Art Dubai 2008
By: Salwat Ali
IMAGES: COURTESY OF ART DUBAI
Dubai as a commercial hub is embracing glamour and high profile consumerism with tremendous gusto. Its ongoing focus on establishing a global cultural climate also centralizes on patronizing the arts. A considerable amount of attention is now being lavished on fine arts and the genre was projected to immense advantage when the idea of the first international fair in the Middle East, the Gulf Art Fair, was dreamt up by London dealer John Martin and Dubai businessman Ben Floyd in the summer of 2005. Without a single gallery in hand they reserved the multi-purpose Madinat Arena. Styled like an ancient Arabian citadel and in the shadow of the seven-star, sail-shaped Burj Al Arab, the tallest hotel in the world, the Arena was a perfect location to spotlight the creative arts. The rest is history.
Emerging from the success of last year’s Gulf Art Fair and taking full advantage of Dubai’s outstanding geographical location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe the current fair (renamed) Art Dubai 2008 has established itself as the Middle East’s premiere, art fair — in only its second year.
Almost double the number from last year’s event nearly 70 galleries from across the region and the world over set up stands at Art Dubai. There were a number of major Western galleries represented at Art Dubai. Ben Brown Fine Arts from London, Max Lang from New York, Walsh Gallery from Chicago, Galerie Sfeir-Semler from Hamburg, and Galerie Volker Diehl from Berlin were among them. Most of them seemed to approach the whole Dubai experience with a spirit of healthy experimentalism carrying blue chip modern masters like Picasso, Andy Warhol, De Buffet as well as the current top liners like Damien Hirst, Lucio Fontana, Candida Hofer, Gerhard Richter etc. Buyers took their pick of Andy Warhol’s depiction of cars, sold for $1.95 million, photographs by famous Iranian artist Shirin Neshat went for more than $300,000, and a Julian Opie piece fetched $62,000. Bonni Benrubi, the owner of an eponymous gallery in New York that specializes in photography, said the shifting global economy had reoriented her gallery toward more international clients. Among the most popular works at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery’s stand was a series depicting particle accelerators at the CERN Laboratory in Switzerland. British photographer Simon Norfolk captured the vast circular machines from above, producing images of intense, multicolored complexity that Benrubi compared to Tibetan mandalas. It was an appropriate comparison, perhaps, for a fair where Asian art took center stage, with approximately half the galleries coming from the Middle East, Central Asia and the Far East. Berlin’s Diehl brought Grozny born Alexie Kallima’s works to Dubai this year to establish a dialogue for Russian art with international dealers. But he admitted there was little interest there. “Art Dubai is more about eastern artists: Chinese, Indian, and from the Middle East,” he said.
Participating through special invitation the Pakistani entry “Desperately Seeking Paradise” curated by Salima Hashmi was one of the major highlights of the show. Displayed in an open air pavilion the art featured works of eleven emerging and mid career artists who approached ‘Paradise’ from startlingly independent perspectives. Addressing the geo political, social and cultural conflicts within the country their charged, critical content won considerable validation from visiting journalists reviewing the show. Huma Mulji’s piece “Arabian Delight” was snapped up by media mogul Charles Saatchi’s representatives for $8000 but it was also discovered later that her taxidermy camel stuffed inside a suitcase made “Arabian Delight” too much for the Arabs to handle at Art Dubai 2008. Since day one it was the talk of the fair, and on the second day the coordinators were asked to remove the piece from the grounds. They felt that the camel, which is their national animal and symbol of pride, was being shown in a derogatory way. Through her work, Mulji wished to attract attention to the import-export of contraband items through personal luggage with probably a reference point to the young boys imported by Arabs to serve as camel-jockeys.
The car park of the Madinat Jumeirah was made-over into an art park to accommodate video, installation, sculpture and assemblage. Courtesy Green Cardamom Gallery, London, Pakistani art was given vantage viewing here. Muhammed Zeeshan had constructed an installation of the American flag making innovative use of the red Coke and blue Pepsi cans. By asking visitors to partake of the canned drinks right off from the installation he managed to disintegrate the said flag. Khalil Chistee’s works are sculpted from plastic bags that are molded and melted into shape through heat, and are always made on-site. Using this robust yet slight material, the artist had created ethereal figures that are suspended – seemingly floating – in space, yet formed with a sculptural precision and great attention to detail, innately evocative of human frailty. The apparent fragility, nevertheless, is contested by the durability and indestructibility of their material. His creatures, as he calls them, are neither static nor dynamic. This contradiction suits Chishtee well, an artist discontent with many of the issues of today’s “plastic age” consumer culture.
