“It’s an exciting time in Dubai,” says Pablo del Val, Art Dubai’s Artistic Director, adding that the city is experiencing an influx of new residents and a surge in business. “This year, I have really encouraged galleries to bring major, significant and large-scale works,” he says. Now that the international art fair calendar has returned to full capacity, Del Val argues that it is important that Art Dubai offers a unique experience for its visitors: “You come here to find the unexpected. Our curated sections—Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba and Art Dubai Digital—offer people precisely the experience of something that will never happen again, in a city that is thriving.” Here, Del Val offers a glimpse at what is in store at Art Dubai 2025.
What is new at the fair this year?
We have some fantastic galleries that are participating for the first time like Pedro Cera (Lisbon/Madrid), Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art (Lisbon), and Bortolami (New York), and we are excited to welcome back Perrotin, Sfeir Semler, and Peres Projects. One of the things that is exciting me the most in the Contemporary section is this combination of very established artists alongside newer names with really amazing work.
There are 8 galleries that are showing two artists in conversation—for example, Zawyeh Gallery is presenting Nabil Anani and Sliman Mansour, who are two of the most important living Masters of Palestinian art. They will have their largest booth at the fair for the large-scale works they are showing—it’s going to be breathtaking as well as historically important.
I also love all these new paintings that use geometric abstraction and have a certain ‘joy of flatness’. These styles link well with the works in Art Dubai Digital, with their focus on patterns and a reduction of forms. I think it’s going to be extremely exciting to see how younger generations are looking at painting with a different perspective. In terms of discoveries, I think that many visitors to the fair this year will be walking through the halls and finding new artists at more accessible price points. I’ve really encouraged the galleries to bring large pieces, measuring 2 or 3 metres wide—the boom in Dubai real estate means that such pieces are in high demand.
You’ve mentioned that there will be lots of painting, but this is also one of the most diverse years for the fair in terms of the range of media on show.
Yes, there will be a lot of textiles—I’ve never seen so many artists working in fabric! And in every sense of the word, from tapestry and weaving to felting. The artist Gulnur Mukazhanova from Kazakhstan is exhibiting with Aspan Gallery in the Bawwaba section and is showing these abstract canvases that are made up of hand-felted Merino wool in bright colours—from a distance it looks just like a painting. This use of unexpected surface materials will be throughout the fair. There will also be lots of ceramics: vases, mosaics, plates. It’s a good reminder that painting is not the main artistic tradition of every part of the world. And in the digital section, artificial intelligence (AI) is the “material” of choice this year.
There are many artists from last year’s Venice Biennale that will also be in the fair.
Yes, it is often the case that Venice Biennale curators come to Art Dubai to find artists to include in their presentations. Adriano Pedrosa came to the fair last year and it’s not surprising that many of the artists that he included in his exhibition are also at this year’s fair, given his Biennale’s theme around the Global South. There is a solo presentation of the Lebanese artist Omar Mismar with SECCI Gallery (Milan/Pietrasanta) in the Bawwaba section and Richard Saltoun Gallery (London/New York/Rome) is bringing three artists, all in their late-70s or early-80s, that were included in the Biennale.
Are there any themes you can anticipate emerging from across the fair?
There is a theme of displacement, for sure. You can find it within the contemporary section both in the artists themselves, some of whom have been forced to relocate for different geopolitical and social reasons, and in the subjects of the works on show. Many artists are creating illusionary or imaginary places in their works, so as to escape certain realities; others are depicting different iconographies that they have collected from moving from one place to another; and some are depicting dystopian scenes that reflect their alien environments. So I think there are going to be lots of very interesting discoveries to make.
The Bawwaba section—which exclusively features artworks made in the past year or specifically for Art Dubai—also has a theme of displacement running through it. Curated by Mirjam Varadinis, Curator-at-large Kunsthaus Zurich, the 10 solo presentations relate to new forms of coexistence, both amongst people and with the planet. Technology offers the ultimate escape and reimagination of our world, so many works of fantasy and dystopia can be found in Art Dubai Digital, too. The Modern section this year looks back at historic diasporas and migration between West Asia and North Africa and Latin America and how artists visualised their cultural differences and similarities. Displacement and migration are also key to the DNA of Dubai and its cosmopolitan population, so these connections across the fair are exciting.
