What To See & Do Around Art Dubai Season

Ouchhh Studio: MotherEarth

Returning to Art Dubai Digital for 2025, Ouchhh Studio’s MotherEarth transforms real-time climate data into a mesmerising sensory experience. This large-scale, AI-powered sculpture translates temperature shifts, CO2 levels and air quality into light, sound and motion — a visual reminder of the planet’s fragility.

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Breakfast: Carbon Wake

Making its debut at Art Dubai Digital, New York-based kinetic artist Breakfast presents Carbon Wake, a constantly moving, data-fuelled installation that draws from live global energy use. It’s a piece that visualises our environmental impact in real time. 

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Jacopo Di Cera: Retreat

A powerful reflection on climate collapse, Retreat assembles over 30 upcycled screens into a four-metre installation capturing the melting of Italy’s Brenva glacier. 

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Hybrid Xperience: AI Kaleidoscope

This immersive AI-powered kaleidoscope by Dubai-based collective Hybrid Xperience invites visitors to visualise their dreams in real time. The result is surreal, digital and futuristic. 

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Ania Soliman: Kahrabaa

Presented in the Art Dubai Commissions section, Kahrabaa reflects on Beirut’s energy crisis through five-metre canvases of real and artificial flora. It is a haunting commentary on nature, memory and technology. 

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Total Arts at The Courtyard: Reconstructed Landscape

This collaborative installation by Fereydoun Ave, Shaqayeq Arabi and Dariush Zandi reimagines the UAE’s natural and urban environments through a poetic lens. Through sculptural forms, photo collages and layered assemblages, the trio invites quiet reflection on our connection to place — and how memory, material and environment continue to shape one another.

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Global Art Forum: The New New Normal

The region’s most anticipated cultural summit returns with a timely focus on how the accelerating pace of change is reshaping everything from politics to pop culture. Hosted by writer and curator Shumon Basar and curated by Y7, the UK-based post-disciplinary duo known for merging AI and cultural critique, the programme will unpack themes spanning gamified economies, beauty, geopolitics and the ever-expanding reach of social media. Expect appearances from leading voices across tech, design and the arts — including celebrated architect Rem Koolhaas, artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan and research collective Postpostpost.

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Digital Summit: After the Technological Sublime

Returning for its second year, the Digital Summit explores how art and technology intersect to address some of today’s most urgent environmental, social and political challenges. Curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, the three-day programme includes talks, lectures and breakout sessions led by global museum directors, curators, artists and futurists. This year’s conversations will unpack topics such as ecological activism in media art, the ethical implications of AI and the evolving role of museums in the digital age.     

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Collector & Modern Talks

Expect thoughtful conversations around collecting as a cultural practice, plus dialogues exploring West Asia, North Africa and Latin America's shared creative legacies. 

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Piaget’s Play of Shapes

From rare vintage timepieces to collaborations with regional talents like Alymamah Rashed and Shamsa Alabbar, Piaget’s presence at Art Dubai is bold and refined. The newly launched Sixtie jewellery watch collection takes centre stage alongside an exhibition celebrating the Maison’s 1960s spirit. 

Dates: 16th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Saj Issa: Never Make a Wish in a Dry Well

Shown at Tabari Artspace’s booth at Art Dubai, this exhibition by Palestinian-American artist Saj Issa transforms ceramics into vessels of memory and resistance. A celebration of heritage, myth and migration. 

Dates: 16th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Clinique La Prairie Longevity Lounge

For a wellness-infused pause between exhibitions, Clinique La Prairie’s lounge at Madinat Jumeirah blends cutting-edge longevity tech with artist talks and immersive experiences. Try its SENAPTEC cognitive training or join one of the daily roundtables. 

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Héctor Zamora at Art Dubai & Alserkal Avenue

Known for his powerful site-specific interventions, Mexican artist Héctor Zamora will present new sculptural works and performative actions using terracotta vessels — a poetic exploration of ritual, symbolism and transformation. His performances at Art Dubai will be accompanied by a related installation at Alserkal Avenue. 

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

Mohammed Kazem: Directions (Merging)

Commissioned by Julius Baer, Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem presents a new digital installation placing Dubai’s coordinates at the centre of a fluid, immersive space. Surrounded by waves and thousands of global coordinates, the piece speaks to convergence, movement and Dubai’s evolving place in the world.

Dates: 18th-20th April 

Access: Included with Art Dubai ticket

A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme

Now in its fifth edition, the UAE’s largest cultural education initiative returns with a new collaborative commission by Nigerian artist Peju Alatise and Emirati creative Alia Hussain Lootah. Launching at Art Dubai before rolling out to schools across all seven Emirates, this year’s programme of workshops and creative storytelling explores local ecosystems, the cultural significance of water and the ways in which we interact with our environment. 

Visit ARTDUBAI.AE

Thomas Lélu: Calm Down, It’s Just Art

At W Dubai – Mina Seyahi, French artist Thomas Lélu transforms the hotel’s lobby into a canvas for his witty, text-driven works. From viral slogans to limited-edition totes, this playful exhibition is as Instagrammable as it is insightful. 

Dates: 14th-20th April

Access: Complimentary in hotel lobby

Follow @WMINASEYAHI

Hazem Harb: Not There, Yet Felt

Tabari Artspace in DIFC hosts a poetic study of memory and belonging by Hazem Harb. Through layered collages, sculptural neon and intimate portraiture, he reimagines his Gaza home in an emotional exploration of absence, identity and the marks we leave behind.           

Dates: 12th April – 27th May

Access: Complimentary 

Visit TABARIARTSPACE.COM

Miles Greenberg: Le Miroir

At ICD Brookfield Place, New York performance artist Miles Greenberg makes his UAE debut with Le Miroir – a multi-channel film and live performance exploring emotion beyond language. The exhibition opens with a one-off performance, followed by a month-long installation.

Dates: 15th April – 18th May

Access: Complimentary 

Visit ICDBROOKFIELDPLACE.COM

Sama Alshaibi:  ‬‘طرس’ (TTERSS) 

On show at Ayyam Gallery in Alserkal Avenue, Iraqi-Palestinian artist Sama Alshaibi’s latest body of work returns to Baghdad – both physically and emotionally – through a layered collection of mixed-media collages and video art. Drawing on LiDAR scans, archival materials and urban fragments, the works reconstruct the city’s fragmented memory, weaving together traces of modernisation, war and exile. Referencing the Arabic word طرس (palimpsest), the exhibition captures Baghdad as a city continually rewritten – where history, politics and imagination overlap.‬

Dates: 15th April – 30th May

Access: Complimentary 

Visit AYYAMGALLERY.COM

Alserkal Art Week: A Wild Stitch

Alserkal Art Week is back with a packed line-up of exhibitions, performances and pop-up events across Alserkal Avenue. This year’s theme, ‘A Wild Stitch’, brings together artists from the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America to explore ideas of identity, memory and resilience. Expect standout shows like Imran Qureshi’s Vanishing Points, thought-provoking Majlis Talks, guided gallery tours and interactive workshops. 

Dates: 14th April – 20th April 

Access: Complimentary 

Visit ALSERKAL.ONLINE