NOMAD Lands In Abu Dhabi For the First Time. A Landmark Moment For the Region

by Alexandra Mansilla

NOMAD Lands In Abu Dhabi For the First Time. A Landmark Moment For the Region

17 Nov 2025

And it is great news. NOMAD, the travelling collectable-design fair that has taken over St. Moritz, Monaco, Venice, and Cannes since 2017, is coming to the Middle East for the first time. And this is a big deal because it shows how seriously the region is now being taken on the global design map.

NOMAD has always been a highly curated fair, followed by people who genuinely pay attention to where design is heading. So the fact that Abu Dhabi is their next destination feels very intentional. It signals that the Middle East isn’t just hosting major events anymore; it is becoming a place where ideas are exchanged, tested, and launched into the wider design world.

What location did they choose? NOMAD, in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi, decided to reimagine Terminal 1 of Zayed International Airport — yes, the decommissioned one. It is a perfect metaphor for what NOMAD stands for: movement, transitions, people crossing paths, ideas travelling. The fair will take place there from November 19 to 22.

Photo: Nikita Berezhnoy. Instagram: @nomadcircle

The architecture of the old terminal adds a whole extra layer to the moment. Paul Andreu’s building has this incredible energy: retro-futuristic, a bit surreal, full of curves and patterns you just don’t see in airports anymore. It already feels like a place where stories and journeys overlap, so bringing NOMAD into that environment makes total sense.

This year’s edition brings together around twenty-five galleries and cultural institutions, creating a line-up that feels both grounded in the region and impressively global. From the UAE, spaces like The Third Line, The AP Room, Leila Heller Gallery, Nika Project Space, and We Gallery anchor the fair with a strong local presence. At the same time, NOMAD welcomes a wide mix of international voices — with participants arriving from Cairo, Ibiza, Athens, Milan, Istanbul, Paris, Tunis, Florence, and beyond. It is the kind of gathering that naturally sparks cross-cultural conversations.

And to get a sense of the level and diversity of what is coming, here are just a few examples. Studio Renn from Bombay brings jewelry that reads more like miniature sculptures — mixing free-form diamonds with concrete and unexpected gold finishes, pushing the idea of adornment into experimental territory.

Diego Villarreal Vagujhelyi from New York is presenting Postura, a new bronze series with a subtle theatricality to it — forms that hold themselves almost like bodies in a still frame.

Instagram: @nomadcircle

Leila Heller Gallery is presenting a major selection of works by Dale Chihuly, a reminder of how far glass can be pushed as a medium.

Instagram: @nomadcircle

And as always, NOMAD isn’t stopping at the gallery booths. The fair opens into a series of Special Projects: commissions, collaborations, and site-specific interventions that respond directly to the architecture and atmosphere of the terminal. These projects unfold almost like chapters of a story: from A.A. Murakami and Trame’s atmospheric A Thousand Layers of Stomach to the quietly poetic In Transit: A Nomadic Library by Dongola Limited Editions, Studio Etienne Bastormagi, and Mira Hawa.

A.A. Murakami and Trame, A Thousand Layers of Stomach (2025). Instagram: @nomadcircle

Some projects lean into performance and ritual, like Antidote’s Functional Bar In Transit, while others rethink luxury through a cultural lens — the ever-enigmatic MIDA by Orient 499 and David/Nicolas.

There is also a noticeable regional thread running through the Special Projects. The House of Artisans is showing Formed, Irthi is introducing the Tilad Collection, and Parsa is presenting Turning Time Into Stone — each adding its own take on craft and material culture. Alongside them, projects from the wider region and beyond bring different moods and approaches into the mix, including Super Loop’s immersive Fluid Echoes, the architecture-led Departures powered by Etihad Airways, and Inloco Gallery’s The Golden Container.

Super Loop, Fluid Echoes (2025). Instagram: @nomadcircle

And then there are the projects that lean more toward sculpture and object-making — like Kamyen & MODU’s sunset-coloured The Amber Hour or Iwan Maktabi’s textile installation When Earth Dreamt in Gold, along with many others that will unfold throughout the terminal.

So, for a few days, Terminal 1 becomes a temporary ecosystem where ideas, materials, and cultures meet, overlap, and quietly reshape how we think about design in the region.

by Alexandra Mansilla