It looks as though the post-pandemic Art Dubai is indeed back on track – the 15th edition of the art fair closed on Sunday with record attendances (more than 30,000 visitors across the five days) and strong sales reported across all four of its sections, including the new Art Dubai Digital.
That was a new physical gallery section with a curated selection of 17 of cutting-edge digital platforms. For many of them, Art Dubai Digital represented their first experience of exhibiting in a traditional fair context; “in person and online sales were widely reported,” said Art Dubai.
Several booths reportedly sold out. Madragoa (from Lisbon) was one first-timer that definitely did; Dima Abdul Kader from Emergeast said they almost cleared the booth (“Art Dubai has been absolutely fantastic for us – the feedback and the traffic has been hugely positive and inspiring”); and Asmaa Al-Shabibi of Dubai’s Lawrie Shabibi Gallery summed up the general mood – “we had a good fair this year, with strong sales across our booth and gallery. Overall the energy, interest and excitement was back to levels not seen for many years even before the pandemic.”
The gallery programme – 104 galleries and platforms from 44 countries – was complemented by an innovative talks programme (the 15th edition of Global Art Forum and the new Bybit Talks Series) which was apparently oversubscribed.
Art Dubai’s Artistic Director Pablo del Val was predictably enthusiastic: “This was without doubt one of the most successful editions of Art Dubai, in terms of both visitors and sales reported, fully reflecting Dubai’s position as an engine of global growth and a city no longer of the future, but of the here and now. The response from audiences and collectors to the debut edition of Art Dubai Digital has been truly incredible … Art Dubai prides itself on being a fair of innovation and forward-thinking, and there was a real freshness and energy to the 2022 edition across the whole programme.”
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