Art Dubai 2025 returns to Madinat Jumeirah from April 18–20, 2025. Founded in 2007, the fair has nurtured the local cultural scene, building partnerships and supporting new commissions to create long-term impact. This year, Art Dubai brings over 120 exhibitors to the United Arab Emirates. The fair’s curators in 2025 include art critic Magalí Arriola and art historian Nada Shabout, who lead Art Dubai Modern, academic and curator Gonzalo Herrero Delicado for Art Dubai Digital and writer and curator Mirjam Varadinis for Bawwaba.

STIR’s guide to Art Dubai offers glimpses of its Contemporary and Bawwaba sections. Art Dubai Contemporary presents 70 exhibitors from around the world, with a particular focus on art and artists from the Global South, including galleries from the UAE representing artists from the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. Bawwaba, which means “gateway” in Arabic, serves as a platform for artistic discovery, showcasing 10 solo presentations from five continents. Now in its sixth edition, Bawwaba presents works created within the past year or specifically conceived for the fair, featuring galleries like Art:Concept from Paris and first-time participants Iris Projects from Abu Dhabi, Parallel Circuit from Iran, Gallery Dix9 from France and Federica Schiavo from Italy. Through immersive installations, politically charged mosaics, wool-based paintings and sound pieces, the spotlighted artists offer a multi-sensory experience. Read on for STIR's picks.

1. Iris Projects: Abdullah Al Othman

Rooted in the UAE art scene, Iris Projects is a fine art gallery and visual arts agency based in Abu Dhabi. It makes its Art Dubai debut with a solo show by Saudi Arabian conceptual artist Abdullah Al Othman in the Bawwaba section, where it is the only gallery from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Alongside its booth at Art Dubai, Iris Projects will also open Al Othman’s first solo exhibition in the UAE, Structural Syntax, curated by Irina Stark.

Al Othman’s interdisciplinary practice explores the urban zeitgeist through materials like chrome, stainless steel and neon lights. Deeply influenced by Saudi Arabian culture, his work contrasts desert and city, vernacular architecture and Western consumerism, heritage and everyday objects.

For Art Dubai 2025, he presents a new iteration of Manifesto: The Language and the City (2021). Originally a site-specific installation for the Lyon Biennale, the work reflects Riyadh’s urban transformations. Al Othman collects and assembles typographic, visual and architectural elements to create an inhabitable portrait of the city.

2. Experimenter: T. Vinoja

Experimenter is a contemporary art gallery co-founded by Prateek and Priyanka Raja in 2009 in Kolkata, with another location in Mumbai. Returning to Art Dubai at Booth F2, the gallery platforms the works of Sri Lankan artist T. Vinoja. Currently attending Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Pakistan, Vinoja is an active member of Artists for Non-Violent Living, a collective that widely exhibits in Sri Lanka, engaging local audiences and those affected by war.

Her art is shaped by her experiences of forced migration. It explores how sites and material archives convey shattered realities and historical erasure, particularly in Sri Lanka’s war-torn North East. For her, textiles serve as an extension of skin—both a physical boundary and a metaphor for land and identity. Epidermis 1 (2024), a nearly three-metre-long work, unfolds like a map of memories. A close inspection of her muted, earth-toned cartographic textiles reveals scars left by conflict. Through the meticulous weaving of fabric, thread and repurposed bandages on a handloom, she simultaneously evokes notions of healing, repair and violence. Subtle acrylic markings and chaotic stitching punctuate the tapestry, transforming it into a testimony of survival and erasure.

3. Blueprint12: Kaimurai

Based in Delhi, Blueprint12 is a gallery founded by Mandira Lamba and Riddhi Bhalla in 2012, with a focus on South Asia. It presents Kaimurai, also known as Abishek Ganesh J, a Bengaluru-based artist, in a solo show in the Bawwaba section.

Kaimurai graduated from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in 2005 and transitioned to a full-time art practice after years in the apparel industry. His work, created exclusively with natural indigo, is triggered by the forms and energy flows encountered in the Western Ghats. At Booth W9 in Arena Hall, in Vibration of Life (Naadi III) (2025), a horizontal band cuts through the composition, hinting at a pause amidst the commotion of seeking. Kaimurai’s process involves surrendering to the material’s flow, creating rhythmic, repeated markings to render the final artwork.

4. SECCI: Omar Mismar

Housed in the historic 15th-century Palazzo Ricasoli, SECCI was founded in Florence in 2013. Expanding its focus in 2021 to include Post-War avant-gardism, SECCI collaborates with renowned artists’ estates while maintaining an outpost in Milan. At Art Dubai 2025 Bawwaba, the gallery platforms the mosaic work of Lebanese artist Omar Mismar, who lives and works in Beirut.

