The 15th edition of Art Dubai returns to Madinat Jumeirah and presents over 100 Contemporary and Modern galleries from more than 40 countries across four main gallery sections. Art Dubai Contemporary 2022 features 77 galleries from 33 countries, and welcomes 15 first-time exhibitors in 2022.
Zawyeh Gallery
Dia Mrad participates with a series of photographs titled Reframing Beirut, aiming to celebrate and document the physical history of the city by looking back at abandoned landmarks and neglected structures that once shaped its culture. The project is divided into two parts, one that is celebratory, focusing on the multi-layered history of the city latent in architecture, while the other reflects the devastation and negligence that threaten it.
Lawrie Shabibi
Lawrie Shabibi presents works by Hamra Abbas, Farhad Ahrarnia, Shaikha Al Mazrou, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Mehdi Moutashar, Shahpour Pouyan and Ishmael Randall Weeks as well as key artists in our international roster – as well as an introduction to the works of Sola Olulode and a work from 2020 by the late Mohamed Melehi. Sola Olulode’s paintings are nuanced and tender visions of intimacy and community; her wistful images celebrations of Black identity, womxnhood and non-binary people. Distinguished by their use of gestural brushwork, indigo dye, wax, oil bar, impasto and monochromatic schemes (typically in blue, green or yellow) they speak strongly of her Nigerian heritage.
The Third Line
The Third Line presents works by Amir H. Fallah, Huda Lutfi, Jordan Nassar, Sahand Hesamiyan and Youssef Nabil. Amir H. Fallah’s works are profoundly intimate, inspired by youthful memories, cultural traditions and his experience as an Iranian-American immigrant. Through his paintings, Fallah deconstructs traditional notions of identity formation, while simultaneously defying expectations of the genre of portraiture by removing or obscuring the central figure. Instead, Fallah incorporates a wider representation of their personhood through symbols and imagery which examine how a person is defined by the cultural systems they hold. We Build A Monument of Love is an autobiographical painting that explores Fallah’s family life and his experience of parenthood. Serving as a diary of lessons, warnings and ideals, his paintings provide insight into cultural values, which are often passed between generations.
Gazelli Art House
Gazelli Art House presents a selection of artists, including Agil Abdullayev, Naqsh Collective, Farhad Farzaliyev, Aida Mahmudova, and Aidan Salakhova. The Palestinian sister duo Nisreen and Nermeen Abu Dail, known as Naqsh Collective, continue an artistic practice that merges embroidery motifs, Islamic patterned calligraphy and contemporary. Carving geometric designs and tatreez motifs on coloured stone and marble works, including The Boat (2021) and The Jump (2021), have the potential to preserve Palestinian embroidery for hundreds of years. The use of durable materials also pays homage to textured landscapes that ground Palestinian heritage as ancient, strong, and unyielding while a rming the present existence of Palestinians today.
Tabari Artspace
Tabari Artspace presents works by Hazem Harb and Maitha Abdalla. Maitha Abdalla presents a body of work that navigates internal struggles and meditations on the self. Abdalla reflects upon her personal experiences as an 18-year old gaining independence and moving between new cultures and communities for the first time. Much of the artist’s practice has reflected upon the opposing forces of right/wrong, sin/righteousness. With her newfound freedom to traverse between worlds, Abdalla came to understand that these dualities are contextually dependent. For Art Dubai Abdalla has constructed an immersive, theatrical set-up which mines Judith Butler’s perspective that identities are both constructed and performative and as Abdalla has found, contextually dependant.
Green Art Gallery
Green Art Gallery presents works by Afra Al Dhaheri, Kamrooz Aram, Rossella Biscotti, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Chaouki Choukini, Maryam Hoseini and Ana Mazzei. Since the late 1960s, Chaouki Choukini has developed an astoundingly consistent aesthetic worldview. His sculptural works, mainly in wood but occasionally in marble or stone, range from horizontal Lieux and Paysages to upright, anthropomorphic, almost totemic figures. At first glance, the works may appear somewhat primitivist. A closer look, however, reveals a sophisticated interrogation of organic and mechanical worlds, where curvaceous mounds are punctuated by a regiment of pegs, or undulating bases bristle with teeth-like crags.
Ayyam Gallery
Ayyam Gallery presents works by Afshin Pirhashemi, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Sama Alshaibi, Rula Halawani, and Thaier Helal. Sadik Kwaish Alfraji explores what he describes as ‘the problem of existence’ through drawings, paintings, video animations, art books, graphic art, and installations. The shadowy protagonist who often appears in Alfraji’s multimedia works represents a black void, a filter that allows him to explore the intricacies of life.
Custot Gallery
Custot Gallery presents a curated selections of paintings, sculptures and photographs by Etel Adnan, Fernando Botero, Nick Brandt, Tony Cragg, Ian Davenport, Richard Hoglund, Marc Quinn, Arnaud Rivieren, Sophia Vari and Fabienne Vardier. Nick Brandt has devoted his photographic career to showing the disappearing natural world of East Africa, and its rapid destruction at the hands of man.
Selma Feriani Gallery
Selma Feriani Gallery presents a collection of new and old works by artists Elena Damiani, Pascal Hachem, Mohamed Hamidi, Yann Lacroix, Maha Malluh, and Catalina Swinburn. These 6 artists showcase a multiformity of disciplines, spanning from sculptures in various medium to paintings of diverse dimensions.
Dastan’s Basement
Dastan presents works by Fereydoun Ave, Andisheh Avini, Nasser Bakhshi, Yousha Bashir, Sepand Danesh, Maryam Eivazi, Hoda Kashiha, Meghdad Lorpour, Farrokh Mahdavi, Mehrdad Mohebali, Asal Peirovi, Mamali Shafahi, and Peybak. Sepand Danesh uses drawing, painting and workshops as a rhizome of opportunity in which he bursts ideas about the dynamic of the hub. His paintings represent optical illusion of inside corner (as the metaphor of impediment) without floor or ceiling which shelter his intimate and also the world’s wider memory.
Galerie Nathalie Obadia
Jhaveri Contemporary
Jhaveri Contemporary presents a monochrome stand featuring four women of the South Asian diaspora: Amina Ahmed, Lubna Chowdhary, Rana Begum, Yamini Nayar. The display spans a range of techniques and materials to mine personal and collective histories.
MARUANI MERCIER
MARUANI MERCIER Gallery proposes three of their internationally celebrated artists invigorated by nature to express their vision on the world, Ross Bleckner, Tony Matelli, and Arne Quinze.