Madinat Jumeirah, home to Art Dubai, enters its 2025 edition as one of the world’s leading art platforms. This year, from April 18 to April 20, the fair continues to push boundaries, offering a space where artists, collectors, and art lovers can connect and celebrate creativity.
With a focus on amplifying voices from the region, Art Dubai 2025 promises to showcase the innovative works of creatives who are reshaping the art landscape. Featuring around 120 galleries from over 40 countries, the event also offers a programme of artist commissions, educational initiatives and insightful talks, including the renowned Global Art Forum and Digital Summit.
Returning to Art Dubai this year, ATHR, a contemporary art gallery and project space in central Jeddah spanning 20,000 square feet, represents both Middle Eastern and international artists. With an exhibition schedule focused on international and Saudi contemporary art, it fosters engagement through public programmes for local audiences.
Wondering where to start? We highlight the remarkable talent emerging from the region, with a focus on contemporary works that challenge convention and provoke thought.
Saudi-born Lulua Alyahya, an artist showcasing her work at Art Dubai 2025 through ATHR gallery, says, “I’m looking forward to exhibiting with ATHR at Art Dubai this year. I collaborated with Rami Farook, the curator of the booth, on a painting we started during my residency at An Effort in the summer of 2023, which will be showcased as part of this year’s booth.”
Aisha Alabbar Gallery, a women-led Emirati gallery, will present The Rhythm of Existence, an exhibition featuring female Emirati artists like Sara Al Haddad and Sara Ahli. Using a range of media, including painting, fibre art, sculpture, and glass, The Rhythm of Existence will shine a light on the UAE’s growing artistic innovation and highlight the Aisha Alabbar Gallery as a vital platform for Emirati talent on the international stage.
Showcasing his work at Art Dubai 2025, Faris Abdulla Alshafar’s paintings reflect the rhythm of music, using layers of colour and marks to explore connections and the passage of time. His work examines the balance between form and formlessness, creating visual symphonies of emotion and thought.
“Throughout the years, there’s been an anchoring pendulum of form and formlessness that dictates specificity in my works,” Faris explains. “I put together pieces from different years, mediums, and formats to evoke the volatile experience of music that informs the core of my practice.” His work encourages viewers to reflect on their own experiences, connecting them with the fragility of his compositions.
Sara Ahli works between Dubai and Providence, Rhode Island. Her glass sculptures create dreamlike spaces that merge the real, imagined, and forgotten, offering a meditative exploration of materiality and the complexities of human existence.
“Using glass as a metaphor, I reveal the tension between strength and vulnerability, absence and presence. My work explores the body as a vessel of memory, bringing this inquiry to Art Dubai,” Sara explains.
Sara’s work spans sculpture, installation, and glass, exploring themes of the body, memory, and resilience. Through the delicate medium of glass, she explores the fragile strength of human experience, revealing the tension between vulnerability and resilience.
Sara Al Haddad’s installations, made from fibre materials like yarn, are tactile expressions of memory and vulnerability. Using techniques such as crocheting and stitching, she creates forms that invite the viewer to connect with the emotions behind each piece.
“My art allows me to process emotions with curiosity, examining situations and memories before transforming them into tangible, commemorative objects,” Sara explains. “Each piece is an opportunity to connect with the intricacies of human emotions, inviting viewers to step into these intimate spaces.”
Born in 1988 in Dubai, Sara is a Fulbright Scholar with an MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her works have been shown at LACMA and the UAE National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017.
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