Liliane Lijn and Maurizio Cattelan to Feature in Second Edition of Art Basel Qatar

The US-born kinetic art pioneer Liliane Lijn is one of the featured artists in the second edition of Art Basel Qatar, to be held in Doha from January 26 to 30, 2027. Lijn, who made her name with her kinetic artworks Poem Machines (1962), where words blur as they spin at speed, and for her work with light, will be showing with the London and Piraeus-based gallerist Sylvia Kouvali.

The fair’s artistic director, the Iraqi curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi, the former director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, is presenting the theme “between” in a fair featuring 82 galleries, half of them from the Menasa (Middle East, North Africa and South Asia) region. The uber-gallery Gagosian will be showing the work of the artworld gadfly Maurizio Cattelan, whose banana-and-duct-tape conceptual work Comedian attracted bids from some of the biggest collectors of crypto art at Sotheby’s New York in November 2024.

The first iteration of Art Basel Qatar, held in Doha in February 2026, was curated by its artistic director, the artist Wael Shawky, with the theme “Becoming”, and featured large-scale projected works by the artists Bruce Nauman and Nalini Malani. In the event that the fair is postponed because of renewed hostilities in the Gulf region, exhibitors will have the option to defer participation until January 2028, or to receive a refund on their participation fee, according to The Art Newspaper.