EIGHTH EDITION OF ART DUBAI FEATURES THE FAIR’S LARGEST AND MOST DYNAMIC PROGRAMME TO DATE

Taking place March 19-22, the 2014 edition of Art Dubai features three gallery programmes–
Contemporary, Modern and Marker; the winners of The Abraaj Group Art Prize; commissioned artists’ projects; the critically acclaimed Global Art Forum; live radio; film and more

Dubai, UAE, March 18, 2014: Art Dubai, the leading international art fair in the Middle East and South Asia, will open tomorrow under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Taking place at Madinat Jumeirah until 22 March 2014, this year’s edition of Art Dubai builds on its reputation as a fair of discovery and is the most global fair to date with 85 participating galleries from 34 countries; more than 500 artists are participating in the gallery halls and across the not-for-profit programmes.

The eighth edition of Art Dubai is held in partnership with The Abraaj Group and is sponsored by Cartier and Emaar. Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is the strategic partner of Art Dubai and supports the fair’s year-round education programme. Art Dubai Modern is sponsored by Mashreq Private Banking. Maserati is the Car Partner of Art Dubai 2014. Rothschild joins Art Dubai as a Corporate Patron of the 2014 fair.

New for this year, the galleries are presented in three distinct programmes – Contemporary; the inaugural Modern; and Marker – the curated section of invited art spaces and galleries focusing in 2014 on Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Art Dubai’s contemporary gallery halls remain the largest section of the fair with more than 70 galleries exhibiting new works for sale. Returning galleries include Athr (Jeddah), Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris), galerist (Istanbul), Grey Noise (Dubai), Victoria Miro (London), Experimenter (Kolkata) among others, and galleries that are joining for the first time. This year, galleries making their debut at Art Dubai include Ota Fine Arts (Tokyo), GallerySKE (Delhi/Bangalore), Marisa Newman Projects (New York), Tyler Rollins (New York), Baró Galeria (São Paulo), Gladstone Gallery (New York), Marian Goodman (New York/Paris), Galerie Greta Meert (Brussels), Galleria Franco Noero (Turin), Yavuz Fine Art (Singapore), and 313 Art Project (Seoul), among others.

In 2014, Art Dubai launches a new gallery programme devoted to Middle Eastern and South Asian
modern art from the twentieth century. Art Dubai Modern, taking place in Mina A’Salam, was advised by renowned curators and historians Savita Apte, Catherine David, Kristine Khouri and Nada Shabout and includes 11 galleries. Each booth presents a solo or two-person show by highly influential artists including, Rasheed Araeen (Grosvenor Gallery, London), Michel Basbous (Agial Art Gallery, Beirut), Hamed Abdalla and Adam Henein (Karim Francis, Cairo), M.F. Husain (Aicon Gallery, New York/London), Ardeshir Mohasses (Shirin Gallery, Tehran), and Anwar Jalal Shemza (Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai), among others.

Marker, the dynamic programme of invited art spaces—dedicated each year to a particular theme or geography–turns its focus in 2014 to Central Asia and the Caucasus. Curated by the artists Slavs and Tatars, selected art spaces and artists-led organisations include: ArtEast (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan); Asia Art (Almaty, Kazakhstan); North Caucasus Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art, NCCA (Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia); Popiashvili Gvaberidze Window Project (Tbilisi, Georgia); and YARAT Contemporary Art Space (Baku, Azerbaijian). Presenting works ranging from mid-twentieth-century painting to contemporary drawing, sculpture and video, Marker takes the form of a chaikhaneh or Eurasian tea salon and includes talks and educational materials (supported by Caspian Arts Foundation), as well as artists’ books published in collaboration with onestar press.

Alongside the gallery halls, the fair also features an extensive not-for-profit programme including dynamic site-specific works for Art Dubai Projects. This year, 12 artists and artists’ groups have been commissioned to create installations and performances that engage audiences and interact with and comment on the fair and its environment. Artists commissioned for Art Dubai Projects include Nadia Ayari (Tunis/New York), Youmna Chlala (Beirut/New York), Clark House Initiative (Bombay), Sunoj D (Bangalore), Maitha Demithan (Dubai), Sara Al Haddad (Dubai), Shuruq Harb (Ramallah), Najat Makki (Dubai), Amina Menia (Algiers), Maryam Al Qassimi (Sharjah), Mounira Al Solh (Beirut), and Hajra Waheed (Montreal), who have been working with UAE/New York-based curator Fawz Kabra. Art Dubai Projects has been supported by Alserkal Avenue Arts District and members of Art Salon.