Navigating a Market in Crisis: Art Dubai 2025 and the Rise of the Arab Art Market
By Bronwyn May Johnston
Art Dubai, 16-20 April 2025.
Image courtesy of Art Dubai.
Drawn by the allure of the Middle East’s increasing commercial art scene, last week Art Dubai welcomed international art market heavyweights as well as a spectral of VIPs to visit its five-day flagship fair. Held from 16 to 20 April, Art Dubai illuminated the growing appetite for Arab art and further expounded dialogues hinting at the dissolution of the West’s centralised control on market activities.
Lining the booths at this year’s Art Dubai was a diverse selection of 120 exhibitors, over 30 of whom were new to the Fair this year. While local galleries dominated the spotlight, the Fair was underpinned by a convalescence of international commercial actors, with artists and gallerists hailing from over 60 cities. Additionally, some of the most notable participants at this year’s fair were from non-Western countries, hailing from Iran, Morocco, China, Singapore, and India.
Art Dubai Digital 2025, curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado.
Image courtesy of Art Dubai.
In the ‘Art Dubai Digital’ section of the Fair—which presented works using AI, VR, and mixed reality—critics deemed Iranian artist Mohsen Hazrati’s ‘phygital’ installation in the Fäl Project section one of the standout compositions of the Fair. Merging handcrafted sculpture, Persian poetics, and artificial intelligence, Hazrati’s piece reinterpreted the ancient practice of bibliomancy into a modern digital format. With this radically nuanced approach, Hazrati’s work thus elided with contemporary heated discourses concerning the moral codex underpinning the future of art’s relationship to AI.
The timely relevance of Hazrati’s composition thus resounded in the Fair’s strong socio-political undertones. Marking the first major art fair to open since US President Donald Trump announced his plan for worldwide tariffs, the display of internationalism at Art Dubai strongly defied the increasingly trepid and aggregated political conditions impeding international market activities. With galleries from the US, Europe and, Latin America exhibiting at this year’s fair, such an international convergence suggests an open-mindedness and potential willingness to conduct further commercial activities within the Middle East. Speaking to a representative from ARTnews, the Dubai and New York based Leila Heller Gallery strongly endorsed this shift away from the US hegemonic art market,
‘As a woman—and for my women artists—we feel more empowered in this region than we ever do in America,’ Heller said. ‘My artists are superstars. The appreciation we get here—it’s real.’
Maryam Lamei, Leyla and Majnun, 2025. Represented by Leila Heller Gallery at Art Dubai.
Image courtesy of Leila Heller Gallery and the Artist.
While valuation estimates at this year’s fair sat mostly in a mid-range bracket of low six figures—with very few accruing a sale price beyond the million-dollar mark—pursuits of success at this year’s Art Dubai were not premised upon the capricious whims of the art market. As stated by the Fair’s director, Pablo del Val,
‘This is not a market for trophies. It’s not about fighting to win the waiting list.’
Thus, set against an increasingly troubled and waning art market in the West, the events at this year’s Art Dubai sought to assert the artistic talent vested in the Middle East and further foreground the Arab market as a principal actor, capable of leading the future international art market.
Bibliography
Art Dubai. Accessed April 18, 2025. https://www.artdubai.ae/about-art-dubai/.
Ajmani, Shreya. “Art Dubai 2025 Spotlights the U.A.E’s Growing Cultural Pull.” Artsy, April 17, 2025. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-dubai-2025-spotlights-uaes-growing-cultural-pull.
Cassady, Daniel. “Art Dubai Opens With Its Own Pace: A Fair That’s ‘Not About Fighting to Win the Waiting List.’” ARTnews, April 16, 2025. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/art-dubai-first-day-sales-report-2025-1234738922/.
Gronlund, Melissa. “Art Dubai is cementing its position as the region’s key art market.” The Art Newspaper, April 16, 2025. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/04/16/art-dubai-is-cementing-its-position-as-the-regions-key-art-market.
Gronlund, Melissa. “Regional Strength helps insulate Art Dubai from tariff-related turbulence.” The Art Newspaper, April 18, 2025. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/04/18/regional-strength-helps-insulate-art-dubai-from-tariff-related-turbulence.