Issued by the fair ahead of its opening, this programme announcement covers the award commission, a new annual pairing exhibition and the outdoor sculpture strand, with the first edition set for Manarat Al Saadiyat from 19 to 22 November 2026. Tabari is named directly: the gallery presents Zeinab AlHashemi's The Nut and Bolt in Frieze Sculpture Abu Dhabi.
That sculpture strand runs at Mamsha Beach on Saadiyat Island from 16 November to 16 December with Aldar as official partner, placing AlHashemi's work alongside Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim with Lawrie Shabibi, Imran Qureshi with Thaddaeus Ropac and Kamran Samimi with The Third Line. Elsewhere, Dala Nasser is confirmed as the first recipient of the Frieze Abu Dhabi Artist Award, supported by Friends of Frieze Abu Dhabi and selected by Nabila Abdel Nabi; her commission Qubbat Duris takes a thirteenth-century monument near Baalbek as its reference. In Dialogue, the fair's new flagship exhibition pairing an established artist with an emerging UAE one, opens with At Another Meeting Point, bringing Mohammed Kazem together with Alia Zaal under Dirwaza Curatorial Lab, founded by Munira Al Sayegh. More than eighty galleries from 36 countries and regions take part.
Being one of only four galleries attached to the sculpture programme places Tabari in the fair's most public tier, alongside its stand presentation, Be The Stone.
