Art Dubai returns soon with its 18th edition, and this year, the city’s most popular art fair is doing things differently. Landing again at its home at Madinat Jumeirah from April 18 to 20 (preview days on April 16 and 17), the fair is doubling down on the intersection of technology, climate consciousness, and fresh global perspectives, all while keeping Dubai’s creative ecosystem right at the core.
The main programme splits into four curated sections—Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba, and Digital—each offering a unique but complementary view of today’s artistic landscape. Curators Magalí Arriola and Dr. Nada Shabout take charge of Art Dubai Modern, spotlighting 20th-century artists from the region whose legacies resonate today. Meanwhile, curator Gonzalo Herrero Delicado returns to lead Art Dubai Digital, exploring digital art beyond the NFT hype, focusing on AI-driven works, data sculptures, and installations that navigate the uneasy line between awe and anxiety.
Then there’s the commissions and installations programme—an ambitious selection of new works that thoughtfully bridge performance, digital media, and critical contemporary themes.
Mexican artist Héctor Zamora takes the spotlight with a series of performance-based interventions featuring terracotta sculptures, each piece steeped in symbolism and ritualistic interactions. His performances will coincide with a parallel installation at Alserkal Avenue, marking the start of an exciting new multi-year partnership with Art Dubai, committed to exploring performance art in depth.
Renowned Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem presents a major digital commission, “Directions (Merging),” sponsored by Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer. It’s an immersive experience built around Dubai’s geographic coordinates, layered against shifting digital waves—an artistic metaphor for Dubai’s fluidity as a global hub and the interconnectedness of today’s urban centres.
Alyamamah Rashed provides a sneak peek of her studio and the creative process behind her Piaget-commissioned piece, ‘Your Love Moves Around My Trapeze Sun (Will You Hold Our Glistening Light?)’. Reimagining Piaget’s ‘Play of Shapes’ exhibition through her surrealist lens, Rashed draws inspiration from the trapeze-shaped dial in Piaget’s new Sixtie Jewellery Watch Collection, transforming it into a radiant golden sun—a symbol of rhythm, movement, and life’s fluidity. The piece debuts at Art Dubai 2025 in Piaget’s booth.
Ouchhh Studio returns to Art Dubai Digital, debuting their latest AI-driven data sculpture titled “MotherEarth,” translating climate data into a sensory experience. Complementing this, New York-based collective Breakfast will exhibit “Carbon Wake,” an interactive kinetic installation translating real-time global energy data into captivating motion and visuals. Joining these artists, Italian creator Jacopo Di Cera’s “Retreat” powerfully addresses climate urgency through imagery capturing the rapid melting of the Brenva glacier in the Italian Alps, displayed through repurposed digital screens.
Dubai’s own Hybrid Xperience collective invites visitors into a large-scale AI-powered kaleidoscope, blurring the boundaries between dreams, imagination, and technology. Egyptian-Polish artist Ania Soliman presents “Kahrabaa,” a striking installation responding to Beirut’s energy crisis, merging organic and technological imagery on towering canvases, while Total Arts at the Courtyard (Fereydoun Ave, Shaqayeq Arabi, and Dariush Zandi) deliver “Reconstructed Landscape,” an imagined terrain built from found objects across the UAE.
The fair’s talks programme once again features the Global Art Forum—this year titled “The New New Normal.” Curated by the UK-based duo Y7 and commissioned by Shumon Basar, discussions will tackle the rapid evolution in technology, luxury culture, AI, quantum computing, and the ever-blurring boundaries of private and public spaces in a hyper-digital world. High-profile thinkers like architect Rem Koolhaas and renowned artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan lead the conversation.
A dedicated Digital Summit complements this, exploring the ethical and ecological responsibilities of technology-driven art. It’s a space for real conversations about bias in AI, digital activism, and the evolving roles of museums in an increasingly digitalised society.
Notably, the A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme is back with a collaborative effort between celebrated Nigerian contemporary artist Peju Alatise and Emirati educator Alia Hussain Lootah, exploring ecology, water, and sustainability through thoughtful artistic interactions with younger generations across the UAE.
With 120 participating galleries from across the globe, and a commitment to meaningful engagement over spectacle, Art Dubai 2025 is a platform for urgent questions, fresh voices, and smart, considered creativity. It’s a reflection of where we are now, and—importantly—where we might be headed.
