The discovery layer for contemporary art.

Doha · Qatar

Art Basel Qatar Announces 2027 Exhibitor Line-Up and Expanded Support Framework

Curatorial shifts, high participant turnover, and new financial safeguards shape the second edition

The fair confirms 82 galleries, a new thematic framework, and enhanced logistical backing amid regional uncertainty.

Marrakech · Morocco

Filmed, but Not Recorded: The Arab World’s Missing Film Locations

Wikidata knows Gladiator was filmed in Morocco. It doesn’t know where.

Ouarzazate is the second most filmed place in the Middle East and North Africa, yet 25 of its 27 productions are recorded only in Wikipedia prose. We compared filming records worldwide and found that in the Arab world, Wikidata usually knows the country but not the place.

56 English Words With Arabic Roots: Art, Colour, Fabric and Architecture

Azure lost a letter, alcohol was once eye make-up, and a sofa was a carpeted platform. A field guide to the art words English borrowed from Arabic — and how sure we can be about each one.

Your sofa, your cotton shirt and the sequins on a party dress all have Arabic roots. We checked 56 English words from the world of art — colour, cloth, architecture and the studio — against two major dictionaries to trace where each came from, which languages carried it, and which famous etymologies are still disputed.

Istanbul · Turkey

A Submerged Archive of Early Bronze Age Commerce

Newly uncovered ceramic cargo near Kekova rewrites prehistoric navigation records

Archaeologists operating off the Turkish coast have recovered approximately thirty Early Bronze Age storage jars, offering rare physical proof of ancient maritime trade networks.

Marrakech · Morocco

Gladiator and Game of Thrones: Inside Aït Benhaddou

The earthen ksar that has played Rome, Jerusalem and Yunkai survives only because people keep rebuilding it. What cinema films as eternity is, wall by wall, a work of constant repair.

Aït Benhaddou is cinema's favourite image of the ancient past, from Gladiator to Game of Thrones. But its earthen walls last only as long as someone keeps repairing them, so the set for eternity is the freshest mud in Morocco.

Istanbul · Turkey

Nasreddin: The Trickster Everyone Claims

A padlocked gate with no walls, two rival graves, and stories told among two dozen peoples: how the wise fool of the Islamic world became a shape every culture fills with itself.

In Akşehir, a tomb said to hold Nasreddin Hodja stands in an open pavilion behind a heavy padlocked gate — with no wall on either side. It is the perfect monument to a man who may not be in it. The stories told under his name belong to more than one tradition and more than one century: Turkish, Persian, Arab, Central Asian, Uyghur. Reformist satirists, Soviet novelists, Chinese animators and UNESCO have each tried to give him a fixed home.

Toronto · Canada

Art Toronto 2026 Report: Canadian Art Focuses on Domestic System

A ground-level look at how local galleries and artists navigate economic pressure through organic practice and institutional solidarity

Art Toronto's twenty seventh edition swaps polished commercial gloss for earthy installations and homegrown rosters. A report on the fair's key works, funding announcements and shifting market dynamics.

Turin · Italy

Chris Ofili Restores Laure to Centre Stage in Turin

A new exhibition at the Pinacoteca Agnelli reclaims the identity of Manet's Black model

Chris Ofili extracts a peripheral figure from nineteenth-century painting and places her at the forefront of a new Turin show.

Gwangju · South Korea

ACC Future Class and Sun Choi's Breath-Driven Artworks

How respiration replaces the brush in a shifting participatory practice

A digital extension of Sun Choi's long-running project translates human exhalation into algorithmic imagery, challenging traditional notions of authorship and creative control.

Dallas · United States

Dallas Art Fair Relocates to SMU Training Facility for 2027

After eighteen years at the Fashion Industry Gallery, the fair shifts to a single-level football training complex to improve circulation and gallery flexibility.

The independent commercial market leaves its longtime downtown home for Southern Methodist University, trading split floors for a flat, high-ceilinged court.

London · United Kingdom

UK art market growth lags behind competitors, new report finds

Regulatory friction and shifting trade routes slow relative expansion despite absolute gains

Arts Economics marks BAMF's thirtieth year with data showing Britain's second-place global standing, slower recovery since 2009, and a fragmented export market.

Los Angeles · United States

Getty's New Interpretations grants reshape museum communication

How $2.7m in funding is reshaping gallery labels and audience research

Eleven institutions worldwide receive targeted grants to replace static wall texts with visitor-centred interpretation, multilingual outreach and AI evaluation.