This guide is the honest version of what it takes.
Opening a gallery in Dubai is easier to license and harder to sustain than most people expect. Here is the honest version — what the licence really costs, where to set up, how the consignment model works, what customs and the freeport change, and the market reality you are walking into in 2026.
How Hassan Sharif and the artists known as "the Five" built conceptual art in the UAE from nothing
Before the Louvre came to Abu Dhabi and Alserkal filled with galleries, a small group of artists made conceptual art in the UAE with almost no audience and a great deal of ridicule. This is the story of Hassan Sharif and the pioneers who built a scene from nothing — and why their work still anchors Emirati art today.
The Saadiyat Island museum announces a year-long programme that moves from ancient board games and Indian Ocean trade routes to conflict-zone heritage preservation and a first-ever GCC–India contemporary art prize.
Louvre Abu Dhabi has announced four major exhibitions for its 2026–2027 season, tracing a single curatorial thread — exchange, movement, and cultural resilience — across ancient board games, Indian Ocean maritime history, a landmark GCC–India contemporary art prize, and heritage preservation in conflict zones.
How a row of Al Quoz warehouses became the most serious address in Gulf contemporary art — and how to navigate its galleries, foundations and programme.
Alserkal Avenue sits in Al Quoz Industrial Area 1 — a grid of concrete warehouses and marble workshops wedged between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road — and it is, improbably, the most culturally credible square kilometre in the Gulf.
A field guide to collecting Arab and Middle Eastern art — who buys, what it costs, why prices lag cultural significance, and where collectors are looking now.
How the Arab world went from selling its art history to the West to building the fastest-growing market for Middle Eastern art on earth — who buys, why, what it costs, and where the smart money is looking now
The fair's 12th edition moves to a new venue, introduces a dedicated photography section and expands its mentorship programme — here is everything you need to know.
World Art Dubai returns for its 12th edition from 19 to 22 November 2026, this time at a new home — Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City. With over 10,000 works from 65 countries, a new dedicated photography section and an expanded mentorship programme, here is everything galleries and collectors need to know.
An entire century of extraordinary painting, sculpture and radical thinking got written out of the global canon. Someone made that decision. And now the market — and the collectors who pay attention — are making a different one.
Great art does not become invisible by accident. Arab Modernism reveals how museums, markets and cultural institutions shape what the world sees — and what it overlooks. A story about artists, recognition and the blind spots that define art history.
Galleries across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah are keeping their doors open through the summer months — with seven exhibitions running well into September.
From Abu Dhabi's Cultural Foundation to Sharjah's arts district, galleries and cultural institutions across the UAE have mapped out an ambitious summer programme that runs well into September — defying the region's traditionally quieter months.