More political comment was in evidence at the fair, although in a fairly restrained way. Bolsa de Arte gallery, from Brazil, showed Alex Flemming’s “Flying Carpet”, wooden cut-outs of war planes covered in oriental carpet. The carpet reappeared in a striking piece by Rashid Rana from the Mumbai gallery Chemould Prescott Road. From afar, “Red Carpet 1″ looked like a traditional carpet; up close, its pattern pixilated into thousands of scenes of modern life that contrasted cruelly with that first cozy impression.
Perhaps the single real shock was delivered by a large and luscious photographic image by the Dutch artist Raine Junghams entitled “National Bank of Dubai”. One of the city’s landmark skyscrapers gleams gold-fronted in the sunshine against a peerless blue sky, an image of solidity that is apparently invincible – except for the small plane in the sky to one side.
The veil (Hejab) as a symbol of female repression, a much exploited issue by now still enjoyed some perky and varied interpretations at the festival. Moroccan photographer Lalla Essaydi’s chador clad woman was portrayed in an uncertain space as though caught between past and present and east and west. For photographer Shadi Ghadirian the chador symbolized the uniqueness of being a woman in Iran. Farhad Moshiri’s “Hejab Barbie” was an amusing inversion of the ultimate, most popular girlie doll in the west. Emancipation denied was writ all over MF Hussains “Women from Yemen” and Abelardo Morells “Old travel Algerian Woman” was clearly weighed, shackled and bound by tradition. And veiled only in a haze of smoke Youssef Nabils “Fifi Smoking” was certainly an attractive sight to behold.
Clusters of visitors gathered at the stands of Gallery Espace from New Delhi, which featured conceptual paintings involving Hindu deities. Art from around 50 artists from the Middle East region were for sale at the show, from recent auction record-breakers such as Fateh Moudarres, Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Neshat to some completely unknown to the market and unseen for decades, establishing a strong and vibrant secondary market for Arab and Iranian art in the region.
Overall, painting and photography dominated in the exhibition booths at Art Dubai – there were few sculptural objects; abstraction ruled, and of course local prohibitions against nudity and the erotic (well exploited in other art fairs) were carefully adhered to. Some visitors appreciate the lack of brazenness so peculiar to western art fairs – perhaps the challenging of that conception is the most interesting reason to come here.
Then there are other factors too that will boost Art Dubai. “In the face of a possible international decline in the financial markets, the global art market is looking to the emerging markets of the Middle East and South Asia to keep it fuelled,” said John Martin, director of Art Dubai. And the growth of the region’s finance sector is creating a new generation of young, highly-educated collectors. Indeed, art galleries have mushroomed in Dubai and a healthy competition has developed with Abu Dhabi, which is building five art and culture centers on Saadiyat Island. Those centers will include a branch of the Louvre and the Guggenheim, with buildings designed by leading architects including Frank Gehry.
“Maybe two years ago if you had tried to associate Dubai as a commercial art centre, you would have met with skepticism,” Floyd said. “Now the idea of Dubai becoming a rival art centre to cities like London and New York is a pertinent question. We still have a lot of potential to tap here.”
With a record number of 12,000 visitors from every continent plus more than 240 journalists attending Art Dubai, the fair attracted more regional and international interest than anticipated. Up to 40 new galleries have already registered their interest in applying for next year’s event, and in initial surveys, exhibitors reported high satisfaction with sales results and new contacts made.
Other highlights of Art Dubai 2008 included the launch of the Abraaj Capital Art prize in partnership with Abraaj Capital, the premier investment firm specializing in private equity investment in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region; the global opening of the Credit Suisse Art & Entrepreneurship exhibition; and the glittering Patron’s Preview hosted by official hotel partner Madinat Jumeirah.
