This year’s edition of Art Dubai brings together a diverse collection of galleries, showcasing the very best in cutting-edge contemporary, modern and digital art from across the region, and beyond.
Presenting over 100 galleries from more than 50 countries, the line-up showcases the geographic breadth that is core to Art Dubai’s DNA as a place of discovery.
Over 20 galleries are exhibiting at Art Dubai for the first time in 2025, and visitors can look forward to established and emerging artists from the Gulf, Africa and South Asia. As the art market in Dubai continues to mature, there is once again strong representation from Dubai-based galleries, alongside a growing number of Emirati artists.
In keeping with Art Dubai’s commitment to placing untold art histories of the region in conversation with important art movements globally, we are pleased to welcome this year’s distinguished curators; Mirjam Varadinis, for Bawwaba’s highly curated solo presentation of works made in the last year, Magalí Arriola, Nada Shabout, who have set the curatorial framework for Art Dubai Modern looking at influential modern masters, and Gonzalo Herrero Delicado to curate the fourth edition of Art Dubai Digital, expanding its exploration of new media art and technology.
Read more about the curatorial thematics and the first glimpse of some highlights from the fair below
View the full line-up of galleries exhibiting at Art Dubai 2025 here.
ART DUBAI CONTEMPORARY 2025
Art Dubai’s contemporary section provides an important gateway for learning and exchange, and each year contributes to the rapid growth of the region’s art scene and creative economy. Featuring 70 exhibitors from five continents, this year’s section presents both established names as well as galleries from regions yet to tell their story, brought to Dubai for the week of the fair.
The section sees highlights from exhibitors new to the fair, including Bortolami (New York), Cortesi Gallery (Milan/Lugano), Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art (Lisbon), Don Gallery (Shanghai), amongst others. This expansion solidifies Art Dubai as the heart of the region’s art market, representing the dynamism that is growing each year.
BAWWABA 2025
For 2025, Bawwaba is curated by Mirjam Varadinis, writer and curator-at-large at Kunsthaus Zürich, who has an extensive curatorial career, with many of her projects addressing evolving formats of contemporary curating. For its sixth edition, Bawwaba will explore artistic practices around the theme of displacement, presenting artist presentations that consider both people and planet in imagining new forms of coexistence.
Featured solo presentations include works by Kate Newby (Art: Concept), Gulnur Mukazhanova (Aspan Gallery), and Tomás Saraceno (Pinksummer), bringing varied presentations in both medium and regional presence to the upcoming edition.
Read Bawwaba curatorial statement.
ART DUBAI MODERN 2025
Art Dubai Modern reaffirms the fair’s commitment to art historical research and underexplored art narratives with a focus on Modern masters. These influential 20th-century artists shaped our understanding of the current cultural landscape and play an important role in the context of Art Dubai, a global gathering for the international art world in the Middle East.
The 20th century saw migration, Arab diaspora communities, and anti-imperial struggles that created deep cultural ties between West Asia, North Africa, and postcolonial regions worldwide. As these regions navigated new identities, heritage and abstraction became key to their shared artistic journey, and this forms the base of this year’s curatorial direction for Art Dubai Modern.
This year’s Art Dubai Modern is curated by well-established curator Magalí Arriola, Director of Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and international academic and art historian Nada Shabout, Regents Professor of Art History and Coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas.
The section will feature key presentations by New Vision Group (Meem Gallery), Bertina Lopes (Richard Saltoun), and Mehdi Moutashar (Lawrie Shabibi). For the first time, the section will showcase Venezuelan artist Darío Pérez Flores (Mark Hachem), bringing together Latin America and West Asia/North Africa in the same conversation.
Read Art Dubai Modern curatorial statement.
