Over the past two decades, Dubai has positioned itself as one of the biggest players in the art world. From an afterthought around the turn of the century, to one of the game’s most vibrant players, Dubai as an art scene has gone from strength to strength in recent years.
The city is home to some of the region’s most exceptional art galleries, where traditional meets modern against a backdrop of opulence and wealth.
Ayyam Gallery
Founded in Damascus in 2006, Ayyam Gallery has quickly established itself as one of the foremost art authorities across the Middle East.
Whilst promoting local and regional art remains their bread and butter, the gallery also supports grassroots art via initiatives such as the Shabab Ayyam programme for emerging artists. Additionally, they work side by side with charity auctions, whilst also providing educational programmes for the city’s youth.
The Alserkal Avenue-based gallery’s founders moved their project from Syria to Dubai during the Syrian Civil War, ensuring Syrian art not only survived, but flourished, and the project remains a family-run business. An important outlet for Middle Eastern art in general, Ayyam Gallery continues to represent the best the region has to offer, exhibiting contemporary works from a diverse range of artists such as Iraq’s Muatasim Alkubaisy, Palestine’s Ouassama Diab, as well as native Syrian, Tammam Azzam.
Open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tabari Artspace – DIFC
One of the elder statesmen of the Dubai art world, Tabari Artspace has been a constant in the city since 2003. Similar to Ayyam in how it gives a platform to artists from the MENA region, Tabari acts as an outlet for both breakthrough artists and those who have been around the proverbial block.
What makes Tabari stand out even further is their commitment to showcase the talents of female artists, who have traditionally been expected to take a backseat to more prominent male artists across the region.
Located in DIFC, just a stone’s throw from Jumeirah Emirates Towers, the gallery focuses on artists such as Nour Ammar, who shows off her talents through abstract works based on movement. With a wide range of resident artists on show, Tabari also covers concepts such as desire, through their collaboration with Malik Thomas Jalil, and more traditional fine art through Egyptian-Palestinian maestro, Samo Shalaby.
Tabari Artspace is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday.
Opera Gallery – Atlantis The Royal
Based on the world-famous Palm Jumeirah, Opera Gallery may appeal to the slightly more exotic taste. Exhibiting both modern and contemporary art, the gallery has, in the past, displayed works from international artists such as Switzerland’s Andy Denzler, self-taught visual artist Gustavo Nazareno, and former skateboarder and OBEY Clothing founder, Shepard Fairey. This diversity shows a commitment from Opera Gallery to exhibit a wide range of often conflicting ideas, putting them at the forefront of the Dubai art scene.
Upcoming exhibitions include works from Chinese-born French artist, Feng Xiao-Min, who has featured in galleries from South Korea to France. Feng has also published a plethora of books on both painting and calligraphy. Appearing concurrently with Feng is German visual artist Anselm Reyle, best known for his large-scale abstract paintings.
Whilst Opera is primarily a stand-alone Dubai art gallery, they are often present at art fairs around the world, exhibiting in a wide variety of cities across the globe, such as Seoul, Miami, Taipei and Paris, amongst others.
Opera Gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. with an extra hour on weekends.
Sotheby’s – DIFC
Known for its long association with all things exclusive, Sotheby’s is the world’s premier destination for high-class art.
As arguably the most trusted auction house on the planet, the centuries-old marketplace doesn’t just specialise in private sales and auctions, as one might imagine, but also offers exhibitions for art enthusiasts.
Sotheby’s Dubai, located in the heart of DIFC, presents a vast array of categories including contemporary and modern art, as well as impressionist art, ancient Chinese works, and art from the Islamic World and India.
The world-renowned brand has also been known to host in-house talks with artists, whilst also taking on bigger projects such as this year’s Islamic Arts Biennale, whom they will partner with in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Sotheby’s is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Leila Heller Gallery
A truly international gallery, Leila Heller first opened its doors on Emirati shores in 2015, but has a long and storied history in the United States.
One of the gallery's biggest selling points is its commitment to promoting collaboration between Western, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian artists, propelling it into the twentyfirst century as a pioneer of heterogeneity.
Over the years, Leila Heller has hosted curators featuring works from the likes of Warhol, Prince and Koons, amongst others. Opening in Dubai a decade ago, the Alserkal Avenue space boasts 16,500 square feet and 32-foot ceilings, making it one of the premier settings for art in the Middle East.
The gallery is dedicated to showing how established artists can evolve over time, in addition to its dynamic calendar, which has seen more than 40 exhibitions over the past two years. Artists featured at Leila Heller are consistently featured in international museum exhibitions and institutional collections around the world, which only serves to highlight the prestigious nature of the gallery.
Leile Heller is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Sundays.
Dubai, overlooked on the global art scene, has, over the past two decades, proven itself to be a major player in the space. Nowadays, the biggest names in the world of art can be found in the city’s galleries, showing just how far Dubai, and The Emirates have come.
