In early March, Madinat Jumeirah hosted the 17th Art Dubai, the largest commercial art fair in the Middle East. The fair featured digital, modern, and contemporary art; new commissions; conferences on technology, the environment, and business; a children’s program; and a busy calendar of performances. Serving as “the meeting point for the Global South’s creative communities,” Art Dubai welcomed more than 120 gallery presentations, with more than half hailing from the Global South.

While several Gulf artists were featured in the commercial sections of the fair, represented by galleries such as Dubai-based Tabari Artspace and Jeddah-based Athr Gallery, this year, a special exhibition, “Encounters,” presented 26 works of art by nearly a dozen Emirati artists from different generations. All were drawn from the city’s first institutional art collection, the Dubai Collection, an initiative of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority that aims to connect the public to the geographically and materially diverse art collections of private patrons through exhibitions, public programs, research projects, and a digital museum.

At Art Dubai, “Encounters,” the Dubai Collection’s second exhibition since its founding in 2020, centered around the “village vibe” embodied by Dubai’s compact geography and intimately connected social circles. The show was curated by artist and curator Alia Zaal Lootah, whose curatorial approach was to avoid imposing an interpretive framework connecting each piece in the exhibition. Rather, she sought to present the works of art as “encounters, just like two people meeting … Visitors should just be able to see similarities between the works in the way of thinking and working with form, materials, and subject matter.” By juxtaposing pioneering Emirati artists, such as Hassan Sharif and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, with younger, emerging artists, including Sarah Almehairi and Maitha Abdalla, “Encounters” explored the similarities present in the creative practices of Emirati artists, from material experimentation to chromatic choices.

An Essentialist Visual Language

Among the works in the exhibition are three tableaus by Abu Dhabi-born artist Sarah Almehairi. Displayed alongside another linear painting by Afra Al Dhaheri and elsewhere in the show beside works by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim and Shamma Al Amri, Sarah’s works are in conversation with the works of other abstract artists in the United Arab Emirates. With an emphasis on using recycled materials found in different artist spaces and studios, Sarah’s works embrace simplicity. “I like working with restrictions,” Sarah explained to AGSIW about her practice, “so the shapes and forms that were found now serve as stencils for these collages.”

Similarly, Mohamed uses natural elements found near his Khorfakkan studio. Mohamed is a member of the Five, a group of pioneering Emirati artists who have been practicing since the early days of the country’s founding. With Sarah one of the youngest artists in the show, the placement of her works beside those of Mohamed showcases the enduring themes that fuel the creativity of artists in the local scene, Alia shared. As Sarah told AGSIW, “The exhibition’s theme is one we do not see as often, and it allows the gaps between generations or groups of artists in the UAE to come a little bit closer. Having my works alongside other artists solidifies connections that we talk about more visually. It also allows us to grow as artists and keep these conversations alive and maybe even have conversations that have not yet taken place. And most importantly, it allows us to continue to create the country’s history of art and build what UAE art has to bring and create the link between it all.”

In addition to their material similarities, both Sarah and Mohamed exhibit a sense of playfulness in their use of essential shapes and forms. Turning to “Blue and Yellow: 9 from 3” (2022) by Shamma Al Amri, Alia explained how geometry and color, elements at the basis of artistic production, continue to occupy the creative consciousness of artists across decades. Mohamed’s and Shamma’s monochromatic and geometric works, much like Sarah’s, are compellingly simple. Through their focus on the fundamental elements of art, they create a visual language void of busyness, encouraging the viewer to reflect on alternative means of communication rooted in essential forms.

Likewise, in “Off Centered Shift” (2023), Sarah depicts basic shapes and elements, telling a story that is “not so explicit.” These elements “are used throughout her pieces as a means of exploring clarity and organization of collected information.” The shapes in her work can be interpreted as different forms – a road, a sidewalk, a puzzle, a series of buildings – relying on the viewer for their meaning. In this sense, they draw on memory and personal banks of symbols to push how people view and understand the world around them. Does “Gentle Giants” resemble a public park or perhaps discs scattered across a table? Does the viewer see a cityscape or an airport in “Landing”? In Sarah’s words, “This series in particular is quite playful as I’m layering and creating compositions out of basic forms that then are perceived as something familiar when coming together.” Much like the colored blocks by Shamma and Mohamed, Sarah’s works lay bare the ability of art to be entirely subjective.

Folklore and the Eerie

Tucked away in a dimly lit room at the end of the “Encounters” exhibition is an installation by Sharjah-born, Abu Dhabi-based artist Alaa Edris consisting of seven carved wooden chairs. Upon entering the space, where an eerie soundtrack drones on, viewers find themselves at the center of the semicircular layout as if confronting the council of moralizing histories, folklore, and mythology embodied by these chairs. In number and concept, the chairs reflect the seven emirates that comprise the UAE. Each chair represents folktales popular among different communities and societies in the UAE that the artist heard growing up – though viewers familiar with Gulf-wide folklore will likely know some of the stories captured in this installation.

Alaa shared one such story with AGSIW. As the story goes, she narrated, a mother once lost her son and began crying for him every night at a famous town fort. Her wailing and evident grief became so intense that she turned into an owl. In many regional myths, the owl is seen as a bad omen, symbolizing the spirits of the unavenged dead who continue to roam the earth in pursuit of vengeance. Drawing on this story, Alaa designed one of the seven chairs in this series with an anthropogenic owl carved onto the chair’s back. The owl’s haunting, bulging eyes hold the viewer’s gaze while its protruding beak would immediately pierce the back of anyone who dared sit in the chair.

Capturing the duality of moralizing folktales – which on the one hand feature generally innocent animals and plants and on the other eerie storylines and haunting imagery – “Al Kursi” welcomes visitors into the rich tradition of storytelling and oral history in the region. The chairs, made of iroko wood, which serves as a reliable substitute for teak in dhow shipbuilding, are reminiscent of rocking chairs that might comfort a child falling asleep to a bedtime story in a mother’s embrace. Make no mistake, however, Alaa’s chairs and their puncturing, sharp features will not provide the comfort sought from stories told in their arms. 

Making Private Collections Public

“Encounters,” much like the art fair itself, sought to highlight the universality of art, its symbols, and its meanings. It presents a new way of looking at the UAE’s decadesold art scene – with connection, conversation, and collaboration at its heart. Alia explained that the show more broadly reflects the relationship of artists, collectors, and the government in the UAE, where collectors support the work of artists and then lend their collections to the government to facilitate broader public engagement through the Dubai Collection. “It’s a beautiful initiative,” she said, that draws on “the early relationship between the rulers and the tradesmen through the ports of Dubai.” She continued that that relationship “has grown organically over time and created this connection between the people and the government.”

Adding to the fair’s aim of nurturing the local and regional arts ecosystem, “Encounters” encapsulates why vertical and horizontal support, as well as private and public patronage, are key elements in arts scene development.