
Editor’s Note: E-Issue 06
April 12th, 2023
Welcome back to Global Art Daily. Spring has sprung and with summer around the corner, I welcome you back to another E-Issue of our living, breathing, digital archive. This E-Issue is dedicated to no other than two cities we have extensively covered & called home: Dubai and Sharjah.
A month after Art Dubai, we decided to take you back to our home of the UAE, and celebrate Dubai’s homegrown contemporary art scene with thought-provoking and radically honest artist interviews. Packed with anectodes of the artists’ respective journey, these conversations reveal how the scene has changed over the past decade. We also had to include highlights from Sharjah Biennial 15, which opened earlier this February with works from 150 artists from around the world, and a review of the current exhibition up at the excellent Ishara Art Foundation. A dialogue between the local and the global sits at the heart of the UAE’s zeitgeist, and very much at the heart of Global Art Daily E-Issues’ ethos.
We have some other exciting news to share. After 8 years operating as a digitally nomad publication, we officially established Global Art Daily Agency in Dubai. Meant to function as an umbrella organization for our publishing, curatorial, and art advising activities, GAD Agency naturally stems out of the 100+ articles we published over the years, and the incredible network of artists, curators, researchers, and writers we have cultivated from Tokyo to Shanghai to New York to London to Abu Dhabi to Sharjah. Dubai felt like the natural choice to put down our roots: in 2023, I truly feel this is the new capital of the world.
GAD’s E-Shop is around the corner as well. Original artworks and prints, design objects from across the modern Silk Roads, and our own GAD Print Publications, bringing together artists and designers of the GAD global network, is about to go live. Stay in the loop and follow us on Instagram for more updates.
It has been an immense pleasure to work with Amy Qian, from our Editorial Board, and our new guest contributors Hamda Althani and Harmehar Maini to bring this E-Issue to life – and above all, I must thank our two featured Dubai-based artists Jumairy and Saif Mhaisen for their trust and openness to share their stories in this very special GAD E-Issue.
A month after Art Dubai, we decided to take you back to our home of the UAE, and celebrate Dubai’s homegrown contemporary art scene with thought-provoking and radically honest artist interviews. Packed with anectodes of the artists’ respective journey, these conversations reveal how the scene has changed over the past decade. We also had to include highlights from Sharjah Biennial 15, which opened earlier this February with works from 150 artists from around the world, and a review of the current exhibition up at the excellent Ishara Art Foundation. A dialogue between the local and the global sits at the heart of the UAE’s zeitgeist, and very much at the heart of Global Art Daily E-Issues’ ethos.
We have some other exciting news to share. After 8 years operating as a digitally nomad publication, we officially established Global Art Daily Agency in Dubai. Meant to function as an umbrella organization for our publishing, curatorial, and art advising activities, GAD Agency naturally stems out of the 100+ articles we published over the years, and the incredible network of artists, curators, researchers, and writers we have cultivated from Tokyo to Shanghai to New York to London to Abu Dhabi to Sharjah. Dubai felt like the natural choice to put down our roots: in 2023, I truly feel this is the new capital of the world.
GAD’s E-Shop is around the corner as well. Original artworks and prints, design objects from across the modern Silk Roads, and our own GAD Print Publications, bringing together artists and designers of the GAD global network, is about to go live. Stay in the loop and follow us on Instagram for more updates.
It has been an immense pleasure to work with Amy Qian, from our Editorial Board, and our new guest contributors Hamda Althani and Harmehar Maini to bring this E-Issue to life – and above all, I must thank our two featured Dubai-based artists Jumairy and Saif Mhaisen for their trust and openness to share their stories in this very special GAD E-Issue.
We start with “What’s On in the UAE”
listing current, upcoming and recently closed exhibition throughout our favorite art venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah – special mentions go to Dubai’s Bayt AlMamzar and Jameel Arts Centre, that both currently have superb exhibition programs. We are then thrilled to introduce our cover star Jumairy who sat down with me for our recurring Pop(Corn) interview series, and traced back with a fine comb the past decade of his multidisciplinary art practice. Filled with anectodes and stories about his hometown of Dubai, this interview traces back the full career of an artist who is known for his anonymity. The following Rapport is dedicated to this year’s edition of Art Dubai, the region’s leading art fair, with reflections focusing on East Asian representation and future-driven conceptual thematics. I’m very happy to introduce Hamda Althani’s thoughtful review of the Sharjah Biennial 15 and her highlights from the vast selection of works installed throughout the Emirate of Sharjah. Following is a review by Harmehar Maini of Notations of Time at Ishara Art Foundation, which takes the form of a polyphonic interview with the two exhibition curators and three of the participating artists. We end with a very powerful interview I conducted with Saif Mhaisen for his first solo exhibition at Bayt AlMamzar, entitled “Introduction”: a conversation at his Mamzar studio that we materialized in digital and print form.
Stay tuned to more artist interviews and coverage of Dubai and Sharjah’s effervescent art scenes in our following E-Issue 06++ articles, and don’t miss our updates on Instagram @globalartdaily.
As always, remember to stay curious, stay global. I would add: whatever your vision is – keep consistently believing and acting on it, it might as well materialize. I’m very grateful to have witnessed the growth of the UAE’s art scene since 2015, and I truly believe these articles are a testament of the community-driven support and great ambition that this country offers to its artists and creative practitioners.
Sophie Mayuko Arni
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Stay tuned to more artist interviews and coverage of Dubai and Sharjah’s effervescent art scenes in our following E-Issue 06++ articles, and don’t miss our updates on Instagram @globalartdaily.
As always, remember to stay curious, stay global. I would add: whatever your vision is – keep consistently believing and acting on it, it might as well materialize. I’m very grateful to have witnessed the growth of the UAE’s art scene since 2015, and I truly believe these articles are a testament of the community-driven support and great ambition that this country offers to its artists and creative practitioners.
Sophie Mayuko Arni
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

1. GAD E-Issue 06, DXB/SHJ, Spring 2023. Cover Image: Jumairy, The Mission: Hala Walla!!!, 2021. Detail view. Courtesy of the artist.

4. Rapport: Art Dubai 2023, by Amy Qian Image: Installation view. Rami Farook at ATHR’s booth at Art Dubai 2023, courtesy of ATHR Gallery.

5. Highlights from Sharjah Biennial 15, by Hamda Althani Image: Farah Al Qasimi, Um Al Dhabab (Mother of Fog), 2023. Co-produced by Sharjah Art Foundation and KADIST, Paris and San Francisco. Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 15, Khorfakkan Art Centre, 2023. Image courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Danko Stjepanovic.
