Each year, Abu Dhabi Art collaborates with artists to create the fair’s visual campaign.
Abu Dhabi Art Visual Campaign artists:
2024: Mohammed Kazem | Gallery Isabelle
2023: Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim | Lawrie Shabibi
2022: Farah Al Qasimi | The Third Line
2021: Ayesha Hadhir, Rawdha Khalifa Al Ketbi, and Shaikha Fahad Al Ketbi
2019: Ebtisam Abdulaziz | The Third Line
2018: Monira Al Qadiri
2017: Tarek Al-Ghoussein | Galerie Brigitte Schenk and The Third Line
Mohamed Kazem is represented by Dubai based Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde
Mohammed Kazem
Directions 2005-2013 (Walking on Water, UAE Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale, 2013), 2005-2013
Colour video
Photo credit: The National Pavilion UAE – La Biennale di Venezia
Courtesy of the Artist, and The National Pavilion of the UAE
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim is represented by Dubai based Gallery Lawrie Shabibi
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim
Untitled, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
152 x 183 cm
Farah Al Qasimi is represented by Dubai based gallery The Third Line
Farah Al Qasimi
Wrestling With Spectres, 2019
Archival Inkjet print
102 x 74 cm
Edition of 5 + 2APs
2024 Visual Campaign Artist
2024 Visual Campaign Artist
2023 Visual Campaign Artist
2023 Visual Campaign Artist
2022 Visual Campaign Artist
2022 Visual Campaign Artist
2021 Visual Campaign Artist
2021 Visual Campaign Artist
2021 Visual Campaign Artist
2021 Visual Campaign Artist
2021 Visual Campaign Artist
2021 Visual Campaign Artist
Mohammed Kazem (born 1969, Dubai) lives and works in Dubai. He has developed an artistic practice that encompasses video, photography and performance to find new ways of apprehending his environment and experiences. The foundations of his work are informed by his training as a musician, and Kazem is deeply engaged with developing processes that can render transient phenomena, such as sound and light, in tangible terms. Often positioning himself within his work, Kazem responds to geographical location, materiality and the elements as a means to assert his subjectivity, particularly in relation to the rapid pace of modernisation in the Emirates since the country’s founding.
Kazem was a member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society early in his career and is acknowledged as one of the 'Five', an informal group of Emirati artists – including Hassan Sharif, Abdullah Al Saadi, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, and Hussain Sharif – at the vanguard of conceptual and interdisciplinary art practice. In 2012, he completed his Masters in Fine Art at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. In recent years, he has participated in several group shows in venues such as Hayy Jameel, Jeddah (2023), Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2023), 21,39 Jeddah Arts (2020), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (2017), Guggenheim New York (2016), the Yinchuan Biennale (2016), Sharjah Biennial (2015), Gwangju Museum of Art (2014), Fotofest Biennial in Houston (2014), amongst others. In 2013 he represented the UAE’s National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with an immersive video installation entitled Walking on Water, curated by Reem Fadda, and in 2015 he showcased works from the Tongue series at 1980 – Today: Exhibitions in the UAE, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi.
His works are held in the collections of the British Museum, London; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and New York; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Vehbi Koç Foundation, Istanbul; King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, Dhahran, among others.
Mohamed Kazem is 2024 Visual Campaign Artist and he is represented by Dubai based Gallery Isabelle
Emirati artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim is part of the UAE's first generation of contemporary artists from the late 1980s, an avant-garde scene that included Hassan Sharif, Abdullah Al Saadi, Hussein Sharif, and Mohammed Kazem. Ibrahim’s work has been inspired by a lifelong relationship with the environment of Khorfakkan, his place of birth, with the Gulf of Oman on one side and the Hajar Mountains on the other. This deep connection to his local environment repeats itself throughout his studio practice, whether through his installations, drawings or objects, and the materials he has worked with for over three decades. His hand made objects are shaped like primitive tools, bones or parts of trees and appear to have been unearthed from some ancient den, rather than handcrafted. His works on paper reveal his own form of language - inscriptions, lines and abstract forms that are reminiscent of ancient cave drawings - marking time and memory through meditative repetition.
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim is 2023 Visual Campaign Artist and he is represented by Dubai based Gallery Lawrie Shabibi.
Working primarily with photography, video and performance, Farah Al Qasimi (b. 1991, Abu Dhabi, United
Arab Emirates) examines postcolonial structures of power, gender and taste in the Gulf Arab states.
Al Qasimi studied photography and music at Yale University in 2012 and received her MFA from the Yale
School of Art in 2017. Dividing her time between Dubai and New York, Al Qasimi has integrated her
practice as a social critique and observation of the layered aspects of each place indirectly. Through her
bold and vibrant photographs, she explores the unspoken social norms and values embedded in a place, a
moment or an object. Her thought-provoking images act as an invitation for the viewer to sense the
unspoken boundaries that govern the scenes which they catch a glimpse of.
Al Qasimi’s recent works challenge the viewer to consider their own understanding of reality, aspiration,
individuality and the reflected image. In series such as 'Funhouse', Al Qasimi demonstrates her skill with
mise-en-scene in photographs that are richly detailed, evoking a tromp-l’oeil effect, which are at turns
delightful, delirious and disturbing. Elsewhere, the artist creates works that confront commonplace notions
of figurative photography and portraiture. Her recent commission with Public Art Fund, 'Back and Forth
Disco', was on view at 100 bus shelters in New York City in 2019–20 and comprised of works offering a
distinct representation of a subject without allowing the viewer full access to the person, highlighting the
unique qualities that determine individuality and capturing the diverse essence of New York City.
Selected exhibitions include; Imitation of Life, The Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France (2021); A Question of
Taste, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey (2021); Lady Lady, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada (2021);
Funhouse, Helena Anrather Gallery, NY, USA (2020); Back and Forth Disco, Public Art Fund, New York,
NY, USA (2020); Lahore Biennale, Lahore, Pakistan (2020); Open Arm Sea, Houston Center for
Photography, Houston, TX, USA (2020); March Projects, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2019);
Arrival, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2019); Age of You, MOCA Toronto, Canada (2019); List Projects:
Farah Al Qasimi, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, USA (2019); Artist's Rooms, Jameel Arts
Centre, Dubai, UAE (2019); Conversation 7 (with Marcela Pardo Ariza), San Francisco Arts Commission,
SF, USA (2018); No to the Invasion: Breakdowns and Side Effects, CCS Bard Galleries, New York, USA
(2017); More Good News, Helena Anrather, New York (2017), and Coming Up Roses, The Third Line,
Dubai, UAE (2016).
Al Qasimi has participated in residencies at the Delfina Foundation, London (2017); the Skowhegan School
of Painting and Sculpture, Maine (2017); and was also awarded the New York NADA Artadia Prize and the
Aaron Siskind Individual Photographer's Fellowship (2018).