The evolving Art Jameel Collection sits at the heart of Art Jameel’s programme, documenting and presenting important work by local, regional and international artists.

The Collection is a site of research, exploring the nature and responsibility of museum collections; together with the artists in our collection, we aim to question the very act and purpose of collecting. Guided by radical thematic frameworks, the Art Jameel Collection informs Art Jameel’s wider exhibition programming across its two sites – Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai and Hayy Jameel, Jeddah.

The Art Jameel Collection is comprised of artworks by more than 170 artists and collectives. While there is a particular focus on supporting artists from West and South Asia and Africa, the scope is beyond geography, and is framed primarily by threads of enquiry and networks of artistic and historical movement. Around half the artists included in the collection are women.

To date, works from the collection have shown in exhibitions at Jameel Arts Centre through Artist’s Rooms, a series of capsule shows created collaboratively in dialogue with Art Jameel Collection artists, and through major thematic group exhibitions that draw on and inform the Collection. Art Jameel also actively loans works to local, regional and international institutional partners, including, to date, Venice Biennial, Dhaka Art Summit, Para Site, Gwangju Biennale, MoMA PS1 and Louisiana Art Museum.

Explore the Collection

Art Jameel’s new Online Collection Gallery features a selection of works from the Art Jameel Collection. The online representation of the Collection is continually expanding to include a larger representation of our core works and new acquisitions.

The online gallery includes images, artwork descriptions, artist biographies, and additional stories around the work and artists through videos, interviews and links to exhibition catalogues.

Explore the Art Jameel Collection here.

Collection News

This section allows our audiences to keep up-to-date on new acquisitions and collaborations with local, regional and international galleries and institutions. For more information about loaning works from the collection, please email collections@artjameel.org.

Current News

The Art Jameel Collection has an active loans programme locally, regionally, and internationally. Current loans include: The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale “After Rain” (20 February 2024 to 24 May 2024) where Munem Wasif’s Seeds Shall Set Us Free II is on display. Works from the collection are also on show in three Art Jameel shows, Guest Relations curated by Murtaza Vali and Lucas Morin, Vikram Divecha: Short Circuits (1 February 2024 to 16 June 2024) curated by Dawn Ross and Lucas Morin at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, and At the Edge of Land curated by Lucas Morin currently at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah (16 November 2023 to 13 April 2024). This exhibition will be traveling to Dubai for a second carefully adapted iteration at Jameel Art Centre (23 May 2024 to 29 September 2024). The upcoming Artist’s Rooms at Jameel Arts Centre, a series of solo exhibitions featuring artists from the Art Jameel Collection will convene with a presentation of Hannoun by Taysir Batniji (21 April 2024 to 18 August 2024), followed by Amba Sayal-Bennett, Sancintya Mohini Simpson and Augustine Paredes (10 July 2024 to 24 November 2024).

Upcoming loans include Filipinas in Hong Kong by Pacita Abad being exhibited at the 60th Biennale di Venezia, “Foreigners Everywhere” curated by Adriano Pedrosa (20 April 2024 until 24 November 2024). Black Friday by Sophia Al-Maria will be shown at the exhibition ARABOFUTURS co-curated by Élodie Bouffard and Nawel Dehinam at the Institute de Monde Arab, Paris (23 April 2024 to 27 October 2024).  From Doro Wat to sushi and chicken wings and tings by Pacita Abad will be part of a traveling exhibition ‘Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art’ at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (14 September 2024 to 5 January 2025). The exhibition is co-curated by the Barbican, London, and Stedelijk Museum. 

Works by Anna Boghiguian, Monira Al Qadiri and Fatima Uzdenova from the Art Jameel Collection will be exhibited at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah in an exhibition Salt-Kissed: Of Vessels That Have Sailed The Red Sea curated by the winners of the Art Jameel Curatorial Open Call Ahmed Al-Aqra and Abed Alrahman Shabaneh (8 May 2024 to 7 October 2024).

To date, works from the collection have been shown in exhibitions across both institutions,  Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai and Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, and local, regional, and international institutional partners including The National Pavilion UAE – La Biennale di Venezia, Dhaka Art Summit (DAS), Para Site, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, TS1 Yangon, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (formerly the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art), Barjeel Art Foundation, The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, The Gwangju Biennale, MoMA PS1,  A Tale of A Tub, the Prime Minister’s Office, Dubai, Louisiana, SAVVY Contemporary, Sharjah Art Foundation, Palais de Tokyo, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Misk Art Institute, the Middle East Institute, Singapore Biennale, Mathaf,  Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University,  Taipei Biennial, “Small World”, 421 Campus,  and Balad Al Fann and the Barbican.