Former Lkham Gallery Curator Leads Art Dubai Modern 2024

Art Dubai is the Middle East’s leading international art fair, taking place every March in Dubai, UAE.

Over the past 17 editions, Art Dubai has cemented its role in being a major catalyst in the local, regional and international conversations on art from the Middle East and surrounding region (MENASA – Middle East, North Africa & South Asia), and putting art from these territories onto the global map.

As one of the world’s most international art fairs, Art Dubai has further expanded its commitment to cultivating a culture of discovery, offering exciting new global perspectives and broadening conversations about art beyond traditional western-led geographical scopes and narratives. The fair drives meaningful engagement with the rich cultural heritage and contemporary art practices of the region and extending to territories across Southeast and Central Asia, the African continent, and Latin America through presentations across its gallery sections.

While there has been much art historical focus on Western cities that have supported émigré artists and shaped artistic styles or movements — such as London, Paris or New York — it is well known that non-Western art centres remain understudied. One such example can be found during the Cold War, where both Western countries and the Soviet Union used culture as a tool and began state supported exchange programmes for artists. While much scholarship has been focused on the artistic movements of America and Europe during this post-WWII period, much less has been written about the “East”, and even less on the international artists who visited as part of public initiatives.

Art Dubai Modern 2024 aims to contribute to this area of study. Curated by Dr Christianna Bonin, assistant professor of art history at the American University of Sharjah and an expert in Cold War-era cultures and global modernisms, the section will explore artists and filmmakers from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia who took part in cultural exchange programmes with the Soviet Union and how the experience shaped their works and careers. These programmes “created intricate East-East and South-South cultural links,” Bonin says.

For more information read here.