Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF), in collaboration with the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) – celebrated the success of the Proximities exhibition, held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Founding Honorary Patron of Abu Dhabi Festival.

Proximities is the first exhibition of UAE art at this scale in Korea and the largest exhibition of contemporary visual art from the UAE ever presented in East Asia.

As part of Abu Dahbi Festival’s “Abroad Programme,” the exhibition was inaugurated by ADMAF and SeMA in Seoul on 15th December 2025 and ran until 29th March 2026, welcoming a total of more than 75,000 visitors.

Proximities brought together more than 110 works by 47 UAE-based artists, including 33 Emirati artists, presented at SeMA. The exhibition marked the second chapter of the three-year institutional collaboration between ADMAF and SeMA.

The first instalment, Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits, co-curated by Maya El Khalil and Kyung-Hwan Yeo, was presented at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi from 16th May to 30th June 2025 and explored media-based practices from Korea spanning the 1960s to the present.

Both exhibitions and the accompanying public programme attracted audiences from around the world, marking a significant milestone in cultural exchange between Korea and the UAE and deepening international engagement with the diverse facets of each country’s art scene.

Concluding this two-part institutional collaboration, two joint publications were launched in March 2026 as part of the Proximities public programme, where curators Maya El Khalil, Eunju Kim and Kyung-Hwan Yeo introduced the catalogues documenting the exhibitions in Seoul and Abu Dhabi.

The publications serve as a physical archive of the exhibitions, offering an opportunity to reflect on the curatorial journey and the dialogue that shaped both projects. They form a lasting record of the collaboration, bringing together artists, curators and practitioners from each country writing about the other, and documenting the exchange of ideas that took place between Korea and the UAE.

Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, Founder of ADMAF, and Founder and Artistic Director of Abu Dhabi Festival, said, “Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the exhibition Proximities, held over more than three months, marked a significant milestone in the historic partnership between the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation and the Seoul Museum of Art. Presented in the Korean capital, Seoul.

She added that the exhibition brought together artists from the UAE and Korea in a vibrant meeting of ideas and bonds of culture, cultivating meaningful artistic dialogue and a lasting cultural legacy. The exhibition featured 110 artworks by 47 artists from three generations, including 33 Emirati artists.

She continued, “The exhibition traced five decades of the emergence and evolution of contemporary Emirati art. Through its three sections, it highlighted diverse artistic perspectives reflecting a wide spectrum of ideas, experiences and creative trajectories, within contexts of exchange and dialogue, between tradition and transformation, harmony and contrast.

"Emirati artists preserved the authenticity of their visions while contributing to regional and global cultural discourse, bridging a rich heritage with a forward-looking future. Their works opened new interpretations and dimensions, embodying a vision that builds culture and strengthens human connection.”

"Layered Dialogues: We Are in Open Circuits" is the first of the two-part publication series produced in parallel with the two exhibitions of contemporary art developed through the institutional collaboration between ADMAF and SeMA.

Presenting media-based practices from Korea across more than four decades, the publication brings together 48 works by 29 artists with full-colour reproductions, installation views and detailed documentation, accompanied by essays, poetic readings and observations that speak to, and enter into dialogue with, the artworks, as well as the exhibition’s curatorial statements.

The second in this pair of companion publications, "Layered Dialogues: Proximities," showcases five decades of contemporary visual art from the UAE and the experiences of three generations of UAE-based artists, bringing them into dialogue with the Korean context.

Conceived as a critical companion to the exhibition Proximities, curated by Maya El Khalil and Eunju Kim, the volume features more than 110 works by 47 artists across three generations.

With contributions from UAE-based artists and Korean writers, it gathers perspectives formed through relation and difference, pairing artistic practices shaped by the UAE’s rapidly transforming social landscape with reflections from Korean voices responding from their historical and cultural vantage points.

Curator Maya El Khalil said, “Throughout this collaboration, we were driven by curiosity about what happens in moments of encounter. True exchange avoids telegraphing one scene into another and the publications also seek two-way transmission - situating UAE artistic practices in relation to Korean perspectives, and vice versa. Writers had an open-ended invitation to engage with the ideas proposed by each exhibition from their own vantage - no fixed topics or set briefs. To continue the dialogues in this experimental way - in Arabic, English and Korean - feels like the right kind of permanence.”

Curator Kyung-Hwan Yeo stated, “The exhibition and its catalogue share an organic, complementary relationship, each completing the other. For those who experienced the Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits exhibition firsthand at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, I hope this catalogue serves as a vessel for cherished memories.”

Sharing her thoughts, curator Eunju Kim said, "What we valued most in this collaboration was not simply introducing UAE contemporary art to Korea, but creating a process in which different cultural contexts could meet, be translated and be read anew. Proximities opened a new point of encounter for Korean audiences by presenting the diverse artistic practices of UAE based-artists, bringing different cultural experiences and sensibilities into dialogue."

"Layered Dialogues: Proximities" brings together the perspectives of artists, curators, artist-curators and contributors, whose layered viewpoints are gathered within the form of the book, giving greater depth and cohesion to the context of the exhibition. Through these perspectives, readers are invited to follow different interpretive pathways. In this sense, the publication goes beyond documenting the exhibition and becomes another space where the artistic dialogue between Korea and the UAE can continue to unfold."

Through the organisation of these exhibitions in collaboration with SeMA, ADMAF reaffirms the UAE’s commitment to fostering cultural dialogue and strengthening connections between artists in the UAE and the Republic of Korea, supporting shared creativity while enhancing people-to-people ties through art and knowledge.

This institutional partnership forms part of ADMAF’s broader cultural diplomacy mission, reinforcing the UAE’s soft power engagement through sustained and meaningful artistic collaboration.