ARTDUBAI 2014 PROMISES TO BE THE BIGGEST AND BEST ART SHOW IN THE MIDDLE EAST. SO IF YOU ARE AN ART COLLECTOR OR FAN, MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN DUBAI FROM 19 TO 22 MARCH 2014

KEE@FSWMAG.COM

ART DUBAI REVEALS THE FULL FAIR PROGRAMME FOR ITS EIGHTH EDITION
Taking place March 19-22, the 2014 edition of Art Dubai features three gallery programmes–Contemporary, Modern and Marker; the winners of The Abraaj Group Art Prize; artists’ and curators’ residencies; site specific commissions and projects; the critically acclaimed Global Art Forum; live radio; film and more.

Observers of the Planets by Altai Sadikhzade

 Square Composition by Anwar Shemza

 Minaret Hats by Maimouna Guerresi

Victory by Mohsen Ahmandvand


Art Dubai, the leading international art fair in the Middle East and South Asia, offers the opportunity to engage with the most comprehensive and promising line-up of artists from across the region and the world.
Held under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Ruler of Dubai, Art Dubai is run in partnership with The Abraaj Group and is sponsored by Cartier and Emaar. Madinat Jumeirah is home to the event. Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is the strategic partner of Art Dubai and supports the fair's year-round education programme.

This year’s full programme was announced at a press conference held by Art Dubai today, hosted by Fair Director, Antonia Carver. Art Dubai, taking place March 19-22, 2014 at Madinat Jumeirah, returns in its eighth year as the most global fair to date with 85 participating galleries from 34 countries and works by more than 500 artists across the programmes.

For the first time, the galleries are presented in three distinct programmes: Contemporary; Modern, inaugurating this year; and Marker, the curated section of invited art spaces and galleries focusing in 2014 on Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Alongside the gallery halls, the fair also features an extensive not-for profit programme including dynamic commissioned site-specific works for Art Dubai Projects; an exhibition by winners of The Abraaj Group Art Prize; the critically-acclaimed, five-day conference Global Art Forum; a live radio station; film and video screenings; Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program for children; plus an engaging programme of curator-led tours, book launches, talks and so on.

“Over the past eight years, Art Dubai has evolved into an extraordinarily dynamic art fair, with a particular emphasis on diversity and quality. The fair echoes the expansion of the arts infrastructure in Dubai and the region,” says Antonia Carver. “Our roots are firmly grounded in the UAE arts scene and we believe this year's fair reflects Dubai’s identity as a major cultural city, alongside its role as a hub for trade, finance and transport. Art Dubai’s growth has been organic and supported by a highly motivated audience of artists, curators, gallerists, patrons and enthusiasts. We’re aiming to welcome even more visitors than the 25,000 that walked through the doors in 2013.”

ART DUBAI PROGRAMMES:
Art Dubai Contemporary
Art Dubai’s contemporary gallery halls remain the largest section of the fair with more than 70 galleries exhibiting works for sale. Returning galleries include Athr (Jeddah), Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris), Galerist (Istanbul), Alexander Gray Associates (New York), Victoria Miro (London) and Experimenter (Kolkata) among others.

This year, galleries making their debut at Art Dubai include Ota Fine Arts (Tokyo/Singapore), GallerySKE (Bangalore/New Delhi), Galerie Polaris (Paris), Marisa Newman Projects (New
York), Tyler Rollins Fine Arts (New York), Baró Galeria (São Paulo), The Breeder (Athens/Monte Carlo), Gladstone Gallery (New York/Brussels), Marian Goodman (New York/Paris/London), Galerie Greta Meert (Brussels), Galleria Franco Noero (Turin), Yavuz Fine Art (Singapore), and 313 Art Project (Seoul).
UAE-based galleries participating in Art Dubai include Ayyam Gallery, Carbon 12, Gallery Etemad, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Green Art Gallery, Grey Noise, Elmarsa, Tashkeel and The Third Line.
Full list of galleries participating in Contemporary here: http://artdubai.ae/contemporary/2014
Art Dubai Modern

In 2014, Art Dubai launches a new gallery programme devoted to Middle Eastern and South Asian modern art from the twentieth century. The Modern programme, sponsored this year by Mashreq Private Bank and taking place in Mina A’Salam, was advised by renowned curators and historians Savita Apte, Catherine David, Kristine Khouri and Nada Shabout. Each gallery booth presents a solo or two-person show by highly influential artists, including Rasheed Araeen (Grosvenor Gallery, London), Nasser Al Yousif and Rashid Al Khalifa (Albareh Art Gallery, Manama), Michel Basbous (Agial Art Gallery, Beirut), Hamed Abdalla and Adam Henein (Karim Francis, Cairo), M.F. Husain and Syed Sadequain (Aicon Gallery, New York/London), Ardeshir Mohasses (Shirin Gallery, Tehran/New York), Nabil Nahas (Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai), among others.

