Text: Salwat Ali
Photography: Courtesy of Art Dubai
Festival city Dubai famed for its assorted activity calendar chock full with ‘events’ had to reset its priorities as it too reeled under the pressures of the economic slump. However, defying recession woes and setbacks caused by important galleries pulling out at the last minute, Art Dubai still managed to roll out its fourth edition with considerable panache within its designated timeframe of mid-March 2010.
Unlike established western art fairs Art Dubai does not have the quality that connoisseurs are accustomed to at Basel or London's Frieze. Variously referred to as an Emirates Art Bazaar in a City of Bling, An Evolving Art Market, A barometer for Middle Eastern Art and a synergistic, multi-platform, full-spectrum affair, Art Dubai is situated in an emerging market that is still coming to grips with contemporary Western art. It is also often compared to Hong Kong's ART HK, “Collectors are learning how to buy art," Wendy Norris of San Francisco's Frey Norris gallery said of the fair. "We did the Hong Kong festival in May. There are a lot of similarities. Hong Kong is more mature, but they are both hubs. Art Info analyses that in contrast to other ambitious fairs that have sought to branch out internationally in recent years, Art Dubai has followed a different path, maturing into a more regional niche. That the majority of exhibitors fit the MENASA mold — hailing from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia — was the outcome of the fair’s “organic, non-prescriptive development,” according to Art Dubai director and co-founder John Martin.
