After the original April fair was postponed, Art Dubai will put on a special edition at Madinat Jumeirah this week. It will feature a programme of gallery presentations, institutional exhibitions, architectural installations, live performances, talks and a pop-up store by creatives from the UAE.
The fair runs from Friday to Sunday, with an invitation-only preview on Thursday. This marks Art Dubai’s 20th anniversary with a focused format built around galleries, artists, collectors and cultural organisations in the UAE and the wider region.
The guiding theme, Things We Do Together, brings commercial galleries into dialogue with artist commissions and collaborations with UAE institutions. Sixty per cent of gallery presentations are drawn from across the region, and entry to this year's fair will be free for all visitors.
Regional galleries and digital practices
The gallery programme spans contemporary, modern and digital work, with emerging and established galleries taking part.
Long-running Art Dubai supporters, including The Third Line, Galleria Continua, ATHR and Leila Heller Gallery, return for the special edition. Other galleries from the UAE include Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Carbon 12, Efie Gallery, Lawrie Shabibi, Meem Gallery, Tabari Artspace and Waddington Custot.
First-time participants include Dom Art Projects; Rarares Gallery and Foundry from Dubai; Galerie Frank Elbaz from Paris; Labor from Mexico City; and Solo from Bucharest.
The digital strand includes Art Fungible from Hong Kong, Iregular from Montreal, JD Malat Gallery from London and Dubai, Lilia Ben Salah from Paris, Shankay from Porto and Dubai, and SSK from Ukkel.
Artists named in the programme include Abdalla Al Omari, Adrian Pepe, Alyazia Al Nahyan, Malik Thomas Jalil Kydd, Mohammed Al Hawajri and Roudhah Al Mazrouei.
Institutional exhibitions
Barjeel Art Foundation’s Pulse draws from its collection and includes works by Mahmoud Sa'id, Samia Halaby and Safeya Binzagr. The exhibition traces changing visual languages across the Arab world.
Dubai Collection’s Moving Forward features works from more than 20 private collections. Artists named in the presentation include Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Brahim Dhahak and Leila Nseir.
The Ministry of Culture’s When the Familiar Becomes Unfamiliar features Emirati artists Karima Al Shomely, Rawdha Al Ketbi and Sara Ahli, with works exploring abstraction and the everyday made strange.
Alserkal’s Moving is a co-curated moving-image programme shown at Art Dubai and Alserkal. The project marks the second year of a multi-year partnership between the two institutions.
Installations across Madinat Jumeirah
Commissions will be placed across the venue, with works by artists including Rashid and Ahmed bin Shabib, Neda Razavipour, Khalid Al Banna and Hashel Al Lamki.
The bin Shabib brothers’ Manameh Pavilion reinterprets the pavilion they created for Bahrain at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2025. The work draws on the traditional manameh, an elevated seating structure associated with shade and ventilation, and addresses sustainability and energy efficiency.
Razavipour’s Silk Road, made with Ab-Anbar Gallery, transforms textiles into soft architecture. The work weaves Persian and Flemish motifs to explore cultural exchange, memory and historical connections along the Silk Road.
Al Banna’s The Path, with House of Arts, consists of two large-scale installations by the Emirati artist. The works translate his architectural sensibility into geometric abstraction and reflect the UAE’s changing urban landscape.
Al Lamki’s Maat, with Tabari Artspace, uses recycled materials, including burial and bridal fabrics. The works are created through collaborations with artisans across Mallorca, Kerala and Cairo.
Other commissions include Yaw Owusu’s Heart of a Place, which, with Efie Gallery, incorporates coins from Ghana, the UAE and the US to explore changing ideas of value; Kevork Mourad’s Tower and Memories of Stones, which, with Leila Heller Gallery, uses floating tower-like forms to evoke Armenian memory and displacement; and Sudarshan Shetty’s A Song, A Story, which, also with Leila Heller, incorporates teak, lanterns, a patio pond and a wooden sofa., also with Leila Heller, which incorporates teak, lanterns, a patio pond and a wooden sofa.
Talks worth planning around
The programme includes sessions in the auditorium and Manameh Pavilion, with discussions on Dubai’s cultural history, regional institutions, media, collecting and artistic practice.
The 20th Global Art Forum takes place on Saturday under the title Before and After Everything. Organised by long-term commissioner Shumon Basar, it includes conversations, screenings and discussions on beginnings, history, media and resilience.
