Nadia Ayari, The Book, Courtesy of Saatchi Gallery
For the first time, Art Dubai will invite artists to create new works, which will be exhibited at the art fair from March 19-22, 2014, at the Madinat Jumeirah.
In partnership with The Abraaj Group, the 8th edition of Art Dubai will launch Art Dubai Projects, a curated program of new commissions that invites selected artists across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia to create works that interact with the audience and the fair’s environment.
The project’s curator, Fawz Kabra, stated that the commissions include site-specific installations, performances, videos, and research projects. Fawz previously curated public programs at the Cultural District, Abu Dhabi, and co-curated the ongoing project Brief Histories, Sharjah.
Among the 11 chosen artists, Kabra included the Tunisian painter Nadia Ayari, known for her focus on political landscapes; Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh, who exhibited at the first Lebanese Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale; and Emirati installation and video artist Maitha Demithan, who has exhibited her work at the UAE Pavilion of the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Sara Al Haddad, the Dubai-based artist reputed for the knitting of life-size sculptural forms and the weaving of text (SIKKA Art Fair, 2013), will also deliver a made-to-measure commission for the newly launched Art Dubai Projects.
Moreover, the 2014 edition of Art Dubai will present Art Dubai Modern, a newly launched gallery hall dedicated to 20th century art from the Arab world, Iran, and South Asia, which will feature several art galleries from Beirut, Cairo, Casablanca, Dubai, Karachi, London, Manama, Mumbai, New York and Tehran.
Besides the new gallery hall and project, the fair’s program will feature an exhibition of works by winners of the annual Abraaj Group Art Prize; and the critically acclaimed Global Art Forum.