The dynamic programme of invited art spaces—dedicated each year to a particular theme or geography—turns its focus in 2014 to Central Asia and the Caucasus. Curated by the artists Slavs and Tatars, selected art spaces and artist-led organisations include: ArtEast (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan); Asia Art (Almaty, Kazakhstan); North Caucasus Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art, NCCA (Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia); Popiashvili Gvaberidze Window Project (Tbilisi, Georgia); and YARAT Contemporary Art Space (Baku, Azerbaijian). Presenting works ranging from mid-twentieth-century painting to contemporary drawings and sculptures, Marker will take the form of a chaikhaneh or Eurasian (tea) salon and includes talks and research projects, an education programme, as well as artists’ books published in collaboration with onestar press.

Art Dubai Projects
The dynamic not-for-profit programme of new commissions and site-specific projects sees 12 artists invited to create installations, performances, video and research projects that engage audiences and interact with and comment on the fair and its environment. Artists selected for Art Dubai Projects include Nadia Ayari (Tunis/New York), Youmna Chlala (Beirut/New York), Clark House Initiative (Mumbai), Sunoj D (Bangalore), Maitha Demithan (Dubai), Sara Al Haddad (Dubai), Shuruq Harb (Ramallah), Najat Makki (Dubai), Amina Menia (Algiers), Maryam Al Qassimi (Sharjah), Mounira Al Solh (Beirut), and Hajra Waheed (Montreal) working closely with curator Fawz Kabra.

More information about Art Dubai Projects here: http://artdubai.ae/art-dubai-projects
The Abraaj Group Art Prize Now in its sixth edition, the renowned The Abraaj Group Art Prize is awarded to artists on the basis of a proposal. Their new works are featured in an exhibition at the fair. The five winners of the 2014 prize are Abbas Akhavan, Anup Mathew Thomas, Basim Magdy, Bouchra Khalili and Kamrooz Aram. The artists have been developing their projects in collaboration with internationally renowned curator Nada Raza.

Global Art Forum
Titled Meanwhile…History, the eighth Global Art Forum reflects on significant decades, years, days, minutes or seconds that shifted an understanding of the world and history. Commissioned by Shumon Basar with co-directors Omar Berrada and Ala Younis, the Forum features over 40 speakers and contributors including Sulayman Al Bassam, John Akomfrah, Catherine David, Okwui Enwezor, Frauke Heard-Bey, Adina Hempel, Farah Al-Nakib, Todd Reisz, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Adam Szymczyk, Marina Warner, among others. The Global Art Forum begins March 15–16 at Katara Art Center, Doha and continues March 19–21 at Art Dubai, Mina A'Salam, Madinat Jumeirah.

Presented by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Global Art Forum 2014 is held in partnership with the Office of Strategic Cultural Relations at Qatar Museums Authority through their Years of Culture annual initiative.

Art Dubai’s curatorial and educational programme also includes:
 Falgoosh Radio—a live artist-led radio station—programmed by London-based sound artists and composers Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver

 Film and video screenings through the Moving Images programme, the partnership between Dubai International Film Festival, Sharjah Art Foundation and Art Dubai, exploring artists’ films and filmmakers’ art in the Arab world

 Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program of children’s workshops and discovery tours

 Artists’ and curators’ residencies programme A.i.R Dubai, a partnership between Art Dubai, Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and Tashkeel. A.i.R Dubai 2014 features five artists from across the Middle East and Asia: Nadia Ayari, Sunoj D, Maitha Demithan, Sara Al Haddad and Maryam Al Qassimi who are working in Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood alongside curator-in-residence İpek Ulusoy Akgül creating works for Sikka Art Fair and Art Dubai Projects.

 Campus Art Dubai, the free Saturday school for artists, curators, writers, cultural producers and art workers based in the UAE and developed with lead tutor Tirdad Zolghadr.

For more information and the latest updates, please visit artdubai.ae, become a Fan of Art Dubai on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @artdubai.

About Art Dubai
The eighth edition of Art Dubai takes place March 19-22, 2014.
Art Dubai is held in partnership with The Abraaj Group and is sponsored by Cartier and Emaar. Madinat Jumeirah is home to the event. The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority is a strategic partner of Art Dubai and supports the fair’s year-round education programme. Art Dubai Modern 2014 is sponsored by Mashreq Private Banking.

