The Gulf has become an art market hot spot, but insiders say the biggest challenge facing its newest arrivals isn’t how to tap the region’s wealth, it’s how to unlearn assumptions that they may bring with them, particularly concerning the area’s money, power, and cultural depth.
With Art Basel Qatar debuting next week, the region is no longer a peripheral scene but a new axis of influence for the trade. Gulf nations’ seemingly budgetless state-led museum projects have attracted headlines abroad, but its commercial gallery scene has also been steadily growing. Alongside homegrown firms, European outfits have been establishing outposts, such as London’s Maddox gallery, which just opened in Dubai, and Colnaghi, which will open a Riyadh location this year, following a $2.7 million investment from a Saudi fund.
But the entry of the esteemed Swiss fair, and its rival, Frieze, in Abu Dhabi later this year has some concerned that it could be a case of too much, too soon. To avoid the boom-and-bust cycles of other emerging markets, those in the region said that it must be understood on its own terms.
“I don’t think you should ever arrive in a place with a formed idea,” said Alexie Glass-Kantor, who was tapped as Art Dubai’s curatorial director last year. “I think you should arrive prepared to listen and learn.”
Guards ride camels in front of the Qatari government palace Amiri Diwan in Doha during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Photo: Stefan Matzke – sampics/ Corbis via Getty Images.
Fair Games
By establishing footholds in the Gulf, the world’s two largest art fair brands have raised its profile dramatically, as other key global markets, like the U.S., U.K., and China, have contracted in recent years.
Art Basel’s first edition has 87 exhibitors, including the usual international blue-chip outfits, like Pace, David Zwirner, Thaddaeus Ropac, and Gladstone Gallery, and top regional dealers, like ATHR Gallery (which has three branches in Saudi Arabia) and the Third Line (Dubai). Unlike other Basels, the fair will be boothless, set in M7—a center for startups in fashion, design, and tech—and the Doha Design District building, which share a public square. Each exhibitor is limited to a solo artist presentation.
Frieze, for its part, is partnering with the long-running Abu Dhabi Art to launch Frieze Abu Dhabi in November. Its lineup has not been released.
M7 in Doha, where the first edition of Art Basel Qatar will be held. Courtesy of Art Basel
On a visit to Doha in October, Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz told me that Art Basel is building something “from the ground up” in Qatar, rather than “plugging into an existing system,” a perhaps thinly veiled dig at Frieze. “We’re going to constantly recalibrate and reassess opportunities,” he said of the new format and single-artist mandate, adding that “it was extremely clear from the outset, certainly for the first year, that we need to do something different.”
“The real question is, will these fairs help build sustainable careers for artists and galleries in the region, or will they simply look to extract value?” Mohammed Hafiz, a co-founder of ATHR Gallery, told me last year, ahead of Abu Dhabi Art (the final edition before it rebrands as a Frieze event). “If they commit to the former, and build,” he said, the Gulf is “absolutely ready.”
Not a Gold Rush
Many already working in the region stressed that the Gulf today has a strong sense of mutual exchange and collaboration. This moment should not be treated as a gold rush, they cautioned, but as the latest step in an ongoing story, the result of work that local communities have been doing for two decades.
The Gulf’s homegrown fair, Art Dubai, has been responding to the growing international interest—and the competition that comes with it. Early last year, it hired two Art Basel veterans: Dunja Gottweis, as its director, and Glass-Kantor, as its curatorial executive director. Its 20th anniversary edition, in April, will feature a new emerging and mid-career artist section organized by Glass-Kantor called Bawwaba Extended (bawwaba means “threshold” in Arabic).
An installation at Art Dubai at the Madinat Jumeirah Conference and Events Centre last April. Photo: Cedric Ribeiro/ Getty Images for Art Dubai.
“There are very few moments in your life where someone says, Do you want to be part of an experiment?” Glass-Kantor told me in a video call. “I think in those moments, if you take art seriously and if you learn from artists, you say yes.”
For the last decade, many Gulf nations have been keen to diversify their economies, and Saudi Arabia has taken an especially bold approach with its sweeping Vision 2030, announced in 2016, which states that culture is “indispensable” to citizens’ quality of life. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have long framed culture as a pillar of their “global city” economic approach, which emphasizes building international partnerships. Meanwhile, Qatar has leveraged its museums and collection-building efforts as diplomatic tools.
In some ways, Europe and North America have “lost sight of the kind of ambitious thinking that has to happen to connect government or civic and public leadership with cultural production and endeavors,” Glass-Kantor said. The Gulf is a study in “what happens when you have people who are thinking not just about the present, but the future,” she said.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gives a press conference in Riyadh announcing Vision 2030 in 2016. Photo: Fayez Nureldine / AFP via Getty Images.
The future-focused, government-led cultural investments of Gulf states, though impressive in scale and scope, have routinely drawn criticism from the West as attempts to “art wash” reported human rights abuses. Even just a few years ago, some European and American art firms were hesitant to work with Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia. In 2019, Frieze’s former parent company, Endeavor, returned $400 million to the kingdom and Sotheby’s then-CEO, Tad Smith, pulled out of Saudi-sponsored events.
