About Mid East Art:

Mid East Art is a digital storytelling platform of art and culture of the Middle East region. Founded and run by Suzy Sikorski, MEA acts as both an archival reference to document and analyze the regional modern art scenes, and a digital periodical of current artists and contemporary practices within and across the Diaspora. Its content is displayed through curated series, showcased in essays, video and text interviews, published articles and its Instagram @mideastart that includes informative posts and engaging stories.

As part of a larger need to continue art historical analysis and critique of the Middle Eastern art scene, MEA documents new art collectives while also paying homage to the foundations of established pioneer scenes in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Beirut, among others. The platform’s overarching emphasis seeks not only to contextualize the contemporary within modern art history, but also in bridging both Western and Middle Eastern audiences within global art historical discourse. Just as MEA narrates the wider Middle East region in its modern art history coverage, at present it largely focuses on the contemporary scene in the Arabian Gulf as it is run out of Dubai and continues to expand. This is made in part by the founder’s extensive research within the Gulf region—Suzy’s scholarship studies initially focused on the pioneer artists of the United Arab Emirates.

Suzy Sikorski is currently specializing in modern art history of the Arabian Gulf region. Originally from New York, she lives in Dubai where she continues to enjoy photography and creative writing, equipped with a passion to share stories of the regional cultural scene. She received a Fulbright Scholarship to the UAE in 2016-2017 and is currently a Specialist at Christie's in their Middle Eastern Modern & Contemporary art department, working alongside a dedicated team intent on internationalizing the regional market. 

Suzy received her Bachelor’s degree at Fordham University in NYC in Middle East Studies and completed her thesis on UAE Art History since the 1970s. In 2014 she studied abroad at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE and consistently traveled to the country for her undergrad thesis while assisting galleries at Abu Dhabi Art and Art Dubai.

Her projects have included assistant curating the 35th Annual Emirates Fine Art Society exhibition (2016-2017) that opened at Sharjah Art Museum in 2018, and publishing encyclopedia entries for older Emirati artists for Oxford University Press’ Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Her interviews and reviews are also featured in Canvas, ArtAsiaPacific, The National, Tribe and Harper’s Bazaar Art Arabia. They can be found here.