Art Dubai 2024 Dates & Venue
Dates: April 18th to 20th, 2025
April 16th: 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM (by invitation only)
April 17 th: 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM (by invitation only)
April 18th: 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM (public)
April 19th: 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM (public)
April 20th: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (by invitation only); 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM (public)
Venue: Madinat Jumeirah Conference & Events Centre, Al Sufouh Road, Umm Suqeim, Dubai
Art Dubai Galleries
The gallery section of Art Dubai is divided into 4: Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba, and Residents. The works presented in the gallery include painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, photography, video, and performance.- Art Dubai Contemporary - Art Dubai Contemporary brings together galleries from across the globe, showcasing both emerging and established art scenes. This dynamic platform encourages cultural discovery through diverse artistic perspectives. Applications are evaluated by the Art Dubai Selection Committee, including Andrée Sfeir-Semler, Founder of Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Beirut/Hamburg), and Priyanka Raja, Co-Founder of Experimenter (Kolkata/Mumbai), alongside the 2025 section curators.
- Art Dubai Modern - Curated by Magalí Arriola, Director at Museo Tamayo, Mexico, and Nada Shabout, Art History Professor at the University of North Texas, Art Dubai Modern highlights the region’s modern art pioneers. This section delves into the artistic legacies that emerged from the geopolitical and cultural landscapes of the 20th century. Migration, anti-imperial struggles, and the search for national identity inspired experiments in abstraction and cultural heritage renewal, fostering rich cross-regional artistic dialogues.
- Bawwaba - Curated by Mirjam Varadinis, writer and Kunsthaus Zürich Curator-at-large, Bawwaba (meaning ‘gateway’ in Arabic) presents 10 solo exhibitions featuring works created within the past year or conceived specifically for the fair. For its sixth edition, Bawwaba reflects on the theme: How can we imagine new forms of coexistence, both among people and with our planet? This exploration highlights artists navigating displacement and envisioning new models for collective living.
- Art Dubai Digital: Curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, independent curator and lecturer at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, Art Dubai Digital explores the nexus of art and technology. Titled After the Technological Sublime, this edition reinterprets the concept of the sublime from natural marvels to awe-inspiring technological advancements such as AI and quantum computing. While these innovations evoke wonder, they also spark anxiety by challenging human control and overshadowing critical social and environmental issues.
- Residents - Residents is a six-week residency program in UAE for artists, hosted by the fair, to engage them with the local art scene, rich cultural heritage, and contemporary art practices of the region. During the resident program, multidisciplinary artists from all over the world are invited to create new works in the fully equipped studio spaces of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The third iteration of Residents at Art Dubai 2020 will focus on contemporary art production from the African continent.
Highlights of Art Dubai
1. Global Art Forum
The Global Art Forum is the largest annual arts conference in the Middle East, taking place in Art Dubai. It is an annual transdisciplinary arts conference, combining original thinking of contemporary themes through a series of talks about the future of art, panel discussions, and performances by a diverse line-up of artists, curators, writers, musicians, and thought leaders from around the world.2. Art Dubai Commissions
Art Dubai Commissions is a non-profit commissioning platform that invites artists to produce site-specific works by local and international artists. Art Dubai 2020 Commission will introduce site-specific projects on multiple disciplines with an Ecological focus. The commissions will be undertaken in collaboration with the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s leading contemporary art institution.
3. Art Dubai Modern Symposium
The symposium consists of a series of talks and presentations focused on the life, work, and cultural impact of masters of modern art. Renowned curators and scholars will lead the sessions that delve deep into the styles and influence of 20th-century artists whose work contributes to the history of art.4. Gulf Now
This section of Art Dubai introduces a network of creative platforms from the Arabian Gulf that work outside of government funding. Selected platforms from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman will be introduced to the fair to discuss current topics and themes on creativity and to give rise to new thoughts and theories.
5. Performances
Every year, Art Dubai presents curated performances throughout the week. The program demonstrates a celebration of togetherness and explores the unifying aspects of communal celebrations and live art as a powerful tool through a series of dances, processions, and festivities.
6. Educational Initiatives
- Campus Art Dubai - Campus Art Dubai (CAD) is part of Art Dubai’s year-round extensive program, aiming at providing artists with educational and professional opportunities. CAD has acted as a mentoring school for artists, curators, writers, architects, designers, and cultural producers based in the UAE, allowing the participants to explore the significance of local and regional knowledge through course materials and a series of seminars, lectures, workshops, and off-site visits.
- Sheikha Manal Little Artists programme - Art Dubai’s non-commercial programme also includes workshops, publications, and discovery tours for children and teenagers, created especially for the fair by international and UAE-based artists. Each March, Art Dubai partners with the Cultural Office to produce the Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program, designed to provide access to skills and ideas for UAE-based children and teenagers aged 5-17 with the long-term aim of encouraging young people to get involved and excel in the arts.
- Ithra Art Prize - The Prize is awarded to emerging Saudi-based talent in contemporary arts to fund, promote, and offer Saudi artists a global platform. The winning work is unveiled at Art Dubai each year and later joins Ithra’s permanent collection.
- Art Dubai Fellowship - Art Dubai Fellowship is a programme for exceptional artists, curators, and writers working in the Arab world and beyond (the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia), who came together for a week-long series of intensive workshops during Art Dubai.