Meaning “gateway” in Arabic, the Bawwaba section of Art Dubai offers artists an entry point to the fair. It is made up of ten solo presentations of artists both established and less well-known. All of the works were made either in the past year, or especially for the fair.
This year the section has been curated by Mirjam Varadinis, the curator-at-large at the Kunsthaus Zurich. “I felt this would be a good moment to reflect on the idea of co-existence,” she says. “Art cannot change the world, but it has a potential to come up with new ways of thinking and to build a bridge between different cultures.”
We asked Varadinis to introduce the artists in the section.
Omar Mismar, Ahmad and Akram Protecting Hercules (2019-20)
SECCI
Omar Mismar is an artist from Lebanon who is also using traditional techniques in a political sense. He garnered attention at the 2024 Venice Biennale for these mosaics, which merge ancient techniques with evocative imagery. In this one, men are using sandbags to protect a historic mosaic from damage from the Syrian war.
Courtesy of the artist and Zaal Art Gallery
Mohammad Piryaee, Untitled (2023)
Parallel Circuit
Like Abdullah Al Othman (below), the Iranian artist Mohammad Piryaee is also working with architecture, but in a completely different way. He does these huge intense drawings which are about destruction, but at the same time creating new shapes out of destruction. He is not an artist that has shown much internationally, so it is exciting to give him a platform.
Courtesy of Studio Tomás Saraceno and Pinksummer
Tomás Saraceno, Soap bubble L (2025)
Pinksummer
Tomás Saraceno is one of the best-known artists in the section. There will be some existing works and some new works that he is producing for this fair. They are hanging sculptures—some are like planets, others are based on the idea of these cloud cities that he has been working on some years.
Abdullah Al Othman, Iris Language and the City (2022) at the Lyon Biennale © Arif Alnomay
Abdullah Al Othman, Manifesto: the Language & the City (2025)
Iris Projects
Abdullah Al Othman is one of the most important artists from the region. He uses old neon street signs from buildings that are abandoned or are being destroyed. So he works a lot with the memory of the city and the change it goes through. For the section, he will create a new installation with material he has gathered from Dubai.
Courtesy of the artist and Aspan Gallery
Gulnur Mukazhanova, Shadows of Hope #15 (2024)
Aspan Gallery
Gulnur Mukazhanova’s work is very beautiful—she is kind of doing painting, but with wool. So it is tactile and abstract. A recurrent theme in the whole section is the use of these old hand-craft techniques and using them to rewrite the abstract vocabulary of art. This concept is particularly relevant to Dubai’s intersection of ancient knowledge and rapid modern transformation.
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Dix9
Jorge Rosano Gamboa, Lengua nocturna (2021)
Galerie Dix9
Jorge Rosano Gamboa is a Mexican artist who often collaborates with other local artisans, blending traditional crafts with contemporary media to explore themes of coexistence and cultural heritage. This work is reflecting on water as a resource in a political sense—how access to it is controlled.
Courtesy of the artist and Federica Schiavo Gallery
Karthik Pandian, Mandala 01 (2025)
Federica Schiavo Gallery
Karthik Pandian has a kind of mythological or metaphysical approach to rivers as the source of life. In the section will be an installation of large-scale drawings he has made for the fair, and a sound piece which relates to the sound of the water. Water is a recurring theme in many of the booths but there are differing approaches; some are political, this is more spiritual.
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Artbeat
Nina Kintsurashvili, Training of Turs on Artificial Light 1 (2024)
Gallery Artbeat
Nina Kintsurashvili’s work is about a story that people perhaps don’t know so well: the violence and conflicts in Georgia. It’s about how heritage and memories are erased through wars. She is working with this lack or absence of visual information and fills it through painting.
Courtesy of the artist and Art:Concept
Kate Newby, I Like the Way I Am (2023)
Art:Concept
Kate Newby is also exhibiting work at the Sharjah Biennial, which coincides with Art Dubai. For the biennial she has made a beautiful work with strings and glass elements which are connected to the tradition of sailing and sailboats in the region. This work in the booth is similar, with lines of bronze and handmade ropes. Her work is very poetic and subtle—it has this light and [sense of] wind.
Courtesy of the artist and blueprint12
Kaimurai, Vibration of Life (Naadi III) (2025)
Blueprint12
Kaimurai will present a series of wall pieces made from natural indigo on khaki textile. His work offers a space for meditation and deacceleration, drawing from his research on organic forms, and South Indian art and music. He often places objects on the canvas and allows the dye to soak in around them in an organic way.
