A new cultural chapter will unfold in Dubai as Alserkal prepares to launch Alserkal Art Month, a month-long initiative running from 18 April to 18 May. Expanding its annual Art Week into a broader platform, the programme will bring together artists, galleries and multidisciplinary collectives in a shared effort to sustain dialogue and creative exchange across the UAE’s arts ecosystem.

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Leading the programme is Louvre Abu Dhabi with Picasso, the Figure, on view until 31 May 2026. The exhibition brings together works from the Musée National Picasso-Paris, alongside loans from the Musée du Louvre and regional collections, tracing Pablo Picasso’s exploration of the human form. The show offers insight into the evolution of modern art while anchoring the wider celebrations within a global context.

Building on this, the museum introduces a layered schedule of experiences, including a screening of Young Picasso on 25 April, alongside weekly workshops that translate the artist’s work into hands-on practice. Art in Scents, held every Thursday and Saturday, adds a sensory dimension, encouraging visitors to engage with artworks through fragrance. A broader line-up of sketching sessions, drawing workshops and family-focused activities continues throughout the month.

At Manarat Al Saadiyat, the Art Studio programme shifts the focus towards material exploration and process. Textile masterclasses, mixed media sessions for children and daily drop-in studios create an open environment for experimentation across ceramics, painting and printmaking, catering to all age groups.

In the city centre, Cultural Foundation presents a multidisciplinary programme anchored by Shezad Dawood’s Skin of Dreams, running until 20 September. The exhibition is complemented by a series of workshops spanning Arabic calligraphy, Islamic geometric patterns, collage, textile work and painting, alongside architectural prototyping sessions that bridge art and design thinking.

To streamline access, the Saadiyat Cultural District Museum Pass connects Louvre Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum and Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi under one offering, with prices starting from AED 120 and validity for 30 days. With free entry for visitors under 18, the initiative encourages wider community engagement.

Enhancing accessibility, the Saadiyat Cultural District brings together Louvre Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum and Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, encouraging visitors to explore multiple cultural institutions within one destination.

As World Art Day unfolds celebrated annually on 15 April in honour of Leonardo da Vinci, Abu Dhabi presents a cohesive cultural landscape where design, creativity and experience come together, offering more than just exhibitions, but a deeper engagement with art in all its forms.

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Triennale Milano

Triennale Milano will offer a compelling programme of exhibitions and installations that explore contemporary design through both historical and forward-looking lenses.

From a retrospective on Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby to exhibitions featuring Toyo Ito, the line-up brings together key figures shaping the design conversation. Immersive installations, including a full-scale homage to Charles Eames and Ray Eames, further enrich the experience.

A blend of research, experimentation, and cultural reflection makes it a must-visit on this year’s design circuit.

Fondazione Prada

For art lovers, Fondazione Prada will stand as one of Milan’s key cultural stops, set within a former distillery reimagined by Rem Koolhaas.

It will present immersive exhibitions and experimental installations across its vast architectural spaces, offering a striking dialogue between industrial heritage and contemporary design thinking. Visitors will also encounter the surreal Haunted House, alongside the atmospheric Bar Luce, creating a layered experience that blends art, architecture, and cinematic ambience.

Pirelli HangarBicocca

Set beyond Milan’s historic centre, Pirelli HangarBicocca will be one of the city’s most powerful destinations for large-scale artistic experiences, housed within a vast former industrial site.

It will unfold as a dramatic landscape of immersive installations and experimental works, where monumental scale and spatial freedom allow artists to reshape perception and challenge conventional exhibition formats.

ADI Design Museum

The ADI Design Museum will present a dynamic programme of exhibitions, installations, and talks focused on the evolving culture of design.

Key highlights will include the XXIX Compasso d’Oro exhibition, experimental works by Haruka Misawa, and Mario Botta’s ICOSAEDRO, bringing together heritage, innovation, and forward-thinking design perspectives.

MUDEC – Museo delle Culture

The MUDEC – Museo delle Culture will stand as a striking example of Milan’s industrial heritage reimagined as a cultural space, set within a former factory transformed into a contemporary museum.

It will host exhibitions that explore global cultures and diverse creative practices, offering a broad perspective on art, identity, and contemporary expression in an architecturally distinctive setting.

Nilufar Gallery

Nilufar Gallery will offer a refined, collector-like experience shaped by Nina Yashar’s sharp curatorial eye. It will bring together rare vintage finds and contemporary design pieces in unexpected combinations, creating a space where eras, styles, and ideas will sit in constant conversation revealing Milan’s quieter, more intimate side of design culture.

Dimore Gallery

Dimore Gallery will offer a distinctive view of Milan’s design landscape, presenting a residential-style setting where past and present will blend seamlessly. Founded by Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, it will bring together collectible mid-century pieces and contemporary design works, arranged as immersive interiors that feel both lived-in and carefully curated.

