Welcome to MENA Art
Exclusive access to galleries and artists across the region etc.
Art investment in the MENA region is evolving rapidly, blending cultural insight with strong market growth.
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ADAI works with artists across the Middle East and North Africa to ensure their work is seen, understood, and contextualized. Representation on ADAI means supporting artists through curated visibility, research, and digital presentation, connecting their work to audiences, exhibitions, and broader cultural conversations.
Artists featured on ADAI are not exclusively signed or commercially represented— instead, ADAI provides a platform to showcase your practice, highlight your perspective, and situate your work within the evolving landscape of MENA art.
By representing your work on ADAI, you gain access to:
Representation is about visibility, context, and community - helping your art reach the right audiences while respecting your autonomy as an artist."
Often referred to as the era of Al-Ruwad (The Pioneers), this period marks the birth of modern Arab art. Many of these artists were sent on government-sponsored scholarships to study in European capitals like Paris and Rome. Upon returning home, they blended Western academic techniques (such as Impressionism and Realism) with local subjects, landscapes, and the emerging concept of national identity.
This period was heavily defined by regional political turmoil, most notably the 1967 Six-Day War (the Naksa or 'setback'), the Palestinian exodus, and the Lebanese Civil War. Art became a crucial tool for resistance, political commentary, and documenting human suffering. Existential angst and national trauma led to an emotionally charged, often somber, figurative expressionism.
The Hurufiyya (Letterism) movement is arguably the most significant and cohesive modernist movement to emerge from the Arab world. Artists deconstructed Arabic calligraphy, liberating the letters from their linguistic and religious functions to use them as purely abstract, rhythmic, and visual elements. This allowed them to engage with global abstract expressionism while remaining deeply rooted in Islamic and Arab heritage.
Driven by globalization, the diaspora experience, and new technologies, Arab art in this era expanded well beyond traditional painting and sculpture. It became heavily characterized by video, photography, installation, and performance art. Operating on a global stage, these artists tackle complex themes of post-colonialism, migration, memory, borders, and gender identity.
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Syrian Arab Republic / Belgium
2026 • Painting
90 x 80 x 1.00 Centimeters (cm)
$7,400.00
VAT and other taxes are not reflected in the listed pricing.
Ships from United Arab Emirates. Final quote & tracking provided after purchase. Duties/taxes may apply.
Under review
A dreamlike vision of Jerusalem unfolds through Imad Habbab’s signature poetic abstraction, where the luminous Dome of the Rock, ancient domes, minarets, and tightly woven stone architecture emerge from a tapestry of muted geometric forms beneath an intricate canopy of olive branches whose pale, almost ethereal leaves act as subliminal references to the olive tree as a symbol of rootedness, endurance, and ancestral memory, while the fractured composition and subdued palette of weathered greens, ochres, greys, and soft whites quietly evoke the accumulated weight of centuries, suggesting suffering, loss, and resilience without depicting them directly, so that the city appears suspended between presence and absence, memory and hope, transforming Jerusalem into a deeply spiritual landscape where faith, sacrifice, the enduring legacy of Christ, and the silent witness of the olive trees become inseparable, carrying more than two thousand years of history within a single contemplative and emotionally charged vision.