The announcement that Frieze will take over the present Abu Dhabi Artwork (ADA) honest might have come as a shock to some key gamers within the Gulf artwork scene however, in line with Frieze’s chief government Simon Fox, the plan was “thought-about for a fairly very long time”. The evolution of Abu Dhabi’s artwork ecosystem has been “a few years within the making”, he provides, and now the “stars have aligned”.
Fox considers Abu Dhabi the “most fascinating market within the area”, citing the load of the foremost institutional initiatives newly opened or beneath approach on Saadiyat Island. He isn’t involved in regards to the native demand for up to date artwork, regardless of much less company patronage and fewer main non-public collections. “We don’t want any extra shopping for energy than what’s already in place, which has supported the expansion of ADA for the previous 17 years.” Furthermore, he believes that the Gulf is a “rising” market. “We’re in it for the long run.”
Taking on an present honest, fairly than launching a brand new one—as Artwork Basel is doing in Doha—was partly to keep away from “congesting the honest calendar”, Fox says. Nonetheless, launching in Abu Dhabi signifies that Frieze will maintain 4 gala’s in three months, which he admits might be “demanding”. The takeover is similar to its 2023 acquisitions of the Armory Present and Expo Chicago, however as a result of the Emirati honest might be rebranded, the “modifications might be extra noticeable”.
What this implies for the exhibitor listing of the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi in November 2026 stays to be seen, however most of the 140 galleries on this 12 months’s ADA (the most important version to this point and the final earlier than it’s rebranded) haven’t taken half in a Frieze honest earlier than.
No Abu Dhabi galleries are collaborating on this 12 months’s Frieze London or Masters. There are three exhibitors from Dubai—Lawrie Shabibi, Carbon 12 and Volte—plus two from the broader Gulf area, Dastan from Tehran and Athr from Saudi Arabia. Will this determine increase in future editions? “I’d hope so,” Fox says, pointing to the rise in attendance of Korean galleries at Frieze gala’s because the model launched in Seoul in 2022.
Based on the ADA director Dyala Nusseibeh, who will stay main the honest, the Frieze rebrand will “construct upon the work of ADA and push it outwards onto a worldwide stage”. In the meantime, Reem Fadda, the director of cultural programming for Abu Dhabi’s Division of Tradition and Tourism, says that “Frieze Abu Dhabi comes as a giant vote of confidence in Abu Dhabi’s market, improvement and the bigger illustration of the International South”.
