemporary section is dedicated to cutting-edge works, it will not be far removed from the displays of modern art. Galleries will blend their displays of modern and contemporary art, offering a “really nice dialogue” between the different eras.

“Instead of going to a spot where everybody's together, you will have contemporary art galleries with cabinets,” he says. “You will enter the gallery and there will be a section painted in a different colour with a specific representation of modern works. They're all together, but you will see this mix between the modern cabinet and the contemporary presentation by the gallery.”

However, Art Dubai’s modern section will still have a dedicated focus, featuring works by the region’s modern masters. The section will explore the unanimity between West Asia and North Africa and other post-colonial geographies around the world. The art on display will reflect on a number of relevant themes, including experiences of migration and anti-imperial struggles. Art Dubai Modern is being curated by Magali Arriola, director of Mexico’s Museo Tamayo and art critic, as well as Nada Shabout, an art history professor at the University of North Texas.

Galleries will blend their displays of modern and contemporary art. Photo: Art Dubai

The artists and collectives represented in Art Dubai Modern include Mozambican-Italian painter and sculptor Bertina Lopes; Al-Ru’yya al-Jadidah (or the New Vision group), which was founded by Dia Al-Azzawi in the late 1960s; and Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar, known for his geometric abstract works. The section is also expanding to include, for the first time, an artist from Latin America: Venezuelan Dario Perez Flores, who is celebrated for his innovations in kinetic art.

The fair will also reprise its Bawwaba section. Named after the Arabic word for gateway, the section is dedicated to presenting works made over the past year. Bawwaba is curated by Mirjam Varadinis, a writer and the curator-at-large at the Kunsthaus Zurich.

The section echoes the themes of displacement presented in the modern section, pitting them against the current climate. Artists exhibiting at Bawwaba include New Zealander Kate Newby is a sculptor who works in a variety of mediums, including ceramics and glass; Kazakhstani artist Gulnur Mukazhanova, whose vibrant, large-scale canvases often incorporate unexpected materials, including textiles; and Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno, known for his floating sculptures and interactive installations.

Pablo del Val is the artistic director Art Dubai. Photo: Augustine Paredes

Finally, Art Dubai Digital is also returning for its fourth year. This section will examine the intersection of art and technology, including artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual and augmented reality. The works address pressing environmental, social and political issues.

This year, Art Dubai Digital will be held under the banner After the Technological Sublime and will be curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, a lecturer at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in London.

“You will see that there are many changes in the section,” Del Val says. “It's about pairing things in a different way. Gonzalo is dividing the section in galleries and in platforms. When you enter, you will be sure which are the galleries representing artists, and which are the marketplaces and all the other players that are in the crypto universe.”

This universe, Del Val says, is very complex and has its own rules, and the section aims to dispel some of the misunderstandings that shroud the digital realm in mystery.

In many ways, Art Dubai can also be viewed as a barometer of Dubai’s cultural scene. The fair has long aimed to reflect the city’s position as a regional financial and commercial hub, and the 2025 event will be no different.

Del Val says there is a growing number of artists from the UAE showing at the fair, which is a marker that speaks to the health and development of the local cultural scene. Artists from the country participating this year include Sara Al Haddad, Salem Al Shamsi, Rami Farook, Sarah Almehairi, Zeinab Al Hashemi, Talal Al Najjar, Shaikha Al Mazrou, as well as Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Azza Al Qubaisi, and Hassan Sharif. While the artists have exhibited in other art platforms in the country, Art Dubai offers something different, Del Val says.

“They get observed and seen in a completely different way,” he says. “When curators or museum directors come and see the works, they are contextualised in a novel way that looks great. That's part of the job, to have a really strong Emirati scene.”