The Jordanian capital’s first-ever contemporary art fair, now in its second year, has opened in Amman. The DAR Art Fair, which will run through June 7 in the city’s Sweifieh Village, will feature 15 galleries from Jordan and the Middle East and North Africa region, with a focus on promoting new and upcoming artists.
The fair, which is named after co-founder and chair Dina Dabbas Rifai and event director Rania Omeish, serves as a showcase for mostly emerging talent from the region while also featuring more recognised artists.
This year, pieces from 22 African and Middle Eastern nations, including Somalia, Mauritania, and Oman, are on display. Nabad, Wadi Finan, Karim, Orient, Jodar, Q0de, Enki Ceramic Atelier, Rowaq Al-Balqa, Haseeba, Sami Hindiyeh Museum and Art Gallery, Samia Mango Collection, Fann A Porter, Jacaranda Images, Link Art Space, and Ibrahimi Collection are among the galleries that are taking part.
“This edition, we are dedicating the fair solely to artists from the Arab globe,” Rifai said. We started the fair out of a desire to assist local Jordanian and young Arab artists, as well as to show the region and the rest of the world how many talented people we have in the Arab world.
The fair will be held in a larger venue of 1,400 square meters this year, and it will have its first curatorial consultant, Abed Al-Kadiri, a Lebanese artist and curator who divides his time between Beirut and Paris. Al-Kadiri will be the fair’s artistic director next year.
This year, the fair had a selection committee that collaborated to choose the artworks displayed by the participating galleries in response to the fair’s open call for young artists. The event is divided into two areas, one for galleries and the other for independent solo artists who have their own space.