London-based Frieze presently runs 7 art fairs around the globe and will certainly include another. On Friday, the firm introduced that it will certainly companion with the Division of Society and Tourist Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) to hold the exposition in Abu Dhabi in November 2026.
DCT Abu Dhabi is presently arranging the area’s leading regional reasonable, the Abu Dhabi Art Fair, which began in 2007. The 2025 version of the fair will certainly go on as intended. Frieze 2026 will certainly be the very first art fair in Abu Dhabi and will certainly be held at Manarat Al Saadiyat in the Saadiyat Cultural Area.
” For virtually twenty years, Abu Dhabi Art has actually symbolized our social vision as a motorist of discussion, link and creative thinking, and is sustained by a lively ecological community of galleries, residencies and establishments supporting well-known and arising musicians. The launch of Frieze Abu Dhabi is an all-natural advancement of this ideology,” Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, stated in a declaration on the trip. It is rooted in the success of Abu Dhabi’s arts and will certainly catapult them onto the international phase, sealing the emirate’s condition as a social resources while supplying Frieze Art Fair with an one-of-a-kind portal to the area. With each other we produce an event that not just has worldwide reach, yet is additionally carefully linked to Abu Dhabi’s worths and staminas. “
Frieze’s reasonable schedule has actually expanded gradually in the last few years. In 2023, it got the New york city Depot Program and the Chicago Presentation. In the very same year, it held a reasonable in Seoul and increased to Los Angeles in 2019 and New york city in 2012. Its trademark reasonable, Frieze London, opened its very first version in 2003, while Frieze Masters, held at the same time beyond of Minister’s Park, started in 2012. It currently additionally runs year-round event areas in London and Seoul.
Previously today, Frieze was formally obtained by Mari, a brand-new firm started by Ari Emanuel, which supposedly increased $2 billion in equity to back the brand-new endeavor, that includes a bulk risk in the tennis competition and collection agency vehicle public auction home. The brand-new firm’s primary capitalists are Beauty, RedBird Funding Allies and Qatar Investment Firm. The launch of Frieze Abu Dhabi “stands for the very first significant campaign under Frieze’s brand-new possession and shows a common passion to stress Abu Dhabi’s condition as a social and innovative center, while offering Frieze an one-of-a-kind placement within the Gulf’s a lot of developed arts ecological community,” a news release stated.
Frieze is not the very first worldwide art reasonable to be kept in the Bay Location. In Might this year, Art Basel introduced that it would certainly hold an art fair in Doha, the resources of Qatar. (In 2014 there were reports that Art Basel would certainly take control of Art Abu Dhabi and relaunch it as an Art Basel-branded program.) Art Basel Qatar is significantly various from various other programs placed on by the Swiss firm. It is smaller sized, with 87 exhibitors introduced previously today, and has an overarching curatorial motif selected by its creative supervisor, musician Wael Shawky.
In Abu Dhabi, Frieze Art Fair will certainly sign up with an expanding art scene with a number of establishments opening up or preparing to open up. These consist of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened up in 2016, and the New York City College Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, which opened up in 2014. The Zayed National Gallery, devoted to Emirati background and society, will certainly open up in December, while the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is anticipated to open up following year.
While Abu Dhabi, called the globe’s wealthiest city in 2024, does not have a solid industrial gallery scene like neighboring Dubai, the emirate has actually constantly been energetic in the art market. In 2024, Sotheby’s got a cash money mixture of US$ 1 billion from the UAE sovereign wide range fund ADQ. In February this year, the public auction held its very first public auction in Saudi Arabia, which produced $17.3 million. In December, it will certainly hold the very first Abu Dhabi Collectors Week, a collection of high-end public auctions that will certainly combine vehicles, watches and jewelry.
” We are recognized to companion with DCT Abu Dhabi to introduce Frieze Abu Dhabi,” stated Simon Fox, Chief Executive Officer of Frieze Abu Dhabi, in a declaration. “Abu Dhabi’s social management, secured by its first-rate galleries, establishments and dedication to the arts, establishes the phase for this cooperation. Integrated with the reach of Frieze’s international system, we can broaden the emirate’s success while opening brand-new opportunities for exploration, promoting the area’s creative techniques and developing the reasonable as a room for discussion and exchange.”