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Art Dubai Announces 2018 Gallery Line-up and Launch of New Gallery Section in its largest and Most International Edition to Date

 

Art Dubai Contemporary 2017. Courtesy Photo Solutions.Art Dubai Contemporary 2017. Courtesy Photo Solutions.

Art Dubai announced today the gallery line-up for its 2018 edition, as well as the launch of a new section entitled Residents, which will debut at the fair next year.

Held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and in partnership with The Abraaj Group, Art Dubai 2018 will feature a record 103 galleries from 47 countries, making the coming edition the fair’s largest and most globally diverse to date. Alongside 78 returning galleries, the fair will welcome 25 first-time exhibitors from around the world.

Confirming its unique identity as a place of discovery and a meeting point for art from established centers of the international art world and emerging scenes alike, Art Dubai’s Contemporary section will feature 78 galleries from 42 countries in 2018, including first-time participations from Iceland, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan.

The fair’s 2018 edition will also see the launch of Residents, a one-of-a-kind 4-8 week residency programme for international artists, invited to the UAE to immerse themselves in the local art scene, to create a body of work which merges their distinct artistic practice with their surroundings. The final works will be on show in the new section of the fair, presented by the artists’ respective galleries.

Pablo del Val, Art Dubai’s Artistic Director commented: “With every edition, Art Dubai asserts itself as the world’s most international art fair and the diversity coming through participating galleries from 47 countries is testament to this. For our 2018 edition, we will be launching Residents, a pioneering and unique platform that brings together different energies, synergies, geographies and artistic practices, which one doesn’t usually see together in one place.

Celebrating its fifth edition in 2018, Art Dubai’s Modern section remains the only commercial platform in the world to showcase museum-quality works by artists from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Art Dubai’s Director Myrna Ayad commented: “It is very exciting for us to witness the growing appreciation of Modern Masters from the region, and we are pleased to be the only platform in the world to showcase these museum-quality pieces in our largest-ever Modern section, which has been the most oversubscribed edition to date. Serving as an educational platform and theoretical framework for the works on show, Art Dubai Modern will be accompanied by our second annual Modern Symposium at the fair this year.

Art Dubai is sponsored by Julius Baer, Meraas and Piaget. The fair’s 12th edition will take place March 21-24, 2018 at its home Madinat Jumeirah.

 

CONTEMPORARY

Spread across two gallery halls, Art Dubai Contemporary 2018 will feature 31 galleries in its Solo section – a section focused on solo- and two-artist presentations – and 47 galleries in Collective, which is dedicated to multi-artist shows, with both sections mixed across the two Contemporary halls.

2018 will see a significant contingent of returning galleries from Europe and North America, including Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York, Aspen), Galerie Daniel Templon (Paris, Brussels), Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna), Victoria Miro (London, Venice), Gallería Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, La Habana) and Galleria Franco Noero (Turin), which will exhibit alongside first-time participants Galería Elba Benítez (Madrid), i8 Gallery (Reykjavík) and Galerie Mitterrand (Paris), amongst others.

The strong representation of galleries from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, is testament to Art Dubai’s role as a driving force in the development of the art scene of the wider region and its market. The diverse line-up from across the Middle East and North Africa includes Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Beirut, Hamburg), Athr Gallery (Jeddah), Galerist (Istanbul), Selma Feriani Gallery (Tunis, London), Gypsum Gallery (Cairo), Voice Gallery (Marrakech), Agial Gallery (Beirut) and Galerie Tanit (Beirut, Munich), who will exhibit alongside Experimenter (Kolkata) and Canvas Gallery (Karachi) from South Asia.

African art will feature prominently at the 12th edition in both the gallery halls and the Residents section, Art Dubai will welcome Gallery 1957 (Accra), Addis Fine Art (Addis Ababa, London), Tafeta, (London), and Officine dell’Immagine (Milan), amongst others.

In addition, the fair continues to hold a unique presence of galleries from Latin America such as Piero Atchugarry Gallery (Pueblo Garzón), Revolver Galeria (Lima, Buenos Aires), Galeria Vermelho (Sao Paulo) and Henrique Faria Fine Art (Buenos Aires, New York).

