DUBAI.- Art Dubai announces the full list of participating galleries for its 14th edition. With 90 galleries from 38 countries, the fair showcases an exceptionally diverse survey of artworks, artists and artistic practices, further cementing Art Dubai as the key meeting point for international art, reflecting the multicultural identity of the city.

Art Dubai 2020 reaffirms its commitment to fostering a platform of discovery, presenting exciting new global perspectives and expanding conversations beyond traditional western-led geographical scopes. The upcoming edition of the fair welcomes 21 first-time exhibitors including galleries from Nigeria, Sudan and Vietnam, and will feature the largest selection of galleries from around the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) to date.

Art Dubai’s Artistic Director Pablo del Val commented on this year’s edition: “Through the selected participating galleries in the 14th edition of the fair, we are exploring and unearthing energies from the Global South and providing new readings on what is happening in the art world, from the established to the emerging. The outstanding work of the selected curators in the 2020 edition has bolstered the narrative of Art Dubai, allowing visitors to discover and discuss unique perspectives on art and culture.”

For the 2020 edition, Art Dubai is working with leading curators spanning diverse geographies, including India, Lebanon, Germany and South Africa. Visitors encounter new readings in the four main sections of the fair on a variety of geographies and narratives not often brought to the fore. The third iteration of Residents focuses on the African continent and invites selected artists for a residency in the UAE to immerse themselves in the local art scene and produce new work to be showcased at the fair. In its largest edition to date, Art Dubai Modern features tightly curated solo presentations highlighting established modern masters from the MENASA region. Following its launch in 2019, the second edition of Bawwaba — meaning ‘gateway’ in Arabic — features solo presentations created within the last year or conceived specifically for the fair, it showcases alternative perspectives from and about the Middle East, Central, South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. Art Dubai Contemporary showcases galleries from across the globe, ranging from emerging art scenes to the more established.

Art Dubai 2020 takes place ahead of Expo 2020, the first World Expo ever to be held in the region, running 20 October 2020 – 10 April 2021.

The fair is sponsored by Julius Baer and Piaget, with Madinat Jumeirah as the home of the event. The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is a strategic partner of Art Dubai and supports the fair’s year-round education programme. BMW is the exclusive car partner of Art Dubai.

CONTEMPORARY
Art Dubai Contemporary features a selection of 55 galleries that align with the fair’s focus on expanding conversations beyond traditional art production centres. This edition features a divergent line-up of exhibitors, including Addis Fine Arts (Addis Ababa / London), Comptoir des Mines Galerie (Marrakesh), Experimenter (Kolkata), Silverlens (Makati City) and Zilberman Gallery (Istanbul / Berlin).

The contemporary section sees the return of prominent galleries from the region, including Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Beirut / Hamburg), ATHR (Jeddah), and Dastan’s Basement (Tehran) as well as nine Dubai-based galleries, such as Ayyam Gallery, Carbon 12, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde and The Third Line.

The 2020 fair will also see the return of GALLERIA CONTINUA (San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Havana), Galleria Franco Noero (Turin), Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna) and TEMPLON (Paris / Brussels).

MODERN
In its largest edition to date, Art Dubai Modern will showcase 18 distinct presentations whereby each of the participating galleries will showcase works by one leading modernist artist. In doing so, the 2020 edition will engage visitors with a broad panorama of artistic practices hailing from a number of diverse cities in Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Turkey. Featuring its own design, the section will consist of archival and didactic materials, which curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath employ to contextualise the artworks on display, and advance their notion of “Transmodernism as a way of reflecting on the heterogeneous expression of a multi-polar modernity”.

In 2020, Art Dubai Modern sees the return of galleries such as Agial Art Gallery (Beirut), ArtTalks (Cairo), DAG (New Delhi / Mumbai / New York), Gallery One (Ramallah), and TAFETA (London), alongside new participants DABANGA (Khartoum), Dirimart (Istanbul) and Zamalek Art Gallery (Cairo), amongst several others.

BAWWABA
Bawwaba returns for its second edition in 2020, curated by Bombay-based cultural theorist and curator Nancy Adajania. Bawwaba delivers a set of varied perspectives and highlights Art Dubai’s focus on divergent narratives. Adajania interprets the section descriptor ‘Bawwaba’ – meaning ‘gateway’ in Arabic – as an invitation to annotate the ‘offsites’ of global contemporary art, without creating a binary between art from the west and the so-called non-west. “Art Dubai’s 2020 Bawwaba will present solo presentations including artists from Peru, India, Vietnam, Mexico, among others, to demonstrate the productive entanglements as well as the distinctive, location-specific explorations from which contemporary art draws its multifarious inspirations. Especially today, when gatekeepers across the world have called for a closing of borders, it is important to keep our minds and doors open,” states Adajania.

Participating contributors will include Canvas Gallery (Karachi) with works by Pakistani artist Adeela Suleman, Nature Morte (New Delhi) with works by Indian artist Tanya Goel, Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi) exhibiting Indian artist Ranbir Kaleka, Vermelho (São Paulo) with the work of Mexican artist Tania Candiani; Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio (Milan) with the work of Cuban-born artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons; Galería Revolver (Buenos Aires / Lima) showcasing the work of Peruvian artist Giancarlo Scaglia, amongst others.

RESIDENTS
Curated by Johannesburg-based Kabelo Malatsie, Residents returns in 2020 for its third iteration with a focus on the African continent. Residents showcases solo presentations from invited galleries whose artists have partaken in a UAE-based residency. The residency programme encourages artists to explore and engage with the local art and culture scene. This specific geographic focus allows for a more contextualised experience for visitors, and creates a dialogue between artistic practices and geographic social experiences.

Exhibiting galleries in the 2020 edition of Residents will include Addis Fine Art (Addis Ababa / London) exhibiting the work of Ethiopian artist Daniela Yohannes, Circle Art Gallery (Nairobi) featuring the work of Kenyan artist Longinos Nagila, Gallery 1957 (Accra) featuring Ghanian artist Gideon Appah, and SMAC (Johannesburg/Cape Town/Stellenbosch) featuring the work of Wallen Mapondera from Zimbambwe amongst others.