Modern art from the Global South was never just about style — it was a way of carving space in a changing world. This year’s Art Dubai Modern draws powerful lines between West Asia, North Africa, and Latin America, tracing how artists in the 20th century turned to abstraction, heritage, and myth to navigate upheaval, independence, and identity.
Lines Across Continents
Curated by Dr. Nada Shabout and Magalí Arriola, the section offers a historical overview — it’s a layered conversation across continents. It’s about shared struggles, but also shared tools: rhythm, geometry, symbol, silence. Art became a way of speaking when politics got louder and more brutal. At Meem Gallery, the legacy of Iraqi modernism is front and center. Dia al-Azzawi’s vibrant forms and Mohammed Muhraddin’s bold compositions speak to art’s power as both archive and protest. Lawrie Shabibi presents Mehdi Moutashar, whose elegant minimalism — drawn from Islamic geometry — turns restraint into revelation. And at Gallery One, Laila Shawa’s politically charged silkscreens, with their graffiti textures and urgent text, bring the streets of Gaza into the frame.
Some artists turned inward. At Leila Heller, Bahman Mohasses’ surreal creatures and masked figures bristle with wit and isolation, while Mark Hachem Gallery’s presentation of Alfred Basbous and Hussein Madi finds beauty in form, rhythm, and repetition. There’s also a palpable sense of motion — from Darío Pérez-Flores’ optical works that play with perception to Nabil Kanso’s raw, expressionistic canvases at Agial Gallery that feel like a cry torn straight from history.
What ties all of this together is a kind of visual solidarity. These artists weren’t working in the same cities, but they were facing the same questions: How do we move forward without losing the past? What does it mean to be modern, without mimicking the West?