The art world is huge, but TIME’s TIME100 Art 2026 has spotlighted 100 people whose ideas, institutions, and creative practices are shaping where it goes next.
Among them are five Arab figures working across sound, curation, heritage, contemporary art, and even the future of art fairs, each bringing a very different perspective to the global scene.
Here’s who made the list.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Lebanese-British)
What if sound could become evidence?
That’s the question at the heart of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s work. Born in Jordan and raised in England, the artist investigates human rights abuses through sound, turning recordings, testimonies, and even memories of footsteps into immersive works.
His investigations have examined everything from a Syrian prison to the killing of Palestinian paramedics in Gaza. His organization, Earshot, also investigated the alleged use of an acoustic weapon at a 2025 protest in Serbia — research that became part of his work at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
His self-description says it all: a “private ear.”
Hoor Al Qasimi (Emirati)
At just 22, Hoor Al Qasimi took over the Sharjah Biennial. Since then, she has helped transform it from a regional exhibition into an internationally watched art event.
Today, her influence stretches far beyond Sharjah. As president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, she has consistently created space for artists and ideas that might otherwise be overlooked.
This year, she also became artistic director of the Sydney Biennale, where she brought Indigenous, Palestinian, and Iranian voices into the spotlight.
And she’s still adding titles to the résumé: in July, she became president of the Sharjah Museums Authority, overseeing a network of 16 museums and heritage houses.
Myriam Ben Salah (Tunisian-Algerian)
Some curators find established stars. Myriam Ben Salah seems particularly interested in finding the ones before everyone else does.
Born in Algeria and raised in Tunisia, Ben Salah became director of Chicago’s Renaissance Society in 2020. Since then, the institution has presented artists including Diane Severin Nguyen, Lydia Ourahmane, and Meriem Bennani — many of whom went on to wider recognition.
This year, she also organized the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Her approach? Looking beyond the traditional boundaries of contemporary art and exploring where the avant-garde meets popular culture.
Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabian)
For Saudi artist Dana Awartani, making art can also mean repairing what has been broken.
Her work draws on traditional craft techniques, using materials like silk and handmade bricks to explore loss, memory, and damaged cultural heritage.
At this year’s Venice Biennale, she filled Saudi Arabia’s pavilion with 29,000 handmade clay bricks, referencing 23 damaged sites across the Levant. The bricks were deliberately laid without binding agents, meaning the floor would slowly crack throughout the exhibition.
A beautiful installation — but also a powerful reminder of how fragile history can be.
Wael Shawky (Egyptian)
Egyptian artist Wael Shawky has spent much of his career asking a deceptively simple question: whose version of history are we telling?
Known for reimagining historical narratives through film, performance, and puppetry, Shawky was chosen as the inaugural artistic director of Art Basel’s first fair in Qatar this year.
His influence goes beyond the art market, though. His Drama 1882, an operatic retelling of Egypt’s Urabi Revolt, became one of the standout works of the 2024 Venice Biennale and has since traveled internationally.
Across his work, Shawky turns history into something theatrical, strange, and unmistakably seen through an Arab lens.
Five Artists, Five Very Different Ways Of Seeing
From sound as evidence to art as repair, curation as connection, and history as something to be rewritten, these five figures are influencing the art world in very different ways.
And that might be the most interesting part: there’s no single “Arab” approach to contemporary art. There are simply more stories, perspectives, and ways of seeing making their way onto the global stage.
WE SAID THIS: don’t miss…Wael Shawky on Leading the First Art Basel Qatar: An Interview