Through the ancient technique of mosaic making, Mismar produces politically charged imagery, exploring themes of revolution, displacement and human connection within his regional context. Ahmad and Akram Protecting Hercules (2019–2020) subverts traditional commemorative art by honouring the heroism of two museum workers safeguarding cultural heritage in Syria. The figures, embodying urgency, are caught mid-movement over a mound of sandbags. Rendered in earth-toned stone, the work feels laden with the weight of history and fragility in times of unrest.

5. Aspan Gallery: Gulnur Mukazhanova

Founded by Meruyert Kaliyeva in 2015, Aspan Gallery in Almaty, Kazakhstan, supports multidisciplinary works by Central Asian artists. The gallery is appearing in the Bawwaba section for the first time, with works by Berlin-based Kazakhstani artist Gulnur Mukazhanova.

Born in 1984, Mukazhanova works with handcrafted wool in directional strokes, mirroring the fluidity of paint. At Art Dubai, she is presenting selected works from her series Shadows of Hope, which gestures at resilience through labour-intensive felting techniques. The series was first conceived during her 2023 residency at Mill6CHAT in Hong Kong. This new iteration expands on the immersive horizon of her monumental felt works. Bright pinks, sombre blues and warm yellows dissolve into shadowy black and crimson fields. Colours drift in and out of focus, creating a dreamlike effect.

6. The Third Line: Rana Begum

Founded in 2005, The Third Line is a Dubai-based gallery that represents contemporary Middle Eastern artists. At Booth B8, the gallery is presenting a compelling selection of works, including those by Iranian artist Hayv Kahraman and American artist Sarah Awad.

A highlight of the presentation is Rana Begum. Born in Bangladesh in 1977 and based in London, Begum’s practice is influenced by the visual logics of Islamic art, architecture and the urban landscape. Her minimalist abstractions deploy the materiality of light to produce varying densities and perspectives. In No.1132 Painting (2022), sharp triangular planes of vivid colour converge across the MDF surface, shifting in appearance as light falls on them. Despite its grid-like presence and angular precision, the work embodies a fluid delicacy—inviting viewers to engage with the temporal and sensorial. It evokes both weightlessness and material depth, setting forth a continuous dialogue between the tradition of painting and sculpture.

7. Sfeir-Semler Gallery: Wael Shawky

Founded by Andrée Sfeir-Semler in 1985, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, with locations in Beirut and Hamburg, is dedicated to international contemporary art, with a focus on conceptual and minimal art. Its roster of artists includes Ania Soliman, Samia Halaby and Alia Farid.

At booth E3, Wael Shawky showcases his papier-mâché faces. Shawky is an Egyptian artist who works between Alexandria and Philadelphia. He founded MASS Alexandria in 2010, a nonprofit contemporary art school promoting interdisciplinary research and critical thinking. Raised between Alexandria and Mecca, he witnessed the transition from nomadic to modern society. It drives his exploration of national and religious identities and cultural storytelling through film, performance and sculpture.

In Cerchietto Marrone (2022) and Monster 2 (2022), Shawky’s papier-mâché heads bear an eerie likeness to fantastical characters, recalling ancient rituals and masks—both human and marionette-like. The figures appear suspended in time, an artefact of shifting civilisations and borrowed myths.

8. Lawrie Shabibi: Elias Sime

Lawrie Shabibi is a contemporary art gallery founded in 2011 by William Lawrie and Asmaa Al-Shabibi. It is based in Alserkal Avenue, a thriving arts district in Dubai. At Art Dubai 2025, the gallery brings together a diverse group of artists. The lineup includes Saif Azzuz, Shaikha Al Mazrou, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim and Elias Sime.

Ethiopian artist Elias Sime studied Graphic Art at the School of Fine Arts and Design at Addis Ababa University. He is deeply committed to building a local art community and co-founded the Zoma Museum in Addis Ababa in 2019. Sime is a multidisciplinary artist known for his large-scale reliefs composed of keyboards, circuits, wires and various forms of e-waste imported into his home country. He transforms these discarded materials by braiding, layering and weaving colourful wires with circuit boards and electronic components. His intricate mosaics sit at the intersection of technology, nature and abstraction. Through this process, he re-examines our evolving relationship with the environment.

STIR is a Media Partner with Art Dubai 2025, which runs from April 18 - 20 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. Click here to read STIR's expansive coverage of the 18th edition.