Art Dubai is returning for its 15th edition and will take place from March 11 to 13. This year’s event promises to be one of the most extensive and will feature as many as 114 gallery presentations across the board. While the previous categories of Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba return, this year will see the addition of a new Digital gallery.
The new Digital gallery will showcase a variety of global platforms that work with NFTs. Also included will be contemporary galleries that have new media and digital art projects. There also will be work from galleries that have been in digital art since for decades. Finally, there will be an exhibition of NFT e-commerce sites and organisations that turn physical art into NFTs.
This year, Art Dubai will feature over 30 new participants. In excess of 50 per cent of the gallery programme is curated from the Global South, while there will still be a keen focus on the rich cultural heritage and contemporary art from the Middle East.
Curated by cultural researcher Chris Fussner, the Digital gallery will feature works from Bright Moments, Los Angeles/New York/Berlin; Cyber Baat, Metaverse; Emergeast, Digital; Fingerprints DAO, Digital; Gazell.io, Baku; HORIZONS by so-far & AORA, Digital; Institut, London; Keumsan Gallery, Seoul; Anna Laudel, Istanbul/Düsseldorf; Morrow Collective, Digital; NFT Asia, Singapore; PILEVNELI, Istanbul; Postmasters Gallery, New York/Rome/Blockchain; SANATORIUM, Istanbul; Volte Art Projects, Dubai/Mumbai; Wadi Finan Art Gallery, Amman, and Window Project, Tbilisi/Moscow.
The Contemporary section will showcase galleries from across the world, and will cover the emerging art scene along with established artists. Art Dubai Contemporary applications are reviewed by the Art Dubai Selection Committee, which includes Isabelle van den Eynde, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde; Ursula Krinzinger, Galerie Krinzinger; Priyanka Raja, Experimenter, and Andrée Sfeir-Semler, Sfeir-Semler Gallery.
The Modern galleries will feature works from modern art masters from the MENASA region. This will include creations by 20th century artists who work specifically in geo-historical contexts. This section is curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellarth, Founders and Directors of Art Reoriented and Directors of the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.
Meaning gateway in Arabic, the Bawwaba section, meanwhile will display artwork created in the past year, or exclusively for the fair. This will offer visitors a stunning look into artistic developments across the region. Bawwaba is curated by Nancy Adajania, cultural theorist and independent curator.
