Art Dubai is owned and managed by Art Dubai Fair, a company that organizes a series of art- and design-related events in the UAE. Its projects include Design Days Dubai, Dubai Design Week, Downtown Design Dubai, Art Week, Global Art Forum, and Campus Art Dubai. The Art Dubai fair is one of the company’s flagship events, it was founded in 2007 as the Gulf Art Fair.
The founders of Art Dubai were gallerist John Martin and former financier Benedict Floyd. Martin was the director of the fair from 2007 to 2010. The event is held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the UAE, and Emir of Dubai.
The fair is held every March, presenting a diverse lineup of over 90 galleries from around 40 countries. Art Dubai showcases a mix of the world’s most influential galleries and emerging art spaces, attracting collectors, curators and patrons from all over the world.
The fair has three main programs. Art Dubai Contemporary features commercial galleries operating on the primary market that have been established for at least two years. This section includes about 70 galleries from different countries, presenting painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, and other art forms. Art Dubai Modern focuses on modern art from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, featuring regionally and internationally based galleries. Finally, Marker is a curated program of art spaces and galleries which focuses on a particular theme or region.
Alongside the three programs, the fair’s extensive non-profit programming includes commissioned projects, artists’ and curators’ residencies, educational initiatives for children, film and radio programs, and more. Among Art Dubai’s critically acclaimed initiatives are the Global Art Forum (the Middle East’s largest annual arts conference) and the Abraaj Group Art Prize award ceremony.
