Abu Dhabi Art 2023 Bridges Middle East and Southeast Asia with Hong Kong Focus

The 15th edition of Abu Dhabi Art (ADA) runs until 26 November 2023, featuring a dedicated Focus: Hong Kong section curated by Chris Wan Feng. The section includes nine galleries: emerging Square Street Gallery showing Amy Tong and IV Chan, THE SHOPHOUSE with Hilarie Hon and Chan Wai Lap, and Rossi & Rossi. Tong's textile work 'You And I, 1995, We Walked Through A Meadow to Love' (2023) explores grief through photographs of her wounded fingers stitched onto a camisole-shaped fabric. Chan presents soft-wrapped plastic toys reflecting on maternal absence. Hon's boxed paintings depict imagined stars in the Abu Dhabi desert, while Chan Wai Lap's drawings reinterpret Middle Eastern architecture as pool tiles. Rossi & Rossi's Charles Fong notes the gallery's role in transferring ideas between regions. Other sections include Latin America, Women Artists, and Sustainability. Special exhibitions feature Beyond: Emerging Artists with Samo Shalaby, Alhama Jaralla, and Latifa Saeed, and Hashel Al Lamki's 'Maqam' spanning sculpture, painting, film, and photography. The fair reflects growing Middle Eastern-Southeast Asian art exchange, seen also in the Taipei Biennial (Samia Halaby, Jumana Manna, Natascha Sadr Haghighian), Sea Art Festival in Busan (Muhannad Shono), Mori Art Museum (Monira Al Qadiri, Ali Cherri), and Qatar Museums-Yuz Museum exhibition in China.