One of its sessions, Before and After the Beginning, features Antonia Carver, director of Art Jameel and curator of the Saudi Arabian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale; Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation; and Sunny Rahbar, co-founder of The Third Line. The discussion looks back to Art Dubai and Dubai’s cultural landscape in the 2000s.
Before and After History, hosted by Isaac Sullivan, chairman of art and digital media at Zayed University, includes Binna Choi, curator of the Korean Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale; artist Hazem Harb; and artist and writer Ruba Al-Sweel. The session asks how history is understood in a moment shaped by technology, memory and amnesia.
Before and After Media pairs Sarra Alayyan and Fady Nageeb, respectively the deputy editor and the content director of Dazed Mena, in a conversation hosted by Basar. The session looks at legacy media, social media and publishing in the post-digital age.
Huna Talks includes Art x Media on Friday, with Aya Mechelany, founder and editor-in-chief of Khamsa; artist and writer Sofiane Si Merabet; and Farah Andrews, head of Features at The National and co-host of the Culture Bites podcast. Moderated by Anna Seaman, the session looks at how publications, social media, digital platforms and live cultural commentary document and shape Dubai’s creative scene.
Also on Friday, Shaping Global Relevance gathers Laila Binbrek of the National Pavilion UAE – Venice Biennale, Maya Allison of NYU Abu Dhabi and Maitha Al Blooshi of Dubai Culture to discuss how regional institutions build cultural presence beyond their immediate contexts.
The Conversations with Artists series, co-programmed with Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, takes place in Manameh Pavilion. Storytelling as a Relational Practice pairs poet, artist and filmmaker Nujoom Alghanem with visual artist Mourad, moderated by Reem Fadda of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi. The session explores storytelling through voice, image, gesture and memory.
On Sunday, Weaving Systems features Samar Hejazi and Afra Al Dhaheri, moderated by Abdelkader Damani, chief curator at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project. The discussion looks at weaving as a material process and as a way of thinking through memory, structure and inherited knowledge.
Beyond the Object, also on Sunday, brings artist, chef, and curator Nahla Tabbaa into conversation with artist Manal Al Dowayan. Moderated by Amelia Jane Martin of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the discussion considers practices that move into participation, experience, ritual and environment.
Dubai Collection Talks will include Curator’s Corner, with Suheyla Takesh, director of Barjeel Art Foundation, and Jumanah Abbas, associate curator of Dubai Collection. The session looks at exhibition-making, research and curatorial decision-making.
Another Dubai Collection session, Intergenerational Memory and the Archive, features Nada Shabout, Maryam Al Falasi and Medha Nanda, moderated by Myrna Ayad. The discussion looks at archives, family heritage, philanthropy and cultural memory.
Book launches include the Dubai launch of the Wassef Boutros-Ghali catalogue Raisonne, organised by Leila Heller Gallery in collaboration with Jameel Arts Centre. Sultan Sooud Al Qasseemi, Leila Heller and Khemena Ahmad will take part in the discussion, moderated by Rebecca Anne Proctor.
Performances through the weekend
Sharjah Art Foundation’s Against Stillness is a performance programme staged in Hall 2 on Friday. It spans sound, music, movement and interdisciplinary practice.
Lawrence by Muhanad Kareem Kzar will be performed on Friday. The work addresses colonial narratives around TE Lawrence and the Great Arab Revolt, drawing on the artist’s family history, archival records and artificial intelligence.
On Saturday, Safa Al Balushi will perform Body as a Witness, a work using choreography and performance to examine how the body carries memories of violence.
On Sunday, Astral LXXXII’s Tears Through the Soul will use sonic frequencies, grief and memory.
Cultural Commons and DXB Store
The fair will also include Cultural Commons, which will host daily collaborations and activations, including talks, live music and a marketplace spotlighting local makers, creators and producers.
DXB Store, launched at Art Dubai in 2011, returns with newly produced works and objects by designers, collectives and creative practitioners from the UAE. The shop will include small-batch, limited-edition and one-of-a-kind objects from accessories and apparel to stationery and design pieces.
Participants include Ahli, Basar, Hejazi, Jumairy, Penpowder, Moza Al Matrooshi, Nima Nabavi, Gunk art journal, Talal Al Najjar, and Zaid Farouki. Art Jameel Shop will also offer art and design publications and gifts.
Art Dubai 2026 is open to invited guests on Thursday from 2pm to 9pm; public hours are on Friday from 4pm to 9pm, Saturday from 2pm to 9pm, and Sunday from noon to 6pm