Alongside the gallery halls, comprising Contemporary, Modern and Marker, the fair’s extensive not-for-profit programme includes site-specific works for Art Dubai Projects, radio and film; an exhibition of works by winners of the annual The Abraaj Group Art Prize; the critically-acclaimed Global Art Forum and Campus Art Dubai—the free Saturday School for curators, artists and cultural workers living in the UAE. artdubai.ae

About Art Dubai Partners and Sponsors
The Abraaj Group
The Abraaj Group (“Abraaj” or “the Group”) is a leading private equity investor, purpose-built for operating in the growth markets of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, Turkey and Central Asia. Through its Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement Track, the company values social investing, thought leadership and value creation as key catalysts for sustainable development and inclusive growth across communities. The Abraaj Group Art Prize was founded in 2008 and is now in its sixth edition. The aim of the prize is to reflect the Group’s dedication to empowering potential in the region, giving talented artists the opportunity to break new ground and showcase the rich artistic and cultural heritage of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region. It rewards chosen artists from the Middle East and North Africa on the basis of a proposal rather than completed works-of-art. The winning artists then go on to create the works. The Abraaj Group Art Prize is aimed at curators and artists working together as opposed to a single artist. To date, the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 works were unveiled at Art Dubai and artworks have been exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; City Hall, London; MAXXI, Rome; Galleria Civica, Modena; Future of a Promise, collateral event of the 54th Venice Biennale; Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Dubai and the Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah. More on the history and future of the prize: http://www.abraajgroupartprize.com/

Cartier
Founded in 1847 in Paris, Cartier stands as one of the world’s most esteemed and respectful companies in the luxury goods industry. Today, the Maison is renowned worldwide for its high jewelry creations and watches, perfumes and prestige accessories - symbols of craftsmanship and elegance, quality and excellence.
cartier.com

Emaar Properties PJSC
Emaar Properties PJSC, listed on the Dubai Financial Market, is a global property developer with a significant presence in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. A provider of premium lifestyles through its world-class portfolio of integrated communities, the company also has proven competencies in shopping malls & retail, and hospitality & leisure. Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, and The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination, are among Emaar’s trophy developments. Emaar is currently expanding The Dubai Mall’s Fashion Avenue by 1 million sq ft and also redefining the cultural scene of the city with The Opera District in Downtown Dubai, to feature the city’s first opera house and several art and design galleries. The company is partnering with Meraas Holding to develop Dubai Hills Estate, the first phase of Mohammed Bin Rashid City (MBR City). Emaar and Dubai Holding have also joined hands to develop a magnificent 1,500-acre mixed-use waterfront development within MBR City that draws inspiration from the Dubai Creek. Among other mega-projects of Emaar is the King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia the region's largest private sector-led project. Emaar is also the largest foreign direct investor in India’s real estate sector and its joint venture has a country-wide presence covering the residential, commercial, retail and hospitality sectors.
www.emaar.com

Madinat Jumeirah
Set on a private beach, Madinat Jumeirah resort is an authentic recreation of ancient Arabia, capturing the natural beauty of the region. Madinat Jumeirah features two grand boutique hotels, Al Qasr and Mina A’Salam, accommodation in 29 traditional summer houses in Dar Al Masyaf, conference and banqueting facilities including two grand ballrooms, a 1000-seat amphitheater and the region’s only dedicated entertainment centre and multi-purpose venue, Madinat Arena. The facilities are interconnected by 3km of waterways and landscaped gardens. The resort also provides extensive leisure and health facilities including Talise Spa and Talise Fitness, as well as Souk Madinat Jumeirah, a traditional retail and dining experience showcasing the best of Arabia.

Jumeirah.com/mjartdubai
Art Dubai’s Strategic Partner
The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority
The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) was launched on March 8, 2008 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Dubai Culture plays a critical part in achieving the vision of the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 of establishing
the city as vibrant, global Arabian metropolis that shapes culture and arts in the region and the world. The organisation has announced several initiatives that strengthen the historic and modern cultural fabric of Dubai. These include: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patrons of the Arts Awards: A first-of-its-kind regional initiative to honour patrons of the arts from around the world for their valuable support in encouraging and strengthening the cultural scene of the Emirate; Sikka Art Fair: An annual art fair aimed at promoting Emirati and local artists in the UAE; and Dubai Festival for Youth Theatre: An annual festival that celebrates and fosters the art of theatre in the UAE.
dubaiculture.ae

Art Dubai Modern Sponsor
Mashreq Private Bank
Mashreq is one of the UAE’s leading National Financial institutions and the second oldest. Founded in 1967 as Bank of Oman, the bank has played a pioneering role in the industry, particularly in retail banking. Among its many firsts, it was the first to launch such products as travelers’ cheques, credit cards and ATMs. Mashreq has received numerous international awards reflecting the bank’s successful record, such as the Best Credit Card and Best Debit Card by Smart Card Awards Middle East 2013, Best Retail Bank UAE Award by Global Banking & Financial Review 2013, Best Banking Group in UAE by World Finance, Best Banking Innovation, Best Islamic Window, Best Technology Implementation by Banker ME Industry Awards 2013 and Best Loan House in UAE by EMEA Finance Middle East Banking Awards 2013.
As a leading financial Institution in the UAE, Mashreq aims to be world class in every facet of its business; including its social responsibility to the community it serves in. Towards this goal the bank pays particular attention to recruiting, training, developing and retaining UAE National employees.
mashreq.com