The worldwide artwork world’s pilgrimage towards the Gulf continues! No sooner had the ceasefire settlement and Artwork Basel Qatar’s roster of 87 galleries been introduced than Frieze made its countermove, revealing plans for a brand new Abu Dhabi version in 2026. For months, whispers swirled that Artwork Basel was courting Abu Dhabi Artwork Truthful—till its union with Qatar rendered that little bit of intel moot. Frieze, ever attuned to timing and terrain, seized the opening, signing a partnership with the Division of Tradition and Tourism-Abu Dhabi to safe an outpost within the area.
H.E. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Division of Tradition and Tourism-Abu Dhabi, described Frieze Abu Dhabi because the evolution of an almost two-decade journey during which Abu Dhabi Artwork Truthful has helped anchor and foster town’s rising cultural ecosystem. “It’s rooted within the achievements of Abu Dhabi Artwork and can carry them onto the worldwide stage, reinforcing the emirate’s place as a cultural capital whereas providing Frieze a novel gateway to the area,” he mentioned in a press release. “Mixed with the attain of Frieze’s world platform, we are able to amplify the emirate’s achievements whereas opening new prospects for discovery, championing creative practices from the area, and shaping the truthful as an area for dialog and change,” added Frieze CEO Simon Fox.
In 2025, Abu Dhabi Artwork Truthful will host its seventeenth version as scheduled between November 18 and 21, with greater than 140 galleries. The partnership and new identify will take full impact with subsequent yr’s version, to be held in November 2026 at Manarat Al Saadiyat.
Though most galleries within the U.A.E. are concentrated round Dubai, Abu Dhabi has been positioning itself because the nation’s true cultural capital, with a rising variety of museums and establishments already open or underneath development—together with the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi (which opened in 2016) and the NYU Abu Dhabi Artwork Gallery (which opened in 2014). Set to open this December is the extremely anticipated Zayed Nationwide Museum, a landmark devoted to the U.A.E.’s historical past, tradition and tales—narratives deeply intertwined with these of its neighbors and formed by centuries of change as a worldwide commerce hub. Located within the coronary heart of Abu Dhabi’s quickly increasing Saadiyat Cultural District, the museum will current 300,000 years of human historical past throughout six galleries on two flooring, complemented by non permanent exhibitions, an energetic analysis middle and a slate of public packages. “The Zayed Nationwide Museum will function an anchor establishment of a story ecosystem—one thing that issues not simply inside the Saadiyat Cultural District, however throughout Abu Dhabi and the U.A.E.,” museum director Dr. Peter Magee instructed Observer earlier this yr.
In the meantime, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will lastly open early subsequent yr after years of delays and controversy. Designed by Frank Gehry and initially scheduled to debut in 2012—then postponed to 2017, 2022, and 2025—the challenge has confronted repeated delays because of monetary slowdowns, contract renegotiations, labor points and development pauses.
Over the previous decade, the U.A.E. has strategically made tradition and the humanities a pillar of its financial diversification technique, positioning the nation as a worldwide cultural hub. Because of this, the cultural panorama has been shifting and rising quickly, together with a brand new, enthusiastic, and more and more subtle viewers for artwork and tradition. “Our nationwide horizon is not outlined by oil or finance. We’re shifting to a knowledge-based economic system,” Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, founding father of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Basis (ADMAF), instructed Observer earlier this yr. Performing as a cornerstone of Abu Dhabi’s rise as a cultural capital, ADMAF continues to play a key position on this transformation. In line with Alkhamis-Kanoo, sustained funding in tradition—each private and non-private—is reshaping how folks within the U.A.E. think about the longer term.
Public sale homes have additionally been turning their consideration to the U.A.E.—and Abu Dhabi particularly. Sotheby’s Gulf technique for the area is now unfolding following the worldwide public sale home’s $1 billion funding deal final yr with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ. Earlier this month, Sotheby’s staged its first November public sale preview within the Center East, presenting a trove of Western masterpieces collectively valued at $150 million on the personal Bassam Freiha Artwork Basis in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island Cultural District earlier than sending them to public sale in New York. The preview of the marquee November gross sales in New York preceded Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week—Sotheby’s first sequence of luxurious marquee gross sales within the emirate—held on the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort in early December. “With the Center East—and the U.A.E. particularly—changing into a dynamic pressure in high-end gathering, this new chapter permits us to carry once-in-a-lifetime treasures on to a rising viewers of passionate and complex collectors,” Josh Pullan, head of Sotheby’s World Luxurious Division, instructed Observer. These first auctions within the U.A.E. comply with Sotheby’s inaugural Saudi Arabian public sale in Diriyah, which closed at $17 million final February.
Frieze Abu Dhabi is the most recent addition to Frieze’s portfolio, which incorporates editions in New York, Los Angeles and Seoul, alongside its authentic London truthful launched in 2003 throughout a really totally different, buoyant growth within the artwork market and a wave of internationalization. In 2023, Frieze additionally acquired The Armory Present in New York and EXPO CHICAGO, increasing its U.S. footprint and cementing its place because the dominant truthful operator within the nation. Earlier this yr, Frieze was acquired by Hollywood mogul and former CEO Ari Emanuel via his newly shaped firm Mari in a deal valued at $200 million and anticipated to shut within the third quarter of 2025, in keeping with a press release launched by Endeavor, which offered it. Regardless of Frieze’s ongoing world growth, Endeavor reported a web lack of $253.8 million in Q3 2024, with its occasions phase—together with Frieze—down 20.1 p.c yr over yr.
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