10th edition of Art Dubai’s opens at Madinat Jumeirah today!

Art Dubai’s milestone 10^th edition opened today at Dubai’s iconic Madinat Jumeirah and will run up to 19^th March. It features 94 galleries from 40 countries, 500 artists representing 70 nationalities, an extensive not-for-profit programme including commissioned projects, artists’ and curators’ residencies, The Abraaj Group Art Prize exhibition and the Global Art Forum. Over the last ten years, the leading annual international art fair in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, has become a cornerstone of the region’s fast-growing contemporary arts community and home to a select yet diverse line-up of globally sourced galleries, showcasing Dubai’s position as the region’s leader.

According to an online AFP report, last year in Art Week, when Art Dubai and Design Days Dubai are both held, the "direct visitor spend" during the two fairs alone was put at $35 million, said research company Repucom.

Art Dubai is open Wednesday to Saturday, 16:00 - 18:30.

CONTEMPORARY

Affirming Art Dubai’s reputation as the most global of art fairs, the Contemporary halls include 76 galleries, selected via a stringent independent committee process. In 2016, several galleries have opted to present ambitious solo and two-person shows; audiences will discover the work of more than 500 artists, from an extraordinarily diverse roster of galleries that includes the world’s most prominent alongside fresh, upcoming art spaces.

MODERN

Launched in 2014, Art Dubai Modern, sponsored by Mashreq Private Banking, features artists who proved influential in the twentieth century, particularly through the vibrant modern period of the 1940s to 1980s. Each gallery presents a solo or two-person show, with work by masters from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Art Dubai Modern’s advisory committee includes Savita Apte, Catherine David, Kristine Khouri, Nada Shabout and Bisi Silva.

MARKER

In 2016, Marker turns its focus to the Philippines. The programme, curated by Ringo Bunoan, highlights independent and artist-run spaces in Metro Manila, including 98B, Post Gallery, Project 20 and Thousandfold. Serving as an anchor to the exhibition is the work of Roberto Chabet (1937-2013), a pioneering Filipino conceptual artist, teacher, and curator who played an active role in several artist-run spaces throughout his lifetime. Marker 2016 is the first such showcase of Filipino artists at any major international art fair and is the first such exhibition in the Middle East to date, aiming – as in previous editions of Marker – to nurture cultural exchange between its focus country and the Gulf.

PROJECTS

Art Dubai Projects is a not-for-profit programme that includes residencies and commissions, curated in 2016 by Yasmina Reggad, plus radio and a film programme. A.i.R (Artists-in-Residence) Dubai, a partnership between Art Dubai, Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and Tashkeel, sees four artists – Areej Kaoud, Moza Almatrooshi, Jumairy and Lydia Ourahmane – invited to produce new projects through a three month residency. 

Art Dubai Commissions is a new programme devoted to mid-career artists:  Doa Aly, the collective trio Nile Sunset Annex, Sreshta Rit Premnath and Massinissa Selmani. In 2016, Art Dubai Radio is hosted by Safina Radio Project.

THE WEDDING PROJECT

Presented by Art Dubai Projects and curated by Delfina Foundation, The Wedding Project is a new site-specific, immersive project and café space that features performances and an extraordinary eleven-course menu gala dinner hosted and created
entirely by artists. The new performative project combines novel drinks and food dishes, commissions and interventions by artists including Sunoj D, Larissa Sansour, Candice Lin, Manal Al Dowayan, Taus Makhacheva, Nile Sunset Annex, Hind Mezaina and the Centre for Genomic Gastronomy. The Wedding Project is sponsored by Absolut Elyx with further support by ROI and The White Boutique.

THE ABRAAJ GROUP ART PRIZE

The Abraaj Group Art Prize exhibition at Art Dubai features new work by the 2016 winner, artist duo Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, as well as previous works by three shortlisted artists— Dina Danish, Mahmoud Khaled and Basir Mahmood—curated by Guest Curator Nav Haq. The Abraaj Group Art Prize is the only prize in the Middle East and South Asia that awards artists on the basis of submitted project proposals.

GLOBAL ART FORUM

Titled ‘The Future Was’, the Global Art Forum 2016 takes on the theme of futurism, exploring the ways in which artists, writers, technologists, historians, musicians and thinkers have imagined – and are shaping – the future. Featuring a diverse line-up of more than 50 participants, the talks are co-directed by Amal Khalaf and Uzma Z. Rizvi with Shumon Basar as Commissioner. The five days of live talks launched in Dubai at Dubai Design District (d3) and London at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in January 2016 before continuing at Art Dubai in March.

EDUCATION

Art Dubai Education features programmes for children through to arts professionals. The Sheikha Manal Little Artist Program is an artist-led set of workshops and tours for children and teenagers. Art Dubai also works with UAE private schools on specialist tours at the fair.

Forum Fellows, an intensive series of workshops led by Tirdad Zolghadr, is supported by Julius Baer. For 2016, Art Dubai invited the artist/writer/musician Hassan Khan to develop a programme focusing on art criticism in Arabic.

Campus Art Dubai is a year-round art school for artists, curators and writers featuring Core and Community classes, in partnership with Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and supported by Dubai Design District (d3).