For years, the narrative of Abu Dhabi’s cultural rise has been dominated by institution-building, primarily on Saadiyat Island: Louvre Abu Dhabi opened there in 2017, the Natural History Museum followed this year, with the Zayed National Museum soon to come and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi scheduled for 2026. These projects symbolized the city’s identity as a government-led museum capital, impressive in scale yet often perceived as detached from the day-to-day life of artists and galleries. That framing is now shifting.
“There has been an influx of new collectors to the UAE over the past few years as Abu Dhabi transforms into a global financial hub,” Dyala Nusseibeh, the long-time director of the art fair Abu Dhabi Art, told ARTnews.
Last week, ADA opened at Manarat Al Saadiyat, an arts center on the island, for its final edition before it transitions to become a franchise of Frieze next November. The fair’s evolution, for some, will appear cyclical: after all, it launched in 2007 as ArtParis Abu Dhabi. But even before Frieze announced the new partnership, ADA had expanded, with 53 new galleries joining this year’s fair. Still, Frieze’s involvement is an unmistakable acknowledgment that the emirate is becoming a more active player in the art market.
“A lot of galleries over-rely on sales in America and Europe,” Nusseibeh said. “The Gulf is increasingly where they come to diversify.”
ADA has been intentionally recalibrating its mix of exhibitors, trying to bridge long-standing gaps between blue-chip collectors and emerging ones. A new Focus sector puts the spotlight on specific art scenes in the Global South—this year, Nigeria, Turkey, and South Asia. And a new Emerge section provides preferential booth prices for galleries exhibiting works priced under $3,000, in the hopes of cultivating new collectors.
Speaking about Emerge, Nusseibeh recalled the 2017 Galleries Week at Warehouse421, an artist- and research-driven institutional space that has long anchored Abu Dhabi’s cultural periphery. At the event, affordable artworks were displayed in shipping containers. “It was a community event with music and food stalls, part of the outreach to attract younger collectors and make the fair more accessible,” she said. “It takes time for initiatives like these to take root.” Nusseibeh’s hope is that experiments like Emerge will build the “micro-economies” necessary for a sustainable regional market.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi, as seen in 2019 in Abu Dhabi.
Photo Etsuo Hara/Getty Images
The scene in Abu Dhabi may already be shifting from monumental institutions like the Louvre and other museums on Saadiyat Island to newer, more entrepreneurial arts ventures. MiZa, a repurposed warehouse district near 421 in Abu Dhabi’s old port, Mina Zayed, has evolved into a budding creative incubator: agri-tech labs sit alongside robotics workshops and homegrown experimental art spaces such as MamarLab and Iris Projects. The latter, run by young gallerist Maryam Falasi, champions early- and mid-career voices from the Gulf.
Important galleries have noticed the evolution too. The mega-gallery Pace returned to ADA this year, after participating in its earliest editions. “Our world has slowed down, and this is where the energy is,” CEO Marc Glimcher told ARTnews. “The Gulf feels very positive in terms of an openness to trying new things.”
The region’s cultural landscape has shifted since 2011—when Pace last exhibited at ADA. At that time, many international galleries arrived expecting a market that hadn’t yet materialized. Today, there is a sense of momentum, buoyed by sovereign wealth activity such as ADQ’s $1 billion minority stake in Sotheby’s—moves that Glimcher said made him pay attention.
Compared with the new Riyadh Art Fair, where the government acts as primary commissioner, ADA occupies a different space. Its site, Manarat, is government-owned, but the collector base extends well beyond Abu Dhabi’s ruling families. In a city known for monumental gestures, there is a growing emphasis on underrepresented artists and on building collections that reflect lived context.
“As more people move here, they want homes that reflect their environment,” Nusseibeh said.
This ethos is echoed by cultural players beyond the fair. The Edition, where a large Frieze contingent is staying, has launched a zine spotlighting underrepresented local artists with Jolene Frizell of Iris Advisory, and a year-long performance series that began with Aya Afneh. “It’s not about throwing big money at big names,” general manager Katrin Herz told ARTnews. “Abu Dhabi isn’t the punchline anymore. Two years ago, it was seen as static. Now it’s where the cool new kids are landing.”
Design is part of this recalibration. NOMAD, the design fair, staged its first Abu Dhabi edition during ADA this year in the decommissioned terminal of Zayed International Airport, a modernist landmark by Paul Andreu. That event was held in partnership with the cultural agency VCA, which recently expanded to Dubai from London, and Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT). “We have more than 20 cultural sites, some dating back to the 1960s,” Reem Fadda, director of DCT’s Cultural Foundation, told ARTnews. “The bedrock has always been here—it just wasn’t glossy.” Now, with renovated heritage sites and expanded programming, she argues, the city is “ripe” for both local and international audiences.
The local market may still be lagging behind all the infrastructure being built. During ADA’s closing weekend, many international gallerists told ARTnews that sales were slower than expected. The galleries that did sell well were those that brought emerging and local voices: Abu Dhabi–based Rizq Art Initiative sold out a solo presentation by rising artist Camelia Mohebi, while Saudi gallery Athr had no trouble selling close to two dozen works by primarily Saudi artists, priced between $4,000 and $25,000. Mohammad Farah’s palm-tree grids, presented in collaboration with Paris-based Mennour Gallery, did especially well. Higher-priced work—like pieces by Idris Khan and Alicja Kwade brought by Mennour—remained unsold at the end of the fair.
Elsewhere, the city showed glimmers of what Abu Dhabi’s promising future could look like. “Mirage,” an exhibition staged by Mustafa Thaer in collaboration with the fair at the Erth Hotel, formerly the Armed Forces Officers Club & Hotel, carried a charge missing from many of the more polished venues. Designed by French architect Roger Taillibert, the building’s sweeping rooflines evoke a monumental Bedouin tent, while its interiors and landscaped courtyards balance bold modernity with local heritage. Within this dramatic yet grounded setting, Mirage felt provisional, capturing a type of cultural energy that larger institutions still struggle to generate.
All of this underscores a cultural landscape that is accelerating faster than its foundations can support. Abu Dhabi is no longer only a city of museums-in-the-making; it now wants to be the region’s laboratory for new cultural economies. Yet the discrepancy between the city’s infrastructure and its still-fragile collector base remains glaring. The ecosystem is still heavily reliant on top-down momentum, so much so that emerging spaces risk becoming symbolic proof points rather than sustainably supported entities. The slower sales at ADA, contrasted with the enthusiasm for hyper-local initiatives, reveal a market still searching for its footing.
Abu Dhabi has proved it can build institutions; the real test now is whether it can develop the slow, unglamorous cultural metabolism of patronage and experimentation that will keep those institutions relevant long after the novelty wears off.
