Frieze Abu Dhabi Reveals Curated Programme for Inaugural Edition

Dala Nasser (born 1990, Tyre) lives and works in Beirut and London. She received an MFA from Yale University (2021) and a BFA from University College London (2016). Selected solo exhibitions have been held at Peer Gallery, London (2026); KM21, The Hague (2026); Nottingham Contemporary (2026); Kunsthalle Basel (2025); Renaissance Society, Chicago (2023); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2022); and V.O Curations, London (2022). Selected group exhibitions include the Toronto Biennial of Art (forthcoming); British Art Show 10 (2026); Rubaiya Qatar, Doha (2026); Aichi Triennale, Nagoya (2025); Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2025); Wellcome Collection, London (2025); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2024); Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Riyadh (2024); 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023); and 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2022). Her work is in the collections of Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Hartwig Art Foundation, Amsterdam; Qatar Museums; and Tate, London.

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. He is acknowledged as one of the ‘Five’, an informal group of Emirati artists at the vanguard of conceptual and interdisciplinary art practice.

Alia Zaal (born 1989, Dubai) lives and works in Abu Dhabi. Her practice moves fluidly between painting and photography, often beginning with photographs sourced from archives or personal collections. Working across multiple media, she investigates how images carry emotional weight and how they shift through memory, translation, and time. Her work engages with themes of memory and perception, drawing from both personal and collective memory, and questioning the reliability of visual information while exploring the psychological dimensions of seeing.

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim (born 1962, Khorfakkan) is part of the first generation of contemporary artists in the United Arab Emirates. His work is deeply rooted in a lifelong relationship with the landscape of Khorfakkan, where the Gulf of Oman meets the Hajar Mountains. Working across installation, drawing and handmade objects, Ibrahim creates forms that resemble primitive tools, bones or fragments of trees. He represented the UAE at the 2022 Venice Biennale with the installation Between Sunrise and Sunset, and his work is held in collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the British Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Sharjah Art Foundation; Art Jameel; Barjeel Art Foundation; and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha.

Zeinab Alhashemi is a prominent Emirati conceptual artist specialising in site-specific installation and public art. Alhashemi is fascinated by the transformation of the UAE following the country’s construction and industrial booms, and her experimental installations aim to create a new perception of reality by deconstructing the viewer’s understanding of their surroundings. She has completed commissioned works for public and private collections in the UAE and Gulf region.

Imran Qureshi has developed a contemporary practice rooted in the tradition of 16th-century Mughal miniature art, encompassing figurative and abstract works on paper, monumental paintings and site-specific installations. His work constitutes a synthesis of traditional motifs and techniques with current issues and the formal language of contemporary abstract painting, oscillating between an unparalleled attention to detail and a gestural energy reminiscent of Action Painting.

Kamran Samimi grew up in the rural community of Laupāhoehoe on Hawai‘i Island and is of Iranian and Norwegian heritage. Since 2008, he has exhibited widely, with solo exhibitions at The Third Line, Dubai; Sharjah Art Museum, UAE; Honolulu Museum of Art; and Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design. He was awarded the 2024 Artists of Hawai‘i Best in Show Award and holds a BFA in Printmaking and an MFA in Print Media and Sculpture from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.