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Art DubaiArtInterview

by Alexandra Mansilla

Art Dubai 2025 Talks: Art Dubai Modern, the Section Where SWANA Meets Latin America

1 Apr 2025

Ibrahim El Salahi, Calligraphic Installation Shot, 2007, Installation. Courtesy: Vigo Gallery

Art Dubai is just around the corner (from April 18 to 20), and this is our final chapter covering the fair’s key sections.
We spoke with curator Gonzalo Herrero Delicado about Art Dubai Digital — read it here; with Mirjam Varadinis about BAWWABA — that is here; and don’t miss our conversation with Art Dubai’s Artistic Director Pablo del Val, who also oversees the Contemporary section — read it here.
Today, we are diving into Art Dubai Modern, a section focusing on modern masters from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA). It features presentations by artists who played pivotal roles throughout the 20th century — artists whose work helps shape our understanding of today’s cultural landscape.
For the first time, Art Dubai Modern will also include Latin America, reflecting historic migration patterns from the mid-19th century that helped foster deeper connections between the regions.
To find out what to expect from this year’s edition of Art Dubai Modern, we spoke with the section’s curators — Magalí Arriola, art critic and Director of Museo Tamayo in Mexico, and Dr. Nada Shabout, Art History Professor at the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas.
— This year’s Art Dubai Modern includes Latin American artists, addressing mid-19th-century migration influences between Latin America and the SWANA region. What motivated this inclusion, and how do you see these cross-cultural exchanges reflected in the artworks?
— The inclusion is part of Art Dubai’s continues move for cross-regional inclusion and connections. It is promoted by the need to recenter art exchanges and revise the mainstream narrative of European connection dominance. Cross-cultural exchanges between SWANA and Latin America have a long history but are less explored beyond known immigration routes. Everyone knows about large Arab communities living in countries of Latin America and the role they play in the political and social structures of their new host countries. Less is known about visual arts connections.
— How did you approach the selection of masters for this section, and what narratives or themes emerged from the chosen artworks? Could you share specific examples that illustrate these themes?
— This is a relatively new area of academic study, so naturally, our approach has been a combination of first-hand research, direct conversations with specific galleries, and broader discussions within the field. Working through the process, the two of us realised many similarities between the artists from Latin America and the region in their experiences as part of the national postcolonial structures. For example, returning and invoking heritage is a strong theme and methodology for artists of both regions in articulating their new and changed realities. Abstraction is another strong connection. Again, artists in both regions were drawn to abstraction as a way to reconnect to their heritage and connect with other modern experiments.
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Magalí Arriola and Dr. Nada Shabout

— Could you discuss any specific artworks or artists in this section that exemplify the fusion of Latin American and SWANA artistic traditions? What aspects of their work highlight this intersection?
— There were undoubtedly affinities to note. Some were conscious as artists from SWANA were aware of what was happening in Latin America. Still, others are more the result of shared dynamics and motivations despite unique particularities. One such example could be Venezuelan artist Darío Pérez Flores who, in the 1960s, relocated in France where a group of Latin American creators were already established working close to Denise René gallery.
— What insights do you hope visitors will gain about the cultural and artistic dialogues between these regions through Art Dubai Modern 2025?
— We are hoping for the visitors to be introduced to new artists but also to be able to look beyond limitations to commonalities and connections between the different regions of the world. To widen the context.
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Bertina Lopes, Untitled, 1979. Courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery

— What connections or artistic influences between Latin America and the SWANA region surprised you the most during your curatorial research?
— Perhaps less surprising but more affirming of our initial shared expectations of finding many connections. Despite different languages, Latin America and SWANA share many cultural and social temperaments. It was refreshing to learn about Palestinian and Lebanese artists with strong connections to Latin America. And to find work by artists from the Arabian Gulf in museums in some countries in Latin America as part of soft diplomacy initiatives.
— In what ways do you think the legacy of these modern artists continues to shape contemporary artistic practices in the Middle East and Latin America today?
— It is impossible to understand how we arrived at this contemporary moment without understanding the challenges, shifts and development of the modern period. It was a pivotal moment in shaping art production with a trajectory that remains visible in many of the contemporary practices that have revisited the work of many of the modern masters to speak about the present.
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Maqbool Fida Husain, Untitled (Diptych), 2000. Courtesy: DAG

— Question for Nada Shabout: Your research and teaching work address the historical neglect of modern and contemporary art from the Arab world. How would you describe the perception of Arab modern art globally today? Do you think it is receiving more recognition, or is there still a long way to go?
Nada Shabout: There is certainly more recognition of both modern and contemporary Arab art in the world. Of course, contemporary artists are presenting very relevant work with often urgent messages that are at times more determined than what is produced by their contemporaries in different parts of the globe.
For the modernists, the situation was slowly improving. With the increased number of scholarly and mainstream publications and exhibitions, more awareness and knowledge about Arab modern art has become accessible. There are more art historians specialising in different countries or periods and more students pursuing studies. Collectors and their generosity of websites, organised exhibitions or lending to exhibitions has been remarkable. The art market has also played a role, with increasing monetary value of the work.
Nevertheless, they are not yet accepted as equal contributors to modernism, and hence, not all have taken their rightful places in the canon of art history. Perhaps last year was an exception with Adriano Pedrosa’s Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere, at the Venice Biennale, which featured the highest number of Arab modernists to date at any event of this level. More importantly, the exhibition allowed visitors to see the connections between modernism in different parts of the world. Presenting Latin and Arab works in conversation was particularly potent!
Even through my work with Art Dubai, I have noticed a shift in perception — especially within the region — and particularly through the Art Dubai Modern section of the fair.
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Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Tree, 2008. Courtesy of Vigo Gallery and the artist; Hussein Madi, Untitled, 1976. Courtesy of Mark Hachem Gallery; Alfred Basbous, Composition, Ed.8, 1989. Courtesy of Alfred Basbous Foundation

— Question for Magalí Arriola: As a curator with a deep understanding of Latin American modernism, how do you see the artistic dialogues between Latin America and the SWANA region evolving in contemporary art? Do you believe these historical connections are being actively explored by younger artists today?
Magalí Arriola: I think their own cultural and political roots are now attracting some of the younger artists in Latin America. Many of them are now deconstructing the colonial history of the region, which is a history shared by other areas in the world. In that sense, there might be parallelisms and connections that might be worth exploring among different scenes to create a dialogue. I think initiatives such as this one are really valuable in that they not only look for previous overlaps but also open new avenues for exchanges to take place between people and communities.
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