Framed by Dubai’s unique synthesis of heritage and futurism, Art Dubai’s latest edition foregrounds global conversations on transformation, uncertainty, and cultural possibility — anchored by its pioneering talks and conference series.
Art Dubai 2025. Credit: Spark Media
Art Dubai 2025 brought together over 120 galleries from more than 50 countries, cementing its status as a vital platform for artistic exchange across the Global South. Held at Madinat Jumeirah, this year’s edition highlighted underrepresented narratives through curated sections that balanced discovery with critical dialogue. Across four key sectors—Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba, and Digital—the fair showcased a breadth of practices reflecting today’s most urgent themes.
Art Dubai Modern, curated by Magalí Arriola and Nada Shabout, focused on twentieth-century regional masterworks contextualised within postcolonial histories. Their curatorial approach rejected nostalgia, reframing the modern as a site of resistance and reinvention.
Bawwaba—Arabic for “gateway”—curated by Mirjam Varadinis, presented solo exhibitions exploring displacement, ecological awareness, and cultural coexistence. The section emphasised intimacy over spectacle, with works that invited close, contemplative engagement.
BREAKFAST. Courtesy of BREAKFAST Studio.
Art Dubai Contemporary continued to spotlight diverse voices from emerging and established artists. At the same time, Art Dubai Digital embraced new technologies that are shaping how art is created and experienced in an increasingly hybrid world.
Sales on opening day were strong. Several galleries reported selling over 80% of their presentations within the first few hours, placing works into institutional and private collections across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Many first-time collectors attended, drawn by the fair’s global focus and commitment to emerging markets.
Art Dubai Digital 2025. Photo by Cedric Ribeiro. Getty Images for Art Dubai.
“Art Dubai continues to stand out by amplifying perspectives that are too often overlooked,” said Artistic Director Pablo del Val. Executive Director Benedetta Ghione noted the fair’s momentum, describing it as “unlike any other.” The event drew curators, museum directors, patrons, and collectors who engaged in active dialogue throughout the fair. Art Dubai’s ability to convene key figures from across the art world—alongside a vibrant regional scene—reinforced its reputation as more than just a marketplace.
With its curated focus, international reach, and vigorous engagement across all sectors, Art Dubai 2025 reflected a broader shift in the art world’s cultural and geographic centre. More than a fair, it served as a platform for artistic leadership from the Global South that continues to shape the global discourse meaningfully. 
Art Dubai Commissions and Installations, Ania Soliman, Kahrabaa, 2025. Photo by Cedric Ribeiro.
At the heart of the fair’s programming was the return of its celebrated talks and conference series, which this year delve into the shifting tides of technology, geopolitics, and creative economies under the overarching theme: The New New Normal. The Global Art Forum was curated by UK-based post-disciplinary duo Y7 (Hannah Cobb and Declan Colquitt); sessions tackled everything from quantum computing and gamified economies to the beauty industry and cultural geopolitics. Speakers included architect Rem Koolhaas, artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Postpostpost, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Huna Cultural Talks, AD24. Courtesy of Spark Media.
The Digital Summit, themed After the Technological Sublime, invited museum directors, artists, curators, and technologists to interrogate issues ranging from ecological activism in media art to algorithmic bias and the shifting role of museums in an increasingly virtual world. The summit was presented in partnership with Dubai Culture, reflecting the city’s growing ambition to lead conversations on the global digital future.
Meanwhile, Modern Talks focused on the historical and contemporary linkages between West Asia, North Africa, and Latin America. Against the backdrop of postcolonial nation-building and artistic resistance, the discussions delve into how shared heritage shapes identity and narrative-making.
Art Dubai 2025. Photo by Cedric Ribeiro. Getty Images for Art Dubai.
This year, Art Dubai once again cemented its role as a cultural fulcrum of the Global South, weaving together themes of memory, technology, and transformation across an ambitious slate of commissions, exhibitions, and public art initiatives.
In a poetic return to the earth, terracotta took centre stage in sculptural and performance-based installations, where clay vessels emerged as emblems of life, ritual, and renewal. These works spread across the fair and in a new commission at Alserkal Avenue, which marked the beginning of a long-term collaboration between Art Dubai and the influential art district.
Union of Artists The artists with their collaborative artwork Union of Artists, 2024.
The Dubai Public Art Strategy, a sweeping multi-year initiative launched in collaboration with Dubai Culture, saw the city transform into an open-air gallery. Its inaugural large-scale work, Union of Artists, debuted in 2024, with five leading Emirati artists jointly sculpting a monument to unity through tension and balance. The initiative also prioritises education, inviting emerging creatives into the world of public art through dedicated programmes.
The Art Dubai Digital section tackled the awe and unease surrounding today’s technological marvels. Under the theme After the Technological Sublime, curator Gonzalo Herrero Delicado invited artists, galleries and platforms to interrogate AI, robotics, and virtual environments as tools and cultural forces. Exhibitors showcased how digital practice can reflect, challenge, and reimagine contemporary life.
Art Dubai 2025. Credit Spark Media.
The Dubai Collection, the city’s first institutional collection of modern and contemporary art, presented Common Grounds, an exhibition curated by emerging voices from Zayed University. Featuring works created between 1949 and 2024, the show offered a powerful meditation on belonging and universal connection, proving that shared experience can transcend time and terrain.
Photo by Cedric Ribeiro. Getty Images for Art Dubai.
Among the programme highlights: a major new digital commission by leading Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem, experiential works that mapped the evolution of nature through technology, and a performance series by Mexican artist Héctor Zamora that activated public space in subtle, ritualistic ways.
Héctor Zamora, Existence-emitting Movements. Courtesy of Art Dubai.
As Dubai continues to position itself at the crossroads of the contemporary and the ancient, the real and the virtual, Art Dubai 2025 offers a vision of the future — one where culture remains reactive to the world’s changes and actively reshapes them. The art fair and the conference programming presented a robust, multidimensional view of art’s evolving role in a world increasingly defined by flux.
Art Dubai took place from 17 to 20 April 2025 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.
Suzette Bell-Roberts is the Co-founder and Digital Editor of ART AFRICA magazine.