Art professionals working in the region told me they acknowledge and understood such concerns, but urged international audiences to look at what individuals and communities are doing, not just governments.
Substance Over Style
The Gulf’s young, wealthy population, which is eager for cultural experiences and international exchange, remains a powerful draw for foreign businesses. (The U.N. has reported that the annual population growth rate of Gulf Cooperation Council countries has recently been nearly three times the global average, and that their median age is around 32.) Reaching this audience means understanding their needs and wants.
Abu Dhabi Art 2024. Courtesy of Abu Dhabi Art.
A pervasive assumption in the trade is that there are few “real” Gulf art collectors, and that they are largely members of royal families who are building museum collections. The entrance of major fairs and other art companies could shift this narrative—but that may not happen overnight.
“What I would like to see less of is the expectation that this region is cash-rich with little substance,” Hafiz, the ATHR Gallery co-founder, said. The collector base is changing, slowly, and within the last several years, buyers have become more informed and regionally connected, moving more regularly between Gulf cities, he said. “This is a market like any other that requires and demands commitment and long-term strategies to develop.”
Over the past 18 months, Sotheby’s has vastly expanded its ties with the Gulf, announcing $1 billion in investment from an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, ADQ. The house held its first live luxury-centered auction in the emirate in December, which raked in $133.4 million—the “largest debut for any new market in its history,” it trumpeted in a press release. (Abu Dhabi has seen a private equity boom in the last two years, expanding its potential client pool.)
Pablo Picasso, Paysage (1965), which will be on offer in Sotheby’s “Origins II” sale in Riyadh. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The emphasis on luxury sales in the region reflects Middle East’s standing as the market’s “brightest performer,” according to 2025 Bain and Company analysis, with expected growth of between 4 and 6 percent.
Sotheby’s second live auction in Riyadh, “Origins II,” on Saturday, is expected to bring in $12.4 million to $17.6 million, with a much larger offering of art than in last year’s “Origins I,” which totaled $17.3 million with an eclectic mix of 120 objects, including luxury goods, sports memorabilia, and art. This time, works by Picasso, Warhol, and Saudi artist Mohammed Siam are among the highlights, and there is no sports material.
Ashkan Baghestani, Sotheby’s head of sale and contemporary art specialist, said the first sale was a “valuable learning moment” that confirmed a “strong local and regional appetite not only for Arab artists, but also for internationally recognized names, and across a broad range of price points.” This year, the house will test new categories, such as design and Indian art, with the hopes of appealing to the growing Indian diaspora in the region and the mounting energy of the South Asian market.
Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker at Saudi Arabia’s first-ever international auction, on February 8, 20225, in Diriyah. Photo: Amal Alhasan/Getty Images for Sotheby’s.
Growing Pains—and Gains
Rapid growth brings its own set of challenges. The rush of global attention risks overshadowing the local market, where the infrastructure to support emerging and mid-career artists—studios, art-media outlets, and gallery representation—is still developing. If those support systems don’t scale up, the long-term sustainability of any cultural production may be jeopardized.
“In terms of public understanding, we need more criticism, writing, and education in Arabic and English so the public feels ownership of this cultural shift,” Hafiz said. “That said, I would rather manage the growing pains of momentum than the frustration of stagnation.”
That momentum can also create pressure for artists to produce work for “market trends rather than artistic inquiry, and can overshadow local practices,” artist Aiza Ahmed told me over email.
A work by Mohammad Al Faraj at Abu Dhabi Art. Courtesy of ATHR gallery and Mennour.
The Pakistan-born, New York-based painter has been working in Doha for the past several months as part of the inaugural Artist’s Intensive Study Program, a residency at the Qatar Museums-run Fire Station that is helmed by artist Wael Shawky, who is also the artistic director of Art Basel Qatar. It’s one of the few residency programs in the region, and Ahmed said it has been “deeply nurturing” as she prepares a suite of new works that will be on offer from New York gallery Sargent’s Daughters during the fair, priced between $3,500 to $25,000.
“It’s true that the ecosystem for artists here is still developing,” Ahmed said. “But that also creates a kind of creative tension. Being in a region that is actively innovating how best to support its artists encourages experimentation, collaboration with institutions and patrons, and reflection on which structures to engage with or challenge. In that sense, the challenges themselves are generative.”
Aiza Ahmed in her studio at Doha’s Fire Station. Photo: Hasan Zaidi. Courtesy of Aiza Ahmed and Sargent’s Daughers.
According to Glass-Kantor, the next decade of development in the Gulf’s art market will be defined by “how people collaborate to create more space and more sustainable, resilient systems of support—ones that care for artists across generations and help new ways of making and working connect meaningfully with diverse audiences.”
She added that it has taken a lot of work to grow a fair like Art Dubai. “Everybody is either in the roots or the leaves,” she said. “I’m in the leaves.” Attracting other major fairs and art organizations to the region is a substantial achievement, and the effort put in on the ground shouldn’t be overlooked now that they have arrived. Most of us showing up now are also in the leaves.
