Art Dubai 2027

Jacob Dahlgren is a Swedish artist whose work is concerned with the dialogue between pure formal abstraction and its position within a variable, complex and social shared culture. Dahlgren processes the mundane and normal into art, incorporating everyday materials such as coat hangers, rulers, coloured pencils, or disposable coffee cups. His works are often colourful, involve the audience, and take as their point of departure a playful approach to art and life. Dahlgren’s relationship with everyday life is one of the pillars of his practice, and for over 35 years, he has collected pictures of abstract details in his daily life, creating an archive of more than 200,000 photos. His longest project is Peinture Abstraite, where his work and his life become inseparable as he wears at least one striped t-shirt every day, which he has been doing for over 20 years and plans to do for the rest of his life. In Dahlgren’s eyes, life consists of lots of abstract experiences, you just have to be receptive.

Sahil Naik’s (b. 1991) practice examines the modalities of evidence and truth through architecture, minor and casual histories, mythology, forensics and the internet. His current project Monuments, Mausoleums, Memorials, Modernism studies the violence of the nation-building project with a focus on South Asia and the Non-aligned world. His works were included in the 5th editions of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale curated by Shubigi Rao and the Art Encounters Biennale, Timișoara curated by Adrian Notz. He has exhibited with TBA 21 on st_age; and at Foundation Elpis, Milan; Vitrine in Basel; Delfina Foundation and Asia House in London; Bridget Donahue as a part of Condo, New York; Beirut Art Center, Lebanon; MMAG Foundation, Amman; Khoj International Artists’ Association and the Serendipity Arts Festival, India; and the Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Aomori, Japan and with HH Art Spaces in Goa. He was also a recipient of Five Million Incidents, instituted by Goethe Institut New Delhi with RAQS Media Collective. His solo presentations include All Is Water And To Water We Must Return (2021), Monuments, Mausoleums, Memorials, Modernism (2020) and Ground Zero (2017) at Experimenter, Kolkata. He was the recipient of the inaugural Warehouse 421 Artistic Research Grant and of the Prameya Art Foundation Publishing Grant for South Asia with VASL in Pakistan, Britto Arts Trust in Bangladesh and Theertha in Sri Lanka; and the Arts (Productions) grant instituted by the India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore. The artist lives and works in Goa, India.

Héctor Zamora was born in 1974 in Mexico City, where he currently lives and works. Zamora’s work transcends the conventional exhibition space, reinventing it, redefining it, while generating friction between the common roles of public and private, exterior and interior, organic and geometric, savage and methodical, real and imaginary. Drawing on his technical expertise and knowledge of lightweight architecture and a meticulous emphasis on the process of conceptualisation and construction of each piece, Zamora engages the viewer’s participation, encouraging them to question the everyday uses of materials and the functions of space. Through deliberate and often repetitive actions, the artist provokes surprising and unexpected situations. Functioning as an invitation to reflect, his work typically involves active participation from the spectator, facilitated by their interaction with his interventions.

Cyrus Kabiru’s art career is a story of reimagination and reinvention. He is an out-of-the-box innovator from Kenya who gives waste a second life through art while promoting sustainable living. 'I am trying to change the world through my work, by recycling, and by showing the younger generation that you can live if you save nature. I save nature, and nature gives something to me.' Kabiru has been creating his famous C-Stunners since childhood: first as toys for himself and later for his classmates as a way of trading his way through schoolwork and ultimately becoming a metaphor for the power of creative transformation both within Africa and worldwide. Cyrus C-Stunners is part of many collections and institutions and is permanently shown at the Zeitz Mocaa Museum in Cape Town and the Smithsonian African department. He has recently been featured at the Afro-futurism exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Thanks to his art, he traveled to more than thirty countries holding workshops, ted talks, CNN interviews, conferences in Universities, and participating in design weeks to show people how to be a warrior of the future.

Alia Hussain Lootah (b. Dubai, 1987) is an Emirati artist whose current work explores the interpersonal relationship between mother and child in today’s modern world, addressing themes of uncertainty rooted in both external and internal unrest. Alia held a solo presentation at Art Dubai 2024 and Abu Dhabi Art 2022, Aisha Alabbar Gallery. She has also participated in numerous exhibitions, including Dubai Calligraphy Biennale (2023); The Quest at Aisha Alabbar Gallery (2022) and the Sikka Art Fair (2011, 2012, and 2013). Further exhibitions include Mawtini and Metamorphosis , Tashkeel (2013) and 40 Poems from the Desert , The Ara Gallery (2011). A graduate of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship Program (SEAF) in 2014, her thesis explored motherhood through different forms of sculptures. In 2017, Alia co-founded the Medaf Studio in Dubai, an art centre dedicated to fostering self-expression and creativity in children and adults.

Peju Alatise (b. Lagos, 1975) lives and works between Lagos, Nigeria and Glasgow, UK. She is an interdisciplinary artist, architect and author of two novels. Alatise began her professional career as an architect, studying at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria, while managing a private art studio. She produces works across a variety of mediums, techniques and materials, including paintings, film, installations and sculptures. Alatise’s work has been exhibited in New York, Florence, Morocco, and London. At the 2017 Venice Biennale, her striking life-sized installation Flying Girls was featured in the Nigeria Pavilion. Among her many accolades are a fellowship from the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and the FNB Art Prize in Johannesburg. Alatise’s evolving subject matter explores broader themes of universal consciousness and change. She is also the founder of Alter Native Artists Initiative (ANAI), a nonprofit artist incubator and collective dedicated to the development of visual arts in Nigeria.