Rubaiya Qatar Quadrennial Announces 120-Plus Artists for Inaugural Edition

More than 120 artists will take part in the inaugural Rubaiya Qatar, a new quadrennial opening across Doha on November 21 and running through April 30. Qatar Museums presents the initiative in collaboration with ALRIWAQ Arts + Architecture.

The format breaks from the biennial template. Instead of one mega-show, Rubaiya Qatar splits into three separate exhibitions at three institutions, plus a public art component spread across the city.

"The inauguration of Rubaiya Qatar marks a defining moment in this change, with Doha as the stage on which contemporary art from our region and beyond is presented to the world," the quadrennial's director, Sheikha Alanood Al Thani, said in a statement. "Foregrounding non-Western perspectives, fostering ambitious new commissions and embedding deep ecological and historical research into its curatorial core, Rubaiya Qatar offers a fresh paradigm for international exhibitions of contemporary art."

What are the three exhibitions?

The lead show, "Unruly Waters," takes its title from historian Sunil Amrith's book. Four curators run it: Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College; Ruba Katrib, chief curator and director of curatorial affairs at MoMA PS1; Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, chief curator at the Singapore Art Museum; and Mark Rappolt, editor-in-chief of ArtReview. It plays out primarily at ALRIWAQ Arts + Architecture, with works also at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) and in MIA Park.

Around 54 artists and collectives appear in "Unruly Waters," and 30 of them present new commissions. The names include Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Farah Al Qasimi, Meriem Bennani, Cao Fei, Nicholas Galanin, Shilpa Gupta, Saodat Ismailova, Ayoung Kim, Oscar Murillo, New Red Order, Selma Selman and Wael Shawky.

"Establishing the framework for Rubaiya Qatar as a whole, the lead exhibition, Unruly Waters, is planetary in scope but highly specific in the geographies it explores," the four curators said in a statement. They describe artists who "trace trade winds, monsoon rhythms, ocean currents, and digital communication networks—from ancient sea routes to the World Wide Web—to redefine 'globalism' through ecology and human movement."

The second show, "Our Common Currents," runs at Katara QM Gallery from November 22. Lina Patmali, the quadrennial's acting head of curatorial affairs, curates 12 artists, four of them commissions. "With a starting point being Qatar, the artworks presented have created connections with different geographical contexts," Patmali said in a statement. Olafur Eliasson, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Basim Magdy and Lala Rukh are on the list.

The third, "Seething Sea," opens November 22 at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Curator Wadha Al-Aqeedi, a Qatar Museums curator and Mathaf cofounder, works with assistant curator Loulwah Kutbi. The title comes from a line in the Qur'an. The show gathers some 53 artists and collectives and over 80 works from Mathaf's collections, all with ties to the Middle East — among them Hassan Sharif, Dia Azzawi, Sophia Al-Maria, Charles Hossein-Zenderoudi and Monira Al Qadiri.

"For millennia, the people of the Gulf lived from the sea and understood it through faith and folklore," Al-Aqeedi said in a statement. "What visitors will find is a reminder of all the sea has given, and a warning of impending doom."

What happens in public space?

At least seven public art installations anchor the outdoor program, on view November 21 through April 30:

• Rirkrit Tiravanija (Thailand), whose untitled 2025 (no bread no ashes) debuted at MIA Park last year
• Jitish Kallat (India)
• Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana), making a work for the forthcoming Art Mill Museum
• Lubna Chowdhary (UK), an intervention at the Barzan Towers
• Minerva Cuevas (Mexico), a mural at the National Museum of Qatar metro station
• Shaikha Hala Al Khalifa (Bahrain)
• Nazgol Ansarinia (Iran)

"Through ambitious commissions, exhibitions, public art and public programmes, Rubaiya Qatar creates opportunities for lasting collaboration and artistic innovation while reinforcing Qatar's role as a place where ideas, perspectives and cultural practices converge," said Sheikha Reem Al Thani, deputy CEO of ALRIWAQ Arts + Architecture, Public Art, and Rubaiya Qatar.

What does this change for Doha?

The quadrennial gives Qatar a recurring, internationally curated platform on the biennial calendar — one that banks on new commissions rather than borrowed loans, with 34 commissions across the two contemporary shows alone. Mahama's Art Mill piece also signals how the public program may seed the collections of museums still under construction.