The artist Wael Shawky has been appointed artistic director of Art Basel Qatar, which will stage its inaugural edition in Doha in February 2026.
The fair plans to depart from the traditional booth model with an open-format exhibition, in which solo presentations by galleries respond to a central thematic framework defined and developed by Shawky and Art Basel’s creative team.
The first theme will be ‘Becoming’, an exploration of the Gulf’s ongoing transformation – ‘a region where oral traditions intersect with digital networks, and ancient trade routes are reimagined as contemporary flows of culture and capital’, as outlined in an official press statement.
Staged across multiple venues, including M7 and the Doha Design District, as well as selected public sites in Msheireb, the fair has been conceived by Art Basel as a platform for further engagement with galleries and artists from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
‘The opportunity to explore artistic practices from across the MENA region and beyond, within a framework that values research, narrative, and experimentation, is extremely meaningful to me,’ Shawky, who is based in Doha, said in a statement.