IMAGES: COURTESY OF ART DUBAI
Dubai as a commercial hub is embracing glamour and high profile consumerism with tremendous gusto. Its ongoing focus on establishing a global cultural climate also centralizes on patronizing the arts. A considerable amount of attention is now being lavished on fine arts and the genre was projected to immense advantage when the idea of the first international fair in the Middle East, the Gulf Art Fair, was dreamt up by London dealer John Martin and Dubai businessman Ben Floyd in the summer of 2005. Without a single gallery in hand they reserved the multi-purpose Madinat Arena. Styled like an ancient Arabian citadel and in the shadow of the seven-star, sail-shaped Burj Al Arab, the tallest hotel in the world, the Arena was a perfect location to spotlight the creative arts. The rest is history.
Emerging from the success of last year’s Gulf Art Fair and taking full advantage of Dubai’s outstanding geographical location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe the current fair (renamed) Art Dubai 2008 has established itself as the Middle East’s premiere, art fair — in only its second year.
Almost double the number from last year’s event nearly 70 galleries from across the region and the world over set up stands at Art Dubai. There were a number of major Western galleries represented at Art Dubai. Ben Brown Fine Arts from London, Max Lang from New York, Walsh Gallery from Chicago, Galerie Sfeir-Semler from Hamburg, and Galerie Volker Diehl from Berlin were among them. Most of them seemed to approach the whole Dubai experience with a spirit of healthy experimentalism carrying blue chip modern masters like Picasso, Andy Warhol, De Buffet as well as the current top liners like Damien Hirst, Lucio Fontana, Candida Hofer, Gerhard Richter etc. Buyers took their pick of Andy Warhol’s depiction of cars, sold for $1.95 million, photographs by famous Iranian artist Shirin Neshat went for more than $300,000, and a Julian Opie piece fetched $62,000. Bonni Benrubi, the owner of an eponymous gallery in New York that specializes in photography, said the shifting global economy had reoriented her gallery toward more international clients. Among the most popular works at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery’s stand was a series depicting particle accelerators at the CERN Laboratory in Switzerland. British photographer Simon Norfolk captured the vast circular machines from above, producing images of intense, multicolored complexity that Benrubi compared to Tibetan mandalas. It was an appropriate comparison, perhaps, for a fair where Asian art took center stage, with approximately half the galleries coming from the Middle East, Central Asia and the Far East. Berlin’s Diehl brought Grozny born Alexie Kallima’s works to Dubai this year to establish a dialogue for Russian art with international dealers. But he admitted there was little interest there. “Art Dubai is more about eastern artists: Chinese, Indian, and from the Middle East,” he said.
Participating through special invitation the Pakistani entry “Desperately Seeking Paradise” curated by Salima Hashmi was one of the major highlights of the show. Displayed in an open air pavilion the art featured works of eleven emerging and mid career artists who approached ‘Paradise’ from startlingly independent perspectives. Addressing the geo political, social and cultural conflicts within the country their charged, critical content won considerable validation from visiting journalists reviewing the show. Huma Mulji’s piece “Arabian Delight” was snapped up by media mogul Charles Saatchi’s representatives for $8000 but it was also discovered later that her taxidermy camel stuffed inside a suitcase made “Arabian Delight” too much for the Arabs to handle at Art Dubai 2008. Since day one it was the talk of the fair, and on the second day the coordinators were asked to remove the piece from the grounds. They felt that the camel, which is their national animal and symbol of pride, was being shown in a derogatory way. Through her work, Mulji wished to attract attention to the import-export of contraband items through personal luggage with probably a reference point to the young boys imported by Arabs to serve as camel-jockeys.
The car park of the Madinat Jumeirah was made-over into an art park to accommodate video, installation, sculpture and assemblage. Courtesy Green Cardamom Gallery, London, Pakistani art was given vantage viewing here. Muhammed Zeeshan had constructed an installation of the American flag making innovative use of the red Coke and blue Pepsi cans. By asking visitors to partake of the canned drinks right off from the installation he managed to disintegrate the said flag. Khalil Chistee’s works are sculpted from plastic bags that are molded and melted into shape through heat, and are always made on-site. Using this robust yet slight material, the artist had created ethereal figures that are suspended – seemingly floating – in space, yet formed with a sculptural precision and great attention to detail, innately evocative of human frailty. The apparent fragility, nevertheless, is contested by the durability and indestructibility of their material. His creatures, as he calls them, are neither static nor dynamic. This contradiction suits Chishtee well, an artist discontent with many of the issues of today’s “plastic age” consumer culture.
