Art Cairo returns to Grand Egyptian Museum for its seventh iteration, running until Monday and bringing together more than 40 galleries from Egypt, the Arab world and Europe.
Unfolding this year under the theme “Arab. Art. Here”, the fair has established itself as a notable stop on the international calendar and the year’s first major stop to see the latest from Arab artists and galleries, with last year reportedly recording more than $1.2 million in sales.
“Art Cairo is about making Arab art visible, accessible and part of everyday cultural life,” said Art Cairo founder and director Mohammed Younis. “From the beginning, the fair was built to support artists and galleries from the region, and connect them with a global art dialogue.”
From abstract works and evocative paintings to the fair’s behind-the-scenes role in galvanising the region’s independent art community, here are four things to know from Art Cairo 2026.
1. Abstract art offers a moment of poetry and reflection
While abstract work takes a backseat at Art Cairo, what is exhibited offers plenty of food for thought.
Maqamat al-Ishq (Stations of Love) is a solo presentation of abstract art by Himat Ali. It is shown by Zaat, a Beirut arts initiative, that presents an evocative partnership between the Iraqi artist and Syrian poet Adonis.
Ali is a long-established painter whose practice stretches back decades and takes in abstraction, calligraphic gesture and literary reference.
In the exhibition, he presents abstract paintings full of bursting violet and red and rose-shaped forms inspired by time spent experiencing the cherry blossom season in Japan, on to which Adonis’s poetry is printed directly on the canvas, rendering the text reversed and illegible.
Zaat founder Lara Hajj Salman explains how Ali prefers the work to be encountered.
“Everything for him is abstract. He doesn’t want you to read the text, because he wants you to put your own data into it,” she says. “He likes to keep it abstract. Even the flower is abstract. You have to let go. You have to dream. You have to think when you look at the art.”
Born in Kirkuk and now based in Paris, Ali is shaped by travel and displacement, alongside a love of poetry.
Salman says that while abstract artworks may not be the traditional crowd-puller in Cairo, their presence allows space for contemplation within the fair.
“If it sells, it’s great. If it doesn’t sell, at least there is something to show and make people pause for thought,” she says.
2. Painting remains most immediate draw
Painting, particularly figurative art, continues to form the lion’s share of work exhibited in Art Cairo. At Dubai’s Fann A Porter booth, gallery co-ordinator Zoya Zalatimo framed that preference against shifts in contemporary trends.
“The industry is shifting towards conceptual art. Painting is sometimes something you don’t see as much any more, but here in Cairo, collectors are interested in this,” she says. “Maybe it’s because there is that history in the region, especially when you look at older Syrian modernists who were really good painters.”
Fann A Porter’s exhibited works include those by Majd Kurdieh, including Untitled (Soul) and Love Comes and Goes Like Lightning and Thunder, art defined by dense, saturated surfaces, with butterfly motifs appearing at different scales against broad pastoral landscapes and deep blue skies.
While in Cairo’s Gallery Misr’s space, the bold works of Serwan Baran command attention. Inspired by the invasion of his native Iraq, the Red Crescent series is almost journalistic, with its blurred images of crowds and paramedics helping the wounded in a busy street.
Gallery Misr's director Menna Genedy stresses that painting remains central to the gallery.
“It’s not about giving people what they want. We bring what we believe,” Genedy says regarding the gallery’s choice of paintings. “Painting in the Middle East is recent. It’s from the beginning of the 20th century that people started, mainly in Egypt, to actually paint or have academies or faculties for fine arts. So it’s important to bring accessible paintings, as they are impressive, striking and awakening.”
3. International galleries are testing Cairo
International participation at Art Cairo remains steady, with galleries from the Netherlands, France and Norway in the mix.
Galerie Sanaa, based in the Dutch city of Utrecht, has returned for its second appearance. Founder Berthe Schoonman says the decision to come back was based on how encouraging last year’s event was.
“It’s really growing and it’s nice that it is bringing together different galleries and different countries,” she says. “The ambience in the Grand Egyptian Museum is very important, and what is happening here is young and promising artists and galleries are connecting to other events and initiatives, which is really the point of these fairs.”
This time around, Galerie Sanaa – not related to the Yemeni city – returns with the work of Syrian-Dutch painter Raafat Ballan.
His series of ominous portraits and family scenes, with mournful faces, uses dark browns and greens that leave the art shrouded in a sense of melancholy.
“I was intrigued by how he paints, especially the faces of people and the expression they have. It tells you something and you can connect to them in a very easy way,” Schoonman says.
“There is emotion in it and I was triggered by that feeling. I showed it for the first time in the gallery in the Netherlands, and so many people were moved and attracted by his work. So I thought this is very important to bring here to the Arab world.”
4. Art Cairo breaks regional isolation
For many regional galleries, Art Cairo fills a gap that local scenes cannot. With limited funding, the independence of galleries, often focusing on ways to survive, has created a silo mentality across the region, according to Sawsan Snober, a partner at Orfali Art Gallery.
Founded in the Jordanian capital in 1993, the organisation is renowned for showing Iraqi painters and sculptors based in the region and the diaspora.
“We as a gallery never left Amman and when we came here to Cairo for the first time, we realised that this was a mistake on our part,” she says.
“Normally, galleries here function in isolation because we are so busy just trying to function that we don’t see the initial value of going outside to art fairs and see what is happening. Already on the first day I met other galleries that we only read about and appreciated from afar, and that was encouraging because we share similar stories and we can exchange advice and ways to collaborate more.”
A centrepiece of the gallery’s show is a work by Canadian-based Iraqi painter Hashim Hannoon, which displays ghostly renderings of children swirling amid spirals of bright red and other colours that speak of the suffering at home.
“His work is about childhood and the suffering of kids in Iraq,” Snober says. “It’s about playing amid the tragedy and suffering, and despite the bleak subject, it is really hopeful.”
Syria’s George Kamel Gallery, which has participated in the fair for the past five years, returned with works by renowned Syrian and Egyptian artists, including Bassem Dahdouh and Shalabia Ibrahim.
Curator Nour Salman says the event is one of the few consistent points of contact for galleries working under constraints.
“Sometimes the exposure alone is worth the investment. When you come to an art fair, you meet people, people meet you, they learn about the gallery, the artists and their stories,” she says.
“For galleries in the region, especially, these gatherings matter because we often work in isolation. Unlike Europe, it’s very rare to have these chances to meet and connect.”