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From the Gulf region Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have confirmed exhibitions at their pavilions. For the former, Saudi Palestinian artist Dana Awartani, known for her multidisciplinary works that reimagine Middle Eastern historical forms and traditions, will represent the Kingdom in a show curated by Antonia Carver, director of Art Jameel, alongside Saudi Iraqi curator Hafsa Alkhudairi. Awartani will present a monumental site-specific exhibition at the Kingdom’s permanent pavilion at the Arsenal exploring how conflict risks cultural erasure and identity. “My practice is rooted in foregrounding Middle Eastern cultural histories through the revival of craft practices and the preservation of the region’s globally important material heritage,” Awartani explained in the pavilion’s announcement. Her recent work, like the installation Come, let me heal your wounds. Let me mend your broken bones, staged during the last biennale in 2024, reflects on the loss of historical buildings and centuries of heritage due to conflict in the Middle East. Awartani believes that when edifices are destructed not only is the structure abolished, but also a means inhabitants have of identifying themselves with their homeland and their identity. This is cultural erasure and it is often, she believes, overlooked globally. 

The National Pavilion of the UAE has appointed Bana Kattan, Associate Head of Exhibitions at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, as the curator of the pavilion. While the exhibiting artist or artists for the UAE pavilion have yet to be announced, the pavilion, commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, will highlight the cultural and historical evolution of the UAE’s contemporary art scene. “Having worked extensively in the region and alongside a wide range of multigenerational and transdisciplinary artists from the Arab world, I look forward to contributing my experience to a project that reflects the UAE’s vibrant artistic landscape while engaging with broader histories, complexities, and conversations,” said Kattan in the pavilion’s opening statement. Kattan, who was born in Abu Dhabi and raised in the United Arab Emirates, is strongly connected to the UAE’s cultural landscape and has used her work to engage the sociopolitical and historical themes of the region while jointly fostering the voices of emerging and established artists from the Gulf and wider Middle East across generations. 

Qatar and Kuwait, which have participated in previous editions, have not yet confirmed their attendance. During a challenging time for the region, these artistic presentations aim to offer an understanding of the Gulf’s unique histories, cultures and identities within the context of the greater Middle East region.

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At a time when uncertainty looms over the creative sector, Alserkal Avenue continues to offer vital infrastructure for artists. Renowned for providing warehouse spaces during challenging periods, the venue ensures creative projects can thrive. With Blank Space, it strengthens its ongoing commitment to nurturing new voices across design, craft, music, and visual arts, reinforcing the UAE’s local creative ecosystem.

Basmah El Bittar, Director of Alserkal Avenue, explained: “Blank Space came about as a response to the pressures that emerging creatives in the UAE are experiencing. The initiative is designed to encourage creative practitioners from different disciplines to come together and benefit from being part of an established creative infrastructure without the financial pressure of a physical space.”

Applications for Blank Space are open via email until 12PM on 10 April 2026. Collectives are invited to submit proposals of no more than ten slides, outlining their members, practices, project concepts, and how their work will benefit the wider creative community. Proposals should include a four-week activation plan, a public-facing component such as a showcase, performance, screening, or open studio, and minimal alterations to the space.

Alserkal Avenue’s team will review submissions and select three collectives to use the warehouse for a month. Selected groups receive full utilities, necessary materials and equipment as outlined in their proposals, and marketing and communications support to amplify their reach.

Through Blank Space, Alserkal Avenue continues to provide a platform that nurtures emerging talent, fosters collaboration, and cultivates innovation within the UAE’s vibrant creative landscape.

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The introduction of TABLESCAPES marked a notable shift, positioning the table as a site of encounter, storytelling, and material exploration. Highlights included dystopian-inspired table landscapes, hybrid tableware combining clay and glass, and performative explorations of cutlery. Across these installations, objects moved beyond static display, becoming active participants in shared experiences.

Tablescapes Gallery

The MAIN section anchored the fair with a curated selection of galleries operating at the intersection of design, architecture, and art. MANIERA presented a solo exhibition unveiling new works including the Ravioli One Seater, while COUR departed from its previous minimal scenography with a more vivid presentation, featuring a new cabinet among other materially driven pieces.

Objekt Gallery

BureauParso Gallery

NEW GARDE brought forward a younger generation of practitioners and experimental formats. Domum Gallery showcased a curated selection of contemporary pieces, emphasizing material experimentation and conceptual rigor. In parallel, the BESPOKE section highlighted commissioned and made-to-order works, including creations by Paul Coenen and Rino Claessens, which focused on craftsmanship, process, and inventive use of materials.

