Varun Kaji Shares the Best of Art Basel Doha 2026

For Varun Kaji, collecting is a practice of listening, learning, and positioning art within a broader web of histories, geographies, and lived experience. Known for a global curatorial approach that bridges South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, Kaji approaches fairs as radiant constellations of ideas. Art Basel Doha 2026 offered precisely that: a moment where institutional ambition, regional specificity, and international dialogue converged.

Throughout the week, Kaji gravitated toward works and encounters that privileged depth—projects shaped by thoughtful patronage, artists working through questions of memory, migration, ecology, and belief, and events that fostered genuine exchange. From monumental public commissions to intimate conversations and quietly resonant installations, his selections reflect a collector attuned to how art circulates socially as much as aesthetically. What follows is Kaji’s personal best of Art Basel Doha 2026—an itinerary guided by curiosity, care, and a belief in art’s capacity to build lasting cultural infrastructures.

Best Events

Jenny Holzer—SONG at the Museum of Islamic Art

On the eve of the fair’s first VIP Preview Day, Art Basel and Visit Qatar unveiled SONG, a monumental, site-responsive work by Jenny Holzer and the tenth commission in the fair’s Special Projects program. Presented at Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art, the work activated the museum through dual projections across the main façade and inner courtyard, culminating in a single, choreographed performance of over 700 drones illuminating the night sky. The evening set a powerful and poetic tone for the inaugural edition.

In the Assembly of Lovers—Dialogue with Sumayya Vally and Esther Perel

A standout moment of intimacy and intellectual depth. Held within Vally’s immersive architectural environment, the conversation between the artist-architect and renowned psychotherapist Esther Perel explored love, care, and collective belonging—transforming the space into a living cultural microcosm.

Levers of Change: How Is Patronage Shaping New Art Ecosystems?

An essential panel featuring Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani; Maja Hoffmann, Founder and President of the Luma Foundation; and moderated by Hans Ulrich Obrist. The discussion offered rare insight into how patronage, leadership, and institutional vision are actively reshaping global cultural infrastructures.

David Kordansky Gallery—Collector Dinner

An intimate gathering hosted on the eve of the fair, bringing together collectors and artists in a setting that emphasized dialogue, discretion, and meaningful connection—an elegant counterpoint to the scale of the fair itself.

Best Shows

What Dreams May Come—Rayyane Tabet

One of the fair’s most resonant installations. Tabet’s immersive work blurred boundaries between rest, reflection, and architecture, offering a contemplative space that unfolded slowly and thoughtfully. It became one of the most photographed—and quietly affecting—presentations of the week.

Hugo McCloud—Sean Kelly Gallery

McCloud’s presentation delivered a powerful engagement with themes of migration, global commerce, and ecology. The works moved seamlessly between painting and sculpture, balancing material intensity with conceptual urgency.

Ahmed Mater—ATHR Gallery

A compelling and confident presentation that reaffirmed Mater’s position as a leading voice in contemporary Saudi art. His work navigated faith, modernity, and social transformation with clarity and emotional depth.

Hazem Harb—Tabari Art Space

Harb’s layered compositions explored memory, fragmentation, and displacement through refined materiality and restrained abstraction. A quietly powerful booth that rewarded close looking.

Imran Qureshi—Nature Morte

Qureshi’s works offered moments of beauty and unease in equal measure, merging traditional techniques with contemporary political and poetic narratives.

Best Moment

Delfina Foundation Lunch

Hosted by Aaron Cezar and Reem El Roubi at the Mandarin Oriental, the Delfina Foundation lunch brought together patrons and artists in a relaxed and generous setting on VIP opening day—an atmosphere of exchange that felt both warm and intentional.

Best Surprise

I. M. Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art

Revisiting Pei’s architectural masterpiece was a reminder of its enduring elegance and precision—timeless, serene, and perfectly situated within Doha’s cultural landscape.

Jean Nouvel’s National Museum of Qatar

A visceral architectural experience that continues to astonish. Nouvel’s desert-rose form feels as radical today as it did upon opening.

Best Vibe

Rahaal World—Zekreet, Qatar

A flagship nomadic museum unfolding across three pavilions, an exhibition space, a salon, and a library, set within the historic nature reserve of Zekreet. Conceived by Mohammed Rashid Al Thani and William Cooper, Rahaal World offered one of the most atmospheric and forward-thinking cultural experiences of the week.

Richard Serra—East-West/West-East

Encountering Serra’s monumental intervention in the desert was a moment of awe. Set within the vast expanse of Brouq Nature Reserve, the four towering steel plates cut through the landscape with quiet authority, transforming the desert into a space of rhythm, scale, and contemplation. The work remains one of Qatar’s most powerful dialogues between art, land, and time.  

Best Discovery (Artist or Performer)

Lina Gazzaz—Tracing Lines of Growth (2024), Hafez Gallery

Working with discarded palm leaves hand-stitched with fine red and black threads, Saudi artist Lina Gazzaz transforms organic remnants into subtle records of time, labor, and survival. The veined surfaces evoke calligraphic scores—part botanical study, part musical notation—mapping growth, decay, and renewal. Rooted in Gulf ecologies and spiritual traditions, the work positions the palm as both witness and participant in the continual redefinition of human agency.