More political comment was in evidence at the fair, although in a fairly restrained way. Bolsa de Arte gallery, from Brazil, showed Alex Flemming’s “Flying Carpet”, wooden cut-outs of war planes covered in oriental carpet. The carpet reappeared in a striking piece by Rashid Rana from the Mumbai gallery Chemould Prescott Road. From afar, “Red Carpet 1″ looked like a traditional carpet; up close, its pattern pixilated into thousands of scenes of modern life that contrasted cruelly with that first cozy impression.
Perhaps the single real shock was delivered by a large and luscious photographic image by the Dutch artist Raine Junghams entitled “National Bank of Dubai”. One of the city’s landmark skyscrapers gleams gold-fronted in the sunshine against a peerless blue sky, an image of solidity that is apparently invincible – except for the small plane in the sky to one side.
The veil (Hejab) as a symbol of female repression, a much exploited issue by now still enjoyed some perky and varied interpretations at the festival. Moroccan photographer Lalla Essaydi’s chador clad woman was portrayed in an uncertain space as though caught between past and present and east and west. For photographer Shadi Ghadirian the chador symbolized the uniqueness of being a woman in Iran. Farhad Moshiri’s “Hejab Barbie” was an amusing inversion of the ultimate, most popular girlie doll in the west. Emancipation denied was writ all over MF Hussains “Women from Yemen” and Abelardo Morells “Old travel Algerian Woman” was clearly weighed, shackled and bound by tradition. And veiled only in a haze of smoke Youssef Nabils “Fifi Smoking” was certainly an attractive sight to behold.
Clusters of visitors gathered at the stands of Gallery Espace from New Delhi, which featured conceptual paintings involving Hindu deities. Art from around 50 artists from the Middle East region were for sale at the show, from recent auction record-breakers such as Fateh Moudarres, Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Neshat to some completely unknown to the market and unseen for decades, establishing a strong and vibrant secondary market for Arab and Iranian art in the region.
Overall, painting and photography dominated in the exhibition booths at Art Dubai – there were few sculptural objects; abstraction ruled, and of course local prohibitions against nudity and the erotic (well exploited in other art fairs) were carefully adhered to. Some visitors appreciate the lack of brazenness so peculiar to western art fairs – perhaps the challenging of that conception is the most interesting reason to come here.
Then there are other factors too that will boost Art Dubai. “In the face of a possible international decline in the financial markets, the global art market is looking to the emerging markets of the Middle East and South Asia to keep it fuelled,” said John Martin, director of Art Dubai. And the growth of the region’s finance sector is creating a new generation of young, highly-educated collectors. Indeed, art galleries have mushroomed in Dubai and a healthy competition has developed with Abu Dhabi, which is building five art and culture centers on Saadiyat Island. Those centers will include a branch of the Louvre and the Guggenheim, with buildings designed by leading architects including Frank Gehry.
“Maybe two years ago if you had tried to associate Dubai as a commercial art centre, you would have met with skepticism,” Floyd said. “Now the idea of Dubai becoming a rival art centre to cities like London and New York is a pertinent question. We still have a lot of potential to tap here.”
With a record number of 12,000 visitors from every continent plus more than 240 journalists attending Art Dubai, the fair attracted more regional and international interest than anticipated. Up to 40 new galleries have already registered their interest in applying for next year’s event, and in initial surveys, exhibitors reported high satisfaction with sales results and new contacts made.
Other highlights of Art Dubai 2008 included the launch of the Abraaj Capital Art prize in partnership with Abraaj Capital, the premier investment firm specializing in private equity investment in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region; the global opening of the Credit Suisse Art & Entrepreneurship exhibition; and the glittering Patron’s Preview hosted by official hotel partner Madinat Jumeirah.
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