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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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Maya Art Space is proud to present the solo exhibition by artist Alaa El Jebbeh.
“Humans do not make art and write because they are rational and free; rather, they are rational and free because they write and make art.”- Catherline Malabou
Metamorphosis explores the body as something in constant change , not fixed or separate, but part of a larger web of forces that shape who we are. The exhibition reflects on how our bodies and identities are being transformed by the systems around us, technological, social, and material ; and how, within this transformation, something deeply human still persists.
The artworks question the old idea of the human as central and in control. Instead, they reveal a world where humans, machines, and matter are all intertwined. The body becomes a site of both control and resistance , marked by power, yet always capable of renewal and change.
In this surreal vision, the boundaries between the organic and the artificial begin to fade. The figures and forms in Metamorphosis suggest that transformation is not a sudden break, but a continuous state of becoming: a movement between decay and vitality, order and chaos.
Ultimately, this exhibition invites viewers to see the body not as a stable image, but as an evolving process, a reflection of the world’s shifting systems, and a reminder that even within collapse, new forms of life and imagination can emerge.
