The Ultimate Guide to Art Dubai 2025: What to Expect

by Sophie She

The Ultimate Guide To Art Dubai 2025

17 Apr 2025

Art Dubai 2025 brings together global perspectives, regional heritage, and cutting-edge innovation for its latest edition, held from April 18–20 at Madinat Jumeirah. With more than 120 participating galleries from over 65 cities, the fair offers a multi-sensory experience across its four main sections: Digital, Modern, Bawwaba, and Contemporary.

To help navigate the breadth of the fair, this curated tour begins in the experimental and immersive world of Art Dubai Digital, progresses through modern and thematic explorations in Bawwaba and Modern, and concludes with bold presentations from leading and emerging voices in the Contemporary section.

Take this selection as a recommendation… that one must follow…. Enjoy!

Photo: Cedric Ribeiro

Art Dubai Digital: Reimagining the sublime

Curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, the 2025 edition of Art Dubai Digital is titled After the Technological Sublime. The section challenges visitors to rethink how technology, from AI to 3D mapping, is reshaping both art and our understanding of environmental, political, and existential realities.

DG Art Project, starring: the nature, your brain, and other surprising things

For the first time in the Middle East, MotherEarth — the world’s first cross-continental AI data sculpture — is being presented at Art Dubai 2025 in collaboration with DG Art Project and Gallery.

Developed by Istanbul-based Ouchhh Studio, this monumental installation connects in real time with twin sculptures in Beijing and Mexico City, creating a synchronised global dialogue around climate data. Using live feeds from NASA’s constellation of 20 satellites, each sculpture not only interprets environmental signals but also influences the visual outputs of its counterparts across continents.

Another amazing thing presented there is the live AI art experience, where all visitors can put on the headphones, though one's brain activity is scanned and then visualised on gigantic screens. You have to try.

Ouchhh Studio, MotherEarth. Photo: Cedric Ribeiro

Hafez Gallery presents Maryam Tariq

Saudi Arabian artist Maryam Tariq exhibits new light- and projection-based works that explore the intangible. Her immersive installation plays with the boundaries of perception through sculptural light mapping, reflecting both environmental and emotional shifts.

Maryam Tariq, Memory Recall, 2025

Koshta.Collective: Modular Garden

Dubai-based Koshta.Collective presents Modular Garden, a multidisciplinary exploration of the symbiosis between technology and the natural world. Featuring sculptural and digital works by Sasha Frolova, Lena Charobay, GSM Garden, and Facultative Works, the booth offers a vivid reimagining of flora and ecosystems. Designed by FLOWGARDENZ, the space blends 3D-printed botanicals with abstract digital ecosystems.

Koshta.Collective, FLOWGARDENZ

Sevil Dolmacı Gallery: Beyond analogue and digital

Bridging early media art and contemporary new media practices, this presentation features pioneers and emerging artists including Peter Kogler, Sara Ludy, Can Büyükberber, and Mischa Kuball. The exhibition explores conceptual transformations in media arts, highlighting the fluid boundary between digital and physical realities.

Instagram: @sevildolmacidubai

AAF Projects x Ellen Sheidlin Studio

Ellen Sheidlin brings her “survirtualism” practice to Art Dubai, combining digital technology with classical motifs in photography, sculpture, and painting. Her booth is a surreal journey into identity and digital dreamscapes, rendered with whimsy and symbolic richness.

Source: sheidlina.com

Future Maastricht

Debuting at Art Dubai, Future Maastricht showcases digitised and reinterpreted historical works from the likes of André Derain and medieval manuscripts. Their booth explores how archival material can be brought into contemporary conversations through digital means.

Source: futuremaastricht.com

CIFRA presents RETREAT by Jacopo Di Cera

Among the most emotionally resonant digital presentations is RETREAT, an immersive installation by Italian artist Jacopo Di Cera. Presented by CIFRA, the work transforms scientific data on the retreat of the Brenva glacier into a large-scale digital meditation on climate change. The installation features 32 upcycled video screens and is accompanied by a spatial soundscape from sound artist Massimiliano Ionta.

Instagram: @jacopodicera

Lunch time

Art Dubai may feed the soul, but Madinat Jumeirah’s exceptional dining scene offers the perfect way to recharge between exhibitions.

For a sophisticated midday break or a celebratory dinner, The Flamingo Room by Tashas is a standout choice. With its glamorous interiors and a menu blending contemporary European and African influences, it is a chic oasis for refined palates.

Just steps away, Pierchic offers a spectacular seafood experience at the end of a private pier — perfect for those seeking elegance with a view of the Arabian Gulf.

For something more intimate and atmospheric, Pai Thai serves authentic Thai cuisine, reached by a tranquil abra ride through the resort’s winding waterways.

Back to the Art!

Instagram: @flamingoroomae, @pierchicdubai, @paithaidubai

Art Dubai Modern: Legacy in motion

Curated by Dr. Nada Shabout and Magalí Arriola, Art Dubai Modern is devoted to mid-20th-century masters from West Asia, North Africa, and Latin America. The section offers a rare opportunity to explore the aesthetic and intellectual networks that shaped modernism beyond the Western canon.

Vigo Gallery

A standout in this section, Vigo Gallery presents seminal works by artists whose practices defined regional avant-garde movements. Their presentation underlines the importance of art historical recovery in understanding the cultural legacy of the Arab world.

Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Tree, 2008. Courtesy of Vigo Gallery and the artist

Art Dubai Contemporary: The cutting edge

The fair culminates in its largest section — Art Dubai Contemporary — showcasing 72 galleries from across the globe. This year’s presentations are sharply tuned to emerging talent, bold aesthetics, and cross-cultural dialogue.

Richard Koh Fine Art

The gallery presents dynamic new voices from Southeast Asia, offering a fresh lens on contemporary sociopolitical and environmental themes through mixed media, photography, and installation.

Instagram: @richardkohfineart

Albarrán Bourdais

This Madrid-based gallery merges conceptual rigor with refined presentation. Their selection is expected to blend abstract poetics with political commentary, offering visitors intellectually charged works grounded in global contemporary discourse.

Héctor Zamora, Kaminrot, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Albarrán Bourdais

Afterparty

Don’t forget to stay for the afterparty to finish off your day with great vibes and bubbles!

Instagram: @artdubai

by Sophie She