Domum Gallery

Paul Coenen & Rino Claessens Gallery

At the core of the fair, the CURATED section offered a reflective counterpoint under the theme Echoes of Use, exploring how objects absorb and reflect traces of time, touch, and memory. The scenography transformed the exhibition space into a tactile environment where display and narrative became inseparable.

Belgian fashion label Bellerose conceived the entrance as an immersive threshold, setting the tone for the visitor experience. Throughout the fair, design circulated fluidly between art, function, and experimentation, reflecting a discipline that continues to expand beyond conventional boundaries.

COLLECTIBLE Brussels showed that its importance lay not just in the works it presented, but in the conversations it created between objects, makers, and their spaces.

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The festival will open with the fourth edition of Desert X AlUla, presenting ten newly commissioned, site-specific installations embedded across the desert. Inspired by the poetry of Khalil Gibran and guided by Artistic Directors Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi, the artworks will unfold like points on an imagined map, inviting visitors into utopian visions, immersive soundscapes and altered perceptions of space. Each installation will respond directly to AlUla’s terrain, merging contemporary expression with the natural environment and redefining the possibilities of land art.

A central highlight of the programme will be Arduna, a landmark exhibition presented as part of the pre-opening programme for AlUla’s forthcoming contemporary art museum. Co-curated with Centre Pompidou and AFALULA, the exhibition will bring together more than eighty works by Saudi, regional and international artists, including iconic pieces by Kandinsky and Picasso. Focusing on the evolving relationship between humans and the land, Arduna will offer an early glimpse into the museum’s vision, connecting contemporary creativity with AlUla’s cultural and ecological heritage.

Across AlJadidah Arts District, the festival’s energy will extend into public spaces along Incense Road and around Gathering Square, where newly commissioned artworks will turn the district into an open-air gallery. ATHR Gallery will present works by Saudi contemporary artist Sara Abdu, while Madrasat Addeera will host immersive programmes that reimagine traditional crafts through contemporary design practices. Cinema AlJadidah will complement the visual arts with curated screenings of art-focused documentaries, short films and features.

Design will take centre stage at Design Space AlUla, where the AlUla Design Exhibition will showcase innovative works emerging from the Artists Residency Programme and the AlUla Design Award 2025. These projects will reflect a dialogue between heritage, craftsmanship and modern design, highlighting AlUla’s growing role as a hub for creative experimentation. The AlUla Design Stores will further present the outcomes of these initiatives, including collaborations between designers and local artisans.

Elsewhere, Villa Hegra – the first Saudi–French cultural foundation in the region – will host ‘Not Deserted: AlUla’s Archives in Movement’, bringing together early 20th-century photographs and cinematic interpretations of desert landscapes. The British Council will present ‘Reflections’, an immersive experience that will transform archival oral histories and music into visual and sound installations, bridging past and present through contemporary interpretation.

Together, these programmes will create a layered journey through contemporary art, design and cultural expression. From visionary land art and world-first exhibitions to experimental design and archival narratives, AlUla Arts Festival 2026 will transform the oasis into a living gallery; one shaped by landscape, imagination and dialogue, reaffirming AlUla’s position as a global destination for contemporary art.

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Inside Concrete, one of the festival’s most anticipated highlights will see Numen/For Use presenting their TAPE project in Dubai for the first time. The internationally acclaimed collective is set to construct a cocoon-like, self-forming structure made from layers of stretched and wrapped elastic tape, creating a suspended organism shaped by natural patterning. Visitors will be invited to step into the installation as participants, moving through a sculptural environment that blurs the line between built form and sensory immersion. Having been shown in cities such as Paris, Tokyo, Milan, and Moscow, its arrival in Dubai will mark a significant moment for large-scale spatial installation in the region.

Across the creative zone, visitors will encounter a series of visually driven experiences designed for all ages. Inside Warehouse 67 and surrounding outdoor spaces, Reel Palestine, in partnership with Cinema Akil, is set to host a souk featuring more than fifty artisans, designers, and craftspeople whose works celebrate Palestinian heritage. Their textiles, crafted objects, and design pieces will offer a tactile connection between cultural memory and contemporary creativity.

Families will be able to explore Jossa Warehouse 45, reimagined as a sensory-led environment designed for play and discovery. Soft structures, tactile materials, and interactive zones will invite children to move, touch, and imagine, ensuring that art remains approachable and meaningful for younger audiences.

Mawaheb will present a multimedia showcase featuring works by adults of determination, underscoring the festival’s continued commitment to accessibility and inclusive artistic expression. Their pieces will expand the visual narrative of the weekend, bringing forward diverse perspectives rooted in personal expression and creative autonomy.

Throughout the lanes, curated pop-ups and warehouse takeovers will introduce visitors to design-led objects, community-rooted installations, and unexpected visual moments woven between exhibitions. These encounters will encourage wandering, pausing, and reconnecting with the creative energy that defines Alserkal Avenue.

