words MURTAZA VALI
Dubai: than developing one on its own terms, the Third Line also supports the nascent local art scene through group shows of emerging Emirati artists, student exhibitions, lectures and film screenings.
Across the street is Palestinian Jeffar Khaldi’s B21 Progressive Art Entrepôt
Art Gallery. A painter himself, Khaldi saw an entire exhibition of his own
large neo-expressionist canvases sell out during March’s DIFC Gulf
Art Fair. The gallery’s lineup includes Cairo-based photographers Lara
Baladi and Sabah Naim, and in January it held a retrospective of the
Dubai’s galleries balance support for the widely exhibited Tehran-based photographer Shadi Ghadirian, best known for her Like Every Day series (2002), in which simple kitchen
local contemporary art scene with the utensils obscure the faces of women clad in colourful patterned
demands of cosmopolitan new collectors chadors. Located nearby, Meem Gallery might be the closest Dubai has to a blue chip. It is devoted to the masters of modern Arab
painting, stalwarts of calligraphic Modernism such as Egyptian Ahmed
Moustafa and Libyan Ali Omar Ermes, whose January solo officially
inaugurated Meem’s new space. The gallery’s impressive roster also
boasts internationally renowned artists like Shirin Neshat and Mona
Hatoum as well as text-and-symbol-obsessed Algerian conceptualist
Rachid Koraïchi and modernist Iraqi painter Dia Azzawi.
Dubai’s proximity to India and the large community of wealthy
Indians based in the Gulf ensures strong interest in modern and
contemporary Indian art. Located in Jumeirah, Malini Gulrajani’s 1x1
Art Space has exhibited painters Jatin Das, Jogen Chowdhury and
M.F. Husain, and most recently presented a theatrical installation by
Not blessed with huge oil reserves, the rulers of Dubai have long Paris-based Chittrovanu Mazumdar in a 4,000-square-foot temporary
focused their development efforts on trade, finance and hospitality, exhibition space in Al Quoz. Bagash Art Gallery, owned by Emirati
luring foreign investment and business through liberal economic collector Ali Bagash, reflects his longstanding interest in modern and
policies, tax-free status and streamlined free-trade and enterprise contemporary painting from India and Vietnam, and more recently
zones. The city has quickly emerged as the principal airline hub and Pakistan, Iran and Iraq.
trading port connecting Europe to Asia and Africa, and large volumes Bastakiya, a ‘heritage’ area located creekside in the heart of
of a variety of merchandise, both legal and contraband, change hands the city, is Dubai’s other gallery hub, home to Majlis Gallery, Dubai’s
here. Contemporary art is the latest. oldest, and XVA Gallery, a boutique hotel-cum-gallery. Housed in
Considering the bewildering rate and scale of property interlocking rooms around open-air courtyards, the galleries here have
development, the emergence of a dynamic art market is hardly a more intimate feel. A notable recent addition is Tehran-based gallerist
surprising; Dubai has plenty of empty white walls for art and the funds and artist Fereydoun Ave, who inaugurated his Dubai branch with new
necessary to acquire it. The auction held there by Christie’s in May photographs by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The quarter’s old
2006 was the benchmark, its tremendous success drawing international houses and narrow alleyways hosted the Creek Contemporary Art
media attention and jumpstarting local growth. A strategically chosen Fair, organised by a consortium of local galleries to coincide with the
selection of modern and contemporary art from the Middle East, Iran, more international DIFC Gulf Art Fair. Sponsored by the Third Line,
India and Pakistan both reflected Dubai’s inherent cosmopolitanism London-based Shezad Dawood debuted his Battle of Algiers Suite
– 80 percent of the population is expatriate – and appealed to local (2005), a series of paintings from memory of key moments in Gillo
and regional collectors increasingly interested in contemporary art Pontecorvo’s 1966 epic.
from the region. As the city emerges as a major regional, and possibly
Dubai’s small but rapidly growing gallery scene is following international, trading post for contemporary art, veteran Emirati
suit. A handful of new galleries have opened among the warehouses, artists fear the local avant-garde scene might be overlooked. With
showrooms and workshops of Al Quoz, a formerly remote industrial little public funding and arts infrastructure, opportunities to display
area now surrounded by Dubai’s many glittering new property and view non-commercial work are limited. Total Arts Gallery at the
developments. Leading the pack is the Third Line, which occupied a Courtyard, an Al Quoz pioneer, is an important exception and recently
converted warehouse in the area in September 2005. A pristine white hosted the two-part Dubai Dubai (2007). Featuring internationally
box, with requisite minimalist facade, the gallery daringly showcases exhibited local artists (both nationals and residents) like Mohammed
emerging and mid-career artists from across the Middle East, Kazem, Tarek Al-Ghoussein and Karima Al Shomaly, the exhibition
especially Iran, drawing on Iranian co-owner Sunny Rahbar’s extensive presented installation, video and photography that critically reflects on
global contacts. Recent shows have included the hip-hop- and graffiti- the profound transformations of everyday life resulting from Dubai’s
inspired drawings and paintings of San Francisco-based Ala Ebtekar dramatic metamorphosis. Stuck in a traffic jam, looking out across
and Los Angeles-based Amir H. Fallah; Tehran-based Farhad Moshiri’s Dubai’s surreal construction-crane-littered skyline, assailed by the
glitter- and crystal-encrusted acrylics inspired by his hometown’s many billboards presenting the city not as it is but as it will be, one can’t
kitsch confectionary and visual culture; and New York-based Egyptian help but wonder what the real Dubai, if it actually exists, might look,
photographer Youssef Nabil’s hand-tinted celebrity portraits and self- sound and feel like. The artists in Dubai Dubai probably come closest
portraits. Interested less in catering to an established collector base to capturing that sense of wonder.
ARTREVIEW eight.lintwo.lin
p081-087 Special Focus AR Jul07.82 82 6/6/07 22:36:01
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 148