Aesthetes of the UAE, it is time to get excited as Art Dubai has officially revealed full details for the upcoming 2024 programme.
Art Dubai 2024 will showcase more than 120 presentations drawn from more than 60 cities and over 40 countries across four sections: Contemporary; Bawwaba; Art Dubai Modern; and Art Dubai Digital; at Madinat Jumeirah from March 1 to 3.
The 17th edition of the art fair will also include major new commissions and premières by internationally renowned artists as well as educational talks and thought-leadership programmes as it underscores its mission to redefine the role an art fair can play in supporting local and regional ecosystems.
“Art fairs like Art Dubai have a responsibility to be far more than commercial platforms and we continue to play an important institutional role in this region’s cultural ecosystem, supporting artists, scholarship, thought-leadership and cultural education from an early age,” says Art Dubai’s Artistic Director, Pablo del Val. “Our programme this year reflects the increasingly diverse and multicultural communities of our home city, providing more opportunities than ever for artists from across the Global South. Dubai is a place of relentless reinvention, possibility and opportunity, and these commercial and institutional partnerships are central to all our activity, supporting our world-class non-commercial programmes.”
So, what are the major events that art lovers can get excited about for Art Dubai 2024?
The week will see it break out of Dubai and showcase works in museums, national institutions and festivals all across the UAE. Jameel Arts Centre will welcome guests to check out Vikram Divecha's solo exhibition Guest Relations and Some Seasons: Fereydoun Ave and the Laal Collection and Gauri Gill’s unique perspective on urban spaces, Sheher, Prakriti, Devi, will go on display at the Ishara Art Foundation. In Abu Dhabi, Warehouse 421 will be home to the group exhibition, Network Culture, and a significant solo exhibition by Hana El-Sagini, Counting Fingers with NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery celebrating its 10th anniversary with the experimental exhibition, In Real Time, evolving over three months.
The Sharjah Architecture Triennial, curated by Tosin Oshinowo, will span six venues across Sharjah, coinciding with the 16th annual March Meeting. Sharjah Art Foundation will open notable exhibitions: Lala Rukh: In the Round, the first major international survey of the artist; To Be Free! a retrospective of South African painter, Gavin Jantjes, and Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery, offering a rare glimpse into Ethiopian art forms at Sharjah Art Museum.
The week will also see a collaboration with Dubai Collection, the city’s first institutional collection of modern and contemporary art. Dubai Collection will showcase an exhibition featuring some of the UAE’s most prominent artists including Hassan Sharif, Mohammed Kazem, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Shaikha Al Mazrou, Afra Al Dhaheri, Maitha Abdallah, Hashel Al Lamki and Sarah Almehairi.
Supporting Art Dubai’s Bawwaba gallery section will be internationally renowned artists Cecilia Bengolea, Sajan Mani, Debashish Paul, Mirna Bamieh, Mithu Sen and Hashel Lamki who will explore the ideas of introspection, spirituality, community, and the power of art to help us navigate challenging times.
The Global Art Forum will examine the the cultures, technologies, sciences, and initiatives related to extreme weather and change and will include speakers Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal, Director, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project (Abu Dhabi), Anne Holtrop, Architect, Muharraq (Amsterdam), Monira Al Qadiri, Artist (Berlin), Samir Bantal, Architect and Director AMO at OMA, (Rotterdam), Nadia Christidi, Researcher and Arts Practitioner, MIT, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and others.
Other major events to take place during Art Dubai 2024 will also include Art Dubai Modern Talks highlighting the artistic links made possible by Soviet geopolitics of the Cold War and the impact of Soviet education and exhibitions on artists from the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa; the Digital Summit that will debate and discuss the expanding digital art ecosystem and Dubai’s unique place within it; and the A.R.M Holding Children’s Programme which will nurture emerging talent through workshops and activities asking the question: How do younger generations imagine future cities and what they will comprise?
www.artdubai.ae