As one of the region’s most anticipated cultural gatherings, Quoz Arts Fest is set to reaffirm its role as a platform where experimentation, craftsmanship, and community-driven art come together. This edition will transform the district into a living, breathing space for imagination, shaping a weekend that celebrates the evolving artistic landscape of the UAE.

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Leading the showcase is acclaimed Emirati artist Mattar Bin Lahej, celebrated for the calligraphy that graces the Museum of the Future. His latest work, ‘Constitution’, takes centre stage as a limited-time kinetic sculpture rising between three and six metres in polished stainless steel. Inspired by the values embedded in the UAE Constitution, the piece reflects the nation’s spiritual foundations and its deep connection to culture. Through movement and form, it embodies the balance between tradition and innovation that characterises the country’s creative spirit.

Mattar Bin Lahej

Alongside this, two permanent murals enrich the destination’s distinctive industrial backdrop. A self-taught artist from Sharjah Rashid Al Mulla, whose mural ‘Tiny Stories – Big Dreams’ draws from folklore, surreal narratives and the timeless rhythm of Emirati life. His sketch-like style depicts a nation rooted in heritage yet reaching confidently for the future, illustrated through imagery such as palm trees transforming into solar panels and camels journeying from the desert towards the cosmos.

Rashid Al Mulla

Noor Al Khamiri, whose background blends architectural engineering with artistic passion, contributes ‘The Spirit Within’, a mural characterised by playful imagery and vibrant colours. Through her quirky and modern illustration style, Noor captures the rich Emirati culture, featuring an Emirati woman adorned with traditional motifs and national symbols, symbolising the harmony between heritage and innovation thriving in today’s UAE.

Noor Al Khamiri

Together, these works reshape Boxpark into a space where art serves as both expression and gathering point. As the murals become permanent features and the kinetic sculpture takes its temporary bow, the destination reinforces its growing reputation as a platform for creativity and community engagement. ‘One Nation’ invites all who enter to experience the meeting of tradition and contemporary imagination, offering a vibrant tribute to unity at a moment of national celebration.

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As Abu Dhabi’s cultural momentum accelerates, shaped by world-renowned institutions such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the forthcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, NOMAD’s arrival aligns seamlessly with the city’s growing global influence and coincides with the internationally anticipated Abu Dhabi Art.

This edition unfolds as an intimate journey where regional heritage meets cutting-edge innovation. Sculptural furniture, handcrafted woodwork, woven environments, experimental materials, and sensory installations invite visitors into a dialogue that spans continents and cultures. Special projects deepen this encounter from reinterpretations of Emirati crafts and ecological works exploring biodiversity to digital-meets-biological installations and monumental sculptural pieces. DEPARTURES, realised with Etihad Airways, expands the fair’s vision through large-scale works and an AI-driven commission inspired by future travel routes, while The Golden Container at the terminal entrance reimagines a cargo unit as museum-grade architecture. Off-site, Shifting Terrains at Jumeirah Saadiyat Island presents a parallel narrative of the UAE’s evolving creative landscape, highlighting designers reshaping ideas of identity and place.

Leading the vision behind this edition is Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, the Canadian-Italian architect and curator who co-founded and directs NOMAD. Internationally recognised for crafting site-specific cultural experiences across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, he has shaped more than 65 exhibitions rooted in cross-cultural dialogue and curatorial depth. Under his direction, NOMAD redefines the design fair as an itinerant, deeply immersive encounter rather than a conventional marketplace. Each edition is conceived for its architectural setting, allowing artworks to enter a site-responsive conversation where luxury emerges not from spectacle but from spatial rhythm, material integrity, and the gathering of people and ideas in meaningful proximity.

Since its inception, NOMAD has staged acclaimed editions in Capri, St. Moritz, Monaco, Venice, and virtually in Cannes, with future chapters unfolding in Abu Dhabi and the Hamptons. Designed as a boutique alternative to the traditional fair, NOMAD unites leading galleries, curated exhibitions, and site-specific commissions within extraordinary settings chosen for their cultural resonance. Its celebrated VIP programme offers rare access to private homes, architect-led tours, and conversations with influential voices in design and art, creating an atmosphere that is both elevated and effortlessly intimate. Across its four-to-five-day editions reserved for NOMAD Circle members, VIP guests, and invited participants the fair cultivates moments of genuine connection, discovery, and cultural exchange.

With its doors now open in Abu Dhabi, NOMAD marks a defining moment for the region, reviving an architectural icon and weaving together global creativity, local heritage, and a renewed spirit of exploration. Within this terminal, once built for travelers, a new chapter in creativity has just begun.

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