Dubai, United Arab Emirates; 30 April 2026: Dom Art Projects presents its new programme, marking its debut at Art Dubai’s special edition with a digital presentation, alongside a new group exhibition, Time That Grows Slowly, and a solo presentation by Petr Kirusha at its Al Khayat space. Spanning digital practices, painting, and installation, the programme reflects the institution’s ongoing focus on time, perception, and the conditions shaping contemporary artistic production, bringing together international and regional artists across exhibitions, residencies, and research-led presentations.

Anna Pumpyanskaya, Co-Founder and Director, said: “As we enter this upcoming art season during a time of resilience and connection in the UAE, we are embracing new models of support for artists, from studio occupancy and research opportunities, to presenting their work in important global platforms such as Art Dubai. As an independent institution, we are committed to introducing audiences to artists they may not yet know, and to creating pathways for discovery and long-term recognition through exhibitions, collaborations, art fairs, commissions, public art projects, and acquisition into collections.”

Art Dubai’s Special Edition

15-17 May 2026

Madinat Jumeirah

Sofya Skidan (b. 1996, Russia)

Michiko Tsuda (b.1980, Japan)

Kirill Makarov (b.1988, Russia)

Dom Art Projects will take part in the special edition of Art Dubai, marking its debut at the fair with a digital-focused group presentation.

Captions (L-R): She would come back there to see her again the following day, Michiko Tsuda, 2014, Video Still; ‘My AI lover sees me as a beautifully unstable dataset  – emotionally overfit, aesthetically optimized’, Sofya Skidan, 2026; and Guests, Kirill Makarov, 2021

Dom Art Projects’ booth brings together alternative approaches to digital art shown through the practices of  Sofya Skidan (b. 1996, Russia), Michiko Tsuda (b. 1980, Japan), and Kirill Makarov (b. 1988, Russia). Sofya Skidan, for whom the digital is a habitat — an extension of the artist’s identity, a natural continuation of her body, and a vital part of perceiving the universe, will present video works, digital collages, NFT and sculptures. She will also show a new video that was created during her Dom Residency in Dubai in early 2026, where she imagines meta-landscapes shaped by the shifting climate and the collision of ecosystems: arctic ice meeting desert dunes, mineral surfaces merging with simulated terrains. Michiko Tsuda will present video installations exploring space for experimentation and archiving, a field for reflection on the role of media, memory, and perception. Kirill Makarov will showcase VR-pieces and NFT — in his practice the digital becomes a tool, a kind of virtual workbench where compositions are assembled, shifting between digital media, VR, augmented reality, and traditional painting and drawing. The presentation suggests that the emergence of digital reality is inevitable, yet it is simply another technological medium — one that does not erase the aura or authenticity of artistic expression, but rather amplifies, extends, and redefines it.

Group Exhibition: Time That Grows Slowly 

13 May – 13 September 2026

Opening hours:  11am – 8pm

Dom Art Projects, Al Khayat Avenue, Dubai

Curated by Alexander Burenkov

Participating artists: Maha Alasaker (Kuwait / UAE), Srijon Chowdhury (Bangladesh / USA), Odonchimeg Davaadorj (Mongolia / France), Patricia Domínguez (Chile),  Louis Guillaume (France), Mevlana Lipp (Germany), Sulafa Mohammed (UAE), Tabita Rezaire (France / French Guiana), Shaima Shamsi (Saudi Arabia / Bahrain / UAE), Farah Soltani (Iran / UAE), Antoine Renard (France), Nadia Waheed (Saudi Arabia / Pakistan / USA)

Dom Art Projects presents a group exhibition, curated by Alexander Burenkov, titled Time That Grows Slowly. The exhibition is inspired by ideas attuned to vegetal temporalities of being in the world, reflecting on philosophical reflections of time as growth rather than movement. The exhibition features works by cross-regional artists—many of whom have never been shown in Dubai before. 

Caption: Odonchimeg Davaadorj, Baiser Toxique, 2021 installation of drawings. 

Courtesy of Dom Art Projects and the artist

Time, as humans experience it, is inseparable from the vegetal. The oxygen we breathe, the food we consume, the rhythms of agriculture and settlement — all are shaped by plant life. Yet this dependency remains largely invisible. Time That Grows Slowly seeks to render it perceptible, exploring whether it is possible to inhabit, even momentarily, the ‘umwelt’ of plants: to perceive the world from a vegetal perspective. Grouped around site-specific installations attentive to care and interspecies communication, the exhibition engages ecological, feminist, philosophical, and postcolonial concerns.

