Art Basel to Mount Special Projects by Bruce Nauman, Khalil Rabah, and More at Qatar Fair

Art Basel has released full details for its inaugural Qatar edition, which will open in Doha next February and mark the fair’s first expansion into the Middle East. The new event, staged in partnership with Qatar Sports Investments and QC+, will run February 5–7, 2026, with preview days on February 3–4. It will take place across Msheireb Downtown Doha, centering on venues M7 and the Doha Design District. The debut fair will bring together 87 galleries from 31 countries showing work by 84 artists, more than half from across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.

Artist Wael Shawky is leading the curatorial direction for the fair, which will take the theme “Becoming” and looks at transformation in all its many forms. A major component of the launch is an expansive Special Projects program, described by the fair as the most extensive suite of public works ever realized for an Art Basel show.

Installed throughout Msheireb, the program includes large-scale and site-specific works by Bruce Nauman, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Nalini Malani, Hassan Khan, Rayyane Tabet, Nour Jaouda, Sumayya Vally, Khalil Rabah, and Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born). Projects range from Nauman’s immersive 3D video environment inside M7’s grand theatre to Cruzvillegas’s largest iteration of his long-running  autoconstrucción  series.

The Galleries sector features presentations from Almine Rech, Athr, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Lia Rumma Gallery, Pace, Sfeir-Semler, and the Third Line, among others. Highlights include Etel Adnan works jointly presented by Anthony Meier and Waddington Custot; major paintings from Marlene Dumas’s Against the Wall series at David Zwirner; new works by Shirin Neshat at Lia Rumma; a suite of Lynda Benglis ceramics at Pace; and a presentation of studies and works-in-progress by Emirati conceptualist Hassan Sharif at Gallery Isabelle.

The fair coincides with a broad slate of exhibitions across Qatar Museums, including two major shows marking the 15th anniversary of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; retrospectives on architect I.M. Pei at both ALRIWAQ and the Museum of Islamic Art; Rirkrit Tiravanija’s participatory installation in MIA Park; and an immersive MF Husain exhibition at QM Gallery Katara.