By Tajudeen Sowole, just back from Dubai, UAE.
IN its 10th year, Art Dubai, which held the 2016 edition a few days ago at Madinat
Jumeirah, United Arab Emirates, took a retrospection of what has been
described as one of the leading art hubs in the world. The yearly art fair
goes into a second decade with much hope, perhaps bigger challenge.
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Visitors in front of Abdoulaye Kanoute’s huge work at Art Dubai Contemporary |
A few
hours before the formal opening, Director at Art Dubai, Antonia Carver told a packed hall of journalists and
writers from across the world how the fair got this far and the focus to keep
going, even stronger. The 10th edition, “is a special year,” Carver stated
shortly after Director-General, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, H.E. Saeed Mohamed Al
Nabouda and the Managing Director, The Abraaj Group, Frederic Sicre each took
turn in earlier speeches. Carver’s enthusiasm about the tenth edition was more
than the significance of the year as a mere landmark figure in an event's
anniversary celebration. With 94 galleries from 40 countries and 500
exhibited artists representing 70 cultures and diverse peoples across the world
as well as seven new entrants, Art Dubai
is no doubt a phenomenon as a gathering for art appreciation, in just one decade.
However, art being what it is; delicate,
classy and elitist, the rating of galleries and artists is crucial in the
business of art. Reputation of participants, most often, goes with the
experience gained over the years or decades. For Art Dubai, expanding the scope of the global art market by bringing
the big galleries and emerging ones under one event has been one of the fair’s
strongest points. This much, Carver stressed, saying “as much as we work with
most established galleries, we always look for emerging ones.” Further success
of Art Dubai, in the years ahead in
sustaining a common space for established and emerging markets from across the
world would be highly commendable and strengthen the fair’s unique identity.
Any
keen followers of Art Dubai would
have confidence in the ability of the current pace of evolvement to go the
marathon. In the last three editions, the direction of its curatorial contents
that responded to the dynamics of global practice, was one of the event's score
points. Sectionalising, which expanded its scope with Art Dubai Modern and Art
Dubai Contemporary has brought a stronger ventilation into growing volume
of expressions across textures of art practices.
And
whoever thought that art would continue to be another 'man's world' for a long
time, Art Dubai 2016 has news for
you: women made as much as 45 per cent
of the participating artists. The figure, according to the organisers,
represents a "higher percentage than the majority of other international
art fairs."
So far,
among the beneficiaries of the expanding global contents of Art Dubai are galleries from Africa. For
examples, the 10th edition featured Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana, which
showed the works of Daniel Kojo Schrade and George Afedzi Hughes; and Circle
Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya, with the works of Ugandan artist, Geoffrey Mukasa
on display. Last year, two Lagos, Nigeria-based exhibitors, Mydrim Gallery and
Art Twenty One showed Bruce Onobrakpeya, Olu Amoda, among other African
artists.
At The
Modern section where the works of Mukasa were on display, Director at Circle
Art, Danda Jaroljmek was excited about the opportunity of showing at Art Dubai. “It’s exciting, showing here
for the first time,” she told me. Largely of figural or portraiture rendition,
Mukasa’s work, like most modernists of African origin, is the bold-in-your-face
kind, with loud expressions in colour and form. For Circle, such an artist with
established popularity was a good way to start after opening its permanent
gallery space in Nairobi with the aim “to be the foremost exhibition space in
East Africa.”
In
fact, the director boasted, “Mukasa is one of the biggest artists in East
Africa that we believe is gaining more popularity after the art market started
rising in that part of Africa two years ago.”
Circle
was founded in 2012 to provide what the promoters described as "a highly
professional consultancy service to individual and corporate collectors and art
institutions, as well as build audiences through curating ambitious pop-up
exhibitions."
For
Nubuke, the 2016 edition was a second appearance, having participated in Marker, a Bisi Silva-led curated space,
in 2013. And when the opportunity for being in the main exhibition came, the
Contemporary space was a choice. Two artists from the Diaspora, perhaps,
suggested that the ‘best’ of contemporary Ghanaian artists are based abroad,
isn’t it? “It just happened that both of them are based outside,” director at
Nubuke, Odile Tevie explained. “We promote artists both from within Ghana and
those based outside; no discrimination.” More importantly, the availability of
contents that met the requirement of the space, Tevie added, was also
crucial. Recall that Nubuke showed Ghanaian modernist, Ablade Glover at Marker 2013.
Few booths away from Nubuke,
Nigerian-American contemporary portraitist, Kehinde Wiley’s exploding image of
a phenomenon artist adds freshness to the space. The work, portrait of a lad
was shown by Paris, France-based Galerie Daniel Tempton.
Despite
the fact that no gallery based in Nigeria showed at Art Dubai 2016, the country was not exactly missing: from far away
India, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai showed Nnenna Okore, among the artists on display
at the Modern section. Two wall pieces of burlap and wire titled The Sun Should Rise Again and Strings
Attached, which were on display - among other artists' smaller works -
extended Okore’s identity of an artist whose contemporaneity keep emphasising
the strength of materials in contextual term. Her presence at Dubai courtesy of
Sakshi was as a result of a relationship dated many years back, said the
proprietor of the gallery, Geetha Mehra. “It started in 2009 when we showed her
work and El Anatsui’s in Mumbai.” The connection, Mehra disclosed was made
possible by Silva.
Next to Sakhi Gallery, was another African
artist Abdoulaye Kanoute being showing by London, UK-based Blain Southern
Gallery, Kanoute, a Malian, had on display a massive collage of prints, layered
in colours. The works, according to the gallery, was an extension of the
artis’s project in Brazil, last year.
The
synergy that has existed between iconic modern cities and art over the decades
- perhaps century in the case of Venice
Biennale - is being confirmed by the success of Art Dubai, which stressed how contemporary business environment
gets strength from the creative sector. Sicre stated this much when he argued,
“no city can survive without art and culture.” The Abraaj Group has been a
major sponsor of Art Dubai in the last nine editions.
And the
expansion continued this year with three debutants: Dubai Photo Exhibition of works from 23 countries, selected by
Zelda Cheatie-led 18 curators;
Piaget Exhibition, which showed 'exclusive and rare' pieces in jewelries from
private collections of the 70s and 80s; and Sikka Art Fair in support of and
showcasing of Emirati and Dubai-based artists.
Organised
by Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, Art Dubai started with focus on art of the
Mddle East, South East Asia and expanded to other regions, including Africa and
South America.
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