Alexander Burenkov, curator of the exhibition, says: “Against the backdrop of Dubai’s fast-paced urban environment, Time That Grows Slowly proposes a tool kit for slowing down, a reorientation of our sensorium to the rhythms of plants,  the creation of space for vegetal attunement, reflection and contemplation in dynamic urban conditions, and the raising of questions about how duration, memory, and lived experience are produced within such environments. Plants grow, decay, regenerate, and coexist according to rhythms that defy linear progress and instrumental efficiency. Vegetal being is not oriented toward goals, optimization, or dominance. It persists through exposure, vulnerability, and repetition. In this sense, the contemporary artists are interested in exploring vegetal time because it introduces an ethics of non-acceleration: a way of inhabiting the world that neither conquers time nor seeks to escape it.”

Dom Art Projects Co-Founder and Chief Curator Alisa Bagdonaite says: “This season, Dom Art Projects continues its reflection on digital, space and time through the group exhibition Time That Grows Slowly and a solo presentation by Petr Kirusha whose practice reconsiders painting through the conditions of the screen. Our digital-focused booth in Art Dubai will be part of the same curatorial position: we do not see digital art as separate, but as fully embedded in contemporary reality. Our programme is about expanding the conditions of artistic production, fostering dialogue, and situating Dubai as a place where these temporalities and practices can unfold.”

Petr Kirusha

Every moment is a fresh beginning

13 May – 13 September 2026

Opening hours:  11am – 8pm

Dom Art Projects, Al Khayat Avenue, Dubai

Running alongside the group exhibition is a solo presentation by Petr Kirusha (b.1978, Russia/Latvia), featuring works developed during his residency at Dom Art Projects at a time of heightened geopolitical tension between the US and Iran.

Kirusha documented the landscapes of Al Quoz and the rapidly changing cityscape of Dubai, while producing a series of drawings shaped by the intensity of the city during this period, capturing both the immediate environment and the psychological atmosphere of those days. These observations later evolved into paintings and works on paper. 

Petr Kirusha, Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 50×51, 2026, courtesy Dom Art Projects

Kirusha’s practice reconsiders painting through the conditions of the screen. For him, contemporary painting exists in close relation to light and illumination — from LED backlight to the red-orange glow of the urban night sky, and the subtle shifts of pixels in low light. He translates this visual instability into moments of stillness, capturing vibration at the edge of perception. Working with a post-digital approach to color, he leaves the white of the paper active — like a blank screen — and employs a technique that preserves luminosity in the lower layers of paint.

Kirusha has exhibited internationally, including at Manifesta 10 and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. At Dom Art Projects, he continues his exploration of painting as a meeting point of light, technology, and surface.

Studio Residents

Dom Art Projects reaffirmed its commitment to supporting artists as an independent institution by offering studio space to seven UAE-based artists as a direct response to the recent geopolitical tensions, providing a place for them to pursue their practice and continue to develop current projects over the next six months. 

The UAE-based artists that will occupy studios are: Sara Masinae; Joumana Mortada; Meher Afroz Vahid; Rabila Kidwai; Aisha Alhammadi; Divyaaunshi Purohit; Teng Miras. Projects to be explored in the studios include the development of performative and visual works responding to themes of urbanism, narrative and embodied experience, and a long-term painting project that explores how memory and lived experience, including the impact of trauma, continue to shape us beyond geography. 

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NOTES TO THE EDITOR

Bios and high-res images can be viewed and downloaded here: Dom Art Projects Spring/Summer 2026 Programme Press Kit  

About Dom Art Projects

Dom Art Projects is a private art institution and contemporary art space in Dubai dedicated to presenting museum-grade exhibitions and installations by emerging and mid-career artists. Located in Al Khayat Avenue, it comprises an exhibition programme, an art and culture bookshop, and a residency programme, with three dedicated studios for production and research. Founded with the intention of fostering dialogue, discovery, and engagement with the arts, Dom Art Projects brings together artists and audiences from different territories in pursuit of meaningful dialogue.

Website: https://domprojects.art/ 

Instagram: @dom_artprojects