ABU DHABI ANNOUNCES CREATION OF MAJOR NEW ANNUAL EVENT DEVOTED TO CONTEMPORARY ART AND DESIGN
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Abu Dhabi has announced the establishment of a major new annual event featuring international contemporary art and design. Presented under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Abu Dhabi Art will take place 19-22 November and will celebrate its inaugural edition with an art fair, exhibitions, multi-media performances, presentations, and exclusive tours and gala events at the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi.
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IDRIS KHAN AT ELEMENTA GALLERY, DUBAI
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Idris Khan's works deal with a play of appropriation which has more in common with painting and drawing than photography. His photographs, which resemble charcoal drawings, are created by rephotographing series of existing images - taken from works by artists, authors and composers such as Caravaggio, Bach and Freud - and digitally layering these photographs to make one single composite image. 
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JOHN CHANNER ON ART DUBAI 2009
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It was crunch time in the Emirates last month, as Art Dubai launched its most expansive and far-reaching edition yet, amidst profound economic downturn. Around 68 galleries took part with discounted spaces being offered to galleries in the last-minute revision of the line-up and yet some galleries sold out and the fair has its best attendance figures yet. Amongst notable guests were Indian collector Anupam Poddar, Swiss collector Maja Hoffmann, Tate boss Sir Nicholas Serota, and auctioneer Simon de Pury, as well as artists such as Jake and Dinos Chapman and the Wilson twins and even a Hollywood star, Glenn Close.
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SAATCHI ONLINE ARTISTS AT THE AL BASTAKIYA ART FAIR, DUBAI
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From 15-22 March Saatchi Online will be showing the work of a selection of artists from the Middle East registered on Saatchi Online at the Al Bastakiya Art Fair, the leading satellite art fair to Art Dubai. Saatchi Online's selling show at the fair follows our success in promoting the work of Saatchi Online artists at various international art fairs and exhibitions. The Saatchi Online artists invited to exhibit their work in Dubai are all from the Middle East and have been chosen from Saatchi Online's magazine's weekly Critic's Choices. Their work will be promoted and sold on a non-commission basis. Read on for more information about the 5 artists exhibiting at the Saatchi Online exhibition.
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ABU DHABI TO PRESENT COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY ART MADE IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
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The rapidly growing art scene in the United Arab Emirates is the subject of a new exhibition, 'Emirati Expressions', opening today in Abu Dhabi city. Curated by Anne Baldassari, Director of the Musée National Picasso in Paris and former Curator of the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou, 'Emirati Expressions' offers the first comprehensive picture of current artistic activity in the UAE, with a selection of more than 165 paintings, sculptures, drawings, calligraphy, prints, photographs, videos, mixed media works and installations by 64 Emirati artists. 
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SAATCHI ONLINE ARTISTS AT THE AL BASTAKIYA ART FAIR, DUBAI
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In March 2009 Saatchi Online will be showing and selling the work of a selection of artists from the Middle East registered on Saatchi Online at the Al Bastakiya Art Fair, the leading satellite art fair to Art Dubai. The fair will be hosted in 18 houses in Bastakia, Dubai's oldest standing district, and Saatchi Online will have one house to exhibit the work of Saatchi Online artists. Their work will be promoted and sold at the fair on a non-commission basis; all money from sales will go directly to the artists. The list of the artists exhibiting at the fair will be announced in January 2009. 
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NEWS: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ANNOUNCES UAE PAVILION AT THE 2009 VENICE BIENNALE
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The UAE's Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development has announced plans to create the first UAE Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, which opens in June 2009. In recognition of the emergence of the UAE as a cultural hub, and of the historic importance of this first national pavilion to be created by a Gulf state, the Biennale has provided a large and highly visible site for the UAE Pavilion. The curator for the UAE Pavilion is Tirdad Zolghadr and details of the featured artists in the exhibition will be announced in March 2009. 
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ANA FINEL HONIGMAN REPORTS ON FIVE UP-AND-COMING MIDDLE EASTERN ARTISTS
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The shine and purr of gushing international press emerging from Dubai can muffle the questionable quality of some of the region's art. But shift through the region's glittering offerings and there are some genuine treasures, including Hilda Hiary, Nadine Kanso, Hayv Kahraman, Laleh Khorramian (below) and Youssef Nabil. 
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JOHN CHANNER ON DUBAI NEXT AND FIVE ARTISTS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST
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Disappointed by a recent show supposedly presenting the most exciting emerging art from Dubai, John Channer offers an alternative selection of five artists from the Middle East whose work would have made for a much more vibrant and representative exhibition. 
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ANA FINEL HONIGMAN'S DUBAI DIARY
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The real shock for most Westerns visiting Art Dubai was not that the work was staid, but that the very act of creating it was valued so highly by artists and audiences. In the context of the Middle East, being an artist is in itself an act of dissent, whereas in the West, art can come perilously close to being just another stimulating product. As Peter Aspden wrote in his FT article, "In truth, it is in London, at events such as the Frieze art fair, that we most acutely feel that contemporary art has become little more than an amusing commodity in the pantheon of material playthings." 
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ANA FINEL HONIGMAN ON DUBAI'S CREEK ART FAIR
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'That night there was a lecture on "Art Censorship and Freedom of Expression," in which Fereydoun told about his experiences being black-listed in Iran, curator Janet Rady gave an overview of UK censorship law, and Jack Persekian, the founder of Jerusalem's Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, recounted his experiences navigating legal and cultural boundaries in Sharjah Biennial. Jonni drank whiskey and summed up humanity's purpose with the statement "we don't understand ourselves, so we make stuff." At one moment the eloquent moderator Arsalan Mohammad, former Art Editor of Time Out Dubai, explained what is legally not allowed in the Emirates. Obscenity and profanity were ones I knew about, but I got scared when he said another no-no is "confusing the public."' 
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ANA FINEL HONIGMAN REPORTS FROM DUBAI ON REGIONAL DELICACIES: ALEF'S ART MEZZE
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Even though I have been the Art Editor of Alef, an indigenous pan-Arab art and fashion magazine, since it began five issues ago, I had never been to Dubai until this week. The occasion - an XVA, Dubai's foremost tastemaker space, Alef and Phillips de Pury show in one of the city's oldest houses. Because I assumed that sex and politics were cultural no-nos, I themed the show around food, which metaphorically can encompass both. 
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ART PROJECTS DUBAI: ELEVEN ARTISTS FROM PAKISTAN
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One of the special features at this year's Art Dubai, which starts on 19 March, is an exhibition of contemporary art from Pakistan curated by Salima Hashmi. "Desperately Seeking Paradise" showcases eleven artists from Pakistan whose work explores notions of paradise. 
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