View the full list of participating galleries for Art Dubai Contemporary 2018 here.

High-resolution visuals for Art Dubai Contemporary 2018 are available for download here.

 

MODERN

An indicator of its ongoing success, Art Dubai Modern 2018 will feature a record number of 16 galleries exhibiting artists from 14 countries. For the first time, Art Dubai Modern will offer the opportunity to see galleries present tightly curated collective exhibitions, in addition to solo and two-artist shows.

Participating galleries will present renowned Modernists from the Middle East such as Gebran Tarazi (1944-2010), represented by Agial Art Gallery (Beirut), prolific Egyptian Post-War artist Abdel Hadi El Gazzar (1925-1966), showcased by Karim Francis Gallery (Cairo), as well as works by Iranian-American artist Manoucher Yektai (b. 1922), shown by Aria Gallery (Tehran). First-time participating gallery Mark Hachem Gallery (Paris, Beirut, New York), will present works by Lebanese artists Alfred Basbous (1924-2006) and Helen Khal (1923-2009), alongside Egyptian Hamed Abdalla (1917-1985).

Pieces by leading Modernists from South Asia will be exhibited by Grosvenor Gallery (London), DAG Modern (New Delhi, Mumbai, New York) and newcomer Sanchit Art Gallery (New Delhi), all of whom will present collective exhibitions of works by masters from India and Pakistan, among them M.F. Husain (1915-2011), Zahoor ul Akhlaq (1941-1999), Anwar Jalal Shemza (1928-1985), Ganesh Pyne (1937-2013) and G.R. Santosh (1929-1997), among other renowned South Asian modernists.

Perve Galeria (Lisbon) will present works by Cape Verdean artist Manuel Figueira (b. 1938) and Mozambican artists Ernesto Shikhani (1934-2010) and Reinata Sadimba (b. 1945), amongst others. Elsewhere from the African continent, newcomer Ubuntu Gallery (Cairo) presents a group show of works by celebrated Egyptian modernists including Gazbia Sirry (b. 1925), Tahia Halim (1919-2003) and Mohammed Naghi (1888-1956), among others. Tunisian galleries Le Violon Bleu (Tunis) and Elmarsa (Tunis, Dubai), will show solo shows for Ali Bellagha (1924-2006) and Mahjoub Ben Bella (b. 1946) respectively.

View the full list of participating galleries for Art Dubai Modern 2018 here.

High-resolution visuals for Art Dubai Modern 2018 are available for download here.

 

RESIDENTS

Residents 2018 will present an intimate selection of 9 solo gallery presentations by artists from around the world working across all media. The galleries in this section will be presented in a special exhibition between the two Contemporary gallery halls.

The programme aims to support artists by providing a platform to develop their practice and create new work inspired and influenced by their stay in the UAE. Framed within a unique geographical and cultural context, Residents further aims to facilitate exchange and dialogue between artists, local communities and the broader cultural landscape.

During the residency, artists will have the opportunity to engage with the local community, work collaboratively with one another, participate in talks and conduct open studios. Further details around this will be announced soon.

Residents will present a diverse artist line-up including Ghanaian-German artist Zohra Opoku (Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle), Lithuanian artist Kristina Alisauskaite (The Rooster Gallery, Vilnius), Indonesian artist Labadiou Piko (Orbital Dago, Bandung), and Turkish artist Jennifer Ipekel (Öktem&Aykut, Istanbul), amongst others.

View the full list of participating artists in Art Dubai Residents 2018 here.

High-resolution visuals for Art Dubai Residents 2018 are available for download here.

 

MEDIA CONTACT

Nicole Kanne

Art Dubai

nicole@artdubai.ae

 

FEATURED IMAGE: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Saydnaya (ray traces), 2017. © Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.

 

Read more about the Abraaj Group Prize Winner and shortlisted artist who will be participating in an exhibition at Art Dubai 2018 here.

 

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