Frieze is the latest art business to expand to the Gulf, the fair group revealing today it will launch an Abu Dhabi edition. Through a deal struck with the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT), Frieze will take over