When Images Speak: Highlights from the Dubai Collection

The exhibition features a selection of nearly 70 modern and contemporary art from the region, including museum-quality pieces by Baya Mahieddine, Naziha Selim, Fateh Moudarres, Dia al-Azzawi, and Abdul Qader Al Rais.

The artworks in the exhibition have been lent to the Dubai Collection initiative from the collections of 11 patrons of Dubai Collection, providing a unique moment for residents and visitors to Dubai to engage with artworks that would not usually be publicly accessible.

The exhibition unfolds across three thematic chapters, Abstract Variations, Societies in Transition, and Evoking the Environment, while tracing a historical survey of the negotiations through Arab modernism and its progression into contemporary trends. A central element of the exhibition is the digital display of historic issues of Al Tashkeel Magazine, documenting a dynamic academic and intellectual exchange between many of the artists on show at this exhibition and highlighting the UAE’s active role, not just as a creative hub for artists, but also in writing the art history of its region.

The Dubai Collection is the first institutional art collection of its kind. Introducing an innovative new system of sourcing, managing and governing artworks by patrons and collectors from across the emirate, public and private entities, as well as individuals are invited to contribute to the Dubai Collection by either acquiring artworks for loaning to the collection or lending artworks from their own collections.