April 2012
MANAMA
CAPITAL
OF
ARAB
CULTURE
2012
CAPITAL
OF
ARAB
CULTURE
2012
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Art Fair - NEWS
April
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Selected works from the
38th Annual Fine Arts Exhibition
38th Annual Fine Arts Exhibition
ART DUBAI 2012 OPENS FOR VIPS ON TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 20TH
ART DUBAI was opened by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and visited by Art Dubai’s patron, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. HH Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum inaugurating the fair’s Ladies’ Day.
The glittering opening of Art Dubai 2012 at the Jumeirah Medinat Hotel, had all of the tra ppings of a Hollywood premiere, -- except that the guests hailed from all over the world ---and ranged from royals from the GCC to American and British ex-pats and their well-heeled wives to serious gallerists and museum directors -- who distinguished themselves by dressing down and peering over serious looking eyeglasses.
The party, which took place from 5pm on, had guests knee-deep jockeying for coveted Collector’s Circle tickets, to VIP tickets of differing colors that allowed them beyond the red velvet ropes and imposing bodyguards at the doors of the sprawling hotel.
Designed as an homage to “old Arabia”, the Medinat is a veritable city in itself with sand-colored buildings topped by wind towers, lush gardens of palm trees ringed with twinkling white lights and meandering waterways. Many of the areas of the hotel were transformed for the fair into white-tented dining terraces, wine bars and stand up espresso bars, where guests downed quick doubles for a pick me up and then headed back inside to brave the crush.
Inside the conference center, where the galleries are arranged into two halls, the serious business of art dealing began last night. The VIP opening is often the evening when the most expensive works of art are snapped up -- and the vibe at this year’s fair was that business was bustling -- especially for the work of artists from the ME.NA.SA region which are now climbing in price and being sought after by collectors outside of the Gulf.
Standout booths included Gallery Isabelle van Eynde which mixed work as diverse as “Pop Mosque” by Algerian Zoulikha Bouabdellah, to a broken wooden parquet floor installation by Abdelkader Benchamma to a fabulous laser-cut stainless steel “Dump Truck” designed and executed by Belgian neo-conceptualist Wim Delvoye in the ornate and lacy style of a Gothic cathedral.
Bahrain’s own art afficionado and member of the Art Dubai Board of Patron’s Bashar Al Shroogi held pride of place at the center of a circle of guests listening to his advice on what to see and what to miss.
New York gallerist Leila Heller, who has become a fixture in the Dubai art scene, showed some of the most elegant work including beautifully detailed works on board mimicking Persian miniatures on a large scale by Shiva Ahmadi. Ms. Ahmadi’s largest work Safe Heaven was infinitely fascinating to look at as it mixed rich and traditional images from Islamic art including gilded mosques and camels with nuclear power plants and bombs. Ahmadi’s work was perhaps the most successful at capturing what many of the artists on exhibit were attempting to achieve a blending of old and new, east and west and a sense of the instability and uncertainty in the world today.
The glittering opening of Art Dubai 2012 at the Jumeirah Medinat Hotel, had all of the tra ppings of a Hollywood premiere, -- except that the guests hailed from all over the world ---and ranged from royals from the GCC to American and British ex-pats and their well-heeled wives to serious gallerists and museum directors -- who distinguished themselves by dressing down and peering over serious looking eyeglasses.
The party, which took place from 5pm on, had guests knee-deep jockeying for coveted Collector’s Circle tickets, to VIP tickets of differing colors that allowed them beyond the red velvet ropes and imposing bodyguards at the doors of the sprawling hotel.
Designed as an homage to “old Arabia”, the Medinat is a veritable city in itself with sand-colored buildings topped by wind towers, lush gardens of palm trees ringed with twinkling white lights and meandering waterways. Many of the areas of the hotel were transformed for the fair into white-tented dining terraces, wine bars and stand up espresso bars, where guests downed quick doubles for a pick me up and then headed back inside to brave the crush.
Inside the conference center, where the galleries are arranged into two halls, the serious business of art dealing began last night. The VIP opening is often the evening when the most expensive works of art are snapped up -- and the vibe at this year’s fair was that business was bustling -- especially for the work of artists from the ME.NA.SA region which are now climbing in price and being sought after by collectors outside of the Gulf.
Standout booths included Gallery Isabelle van Eynde which mixed work as diverse as “Pop Mosque” by Algerian Zoulikha Bouabdellah, to a broken wooden parquet floor installation by Abdelkader Benchamma to a fabulous laser-cut stainless steel “Dump Truck” designed and executed by Belgian neo-conceptualist Wim Delvoye in the ornate and lacy style of a Gothic cathedral.
Bahrain’s own art afficionado and member of the Art Dubai Board of Patron’s Bashar Al Shroogi held pride of place at the center of a circle of guests listening to his advice on what to see and what to miss.
New York gallerist Leila Heller, who has become a fixture in the Dubai art scene, showed some of the most elegant work including beautifully detailed works on board mimicking Persian miniatures on a large scale by Shiva Ahmadi. Ms. Ahmadi’s largest work Safe Heaven was infinitely fascinating to look at as it mixed rich and traditional images from Islamic art including gilded mosques and camels with nuclear power plants and bombs. Ahmadi’s work was perhaps the most successful at capturing what many of the artists on exhibit were attempting to achieve a blending of old and new, east and west and a sense of the instability and uncertainty in the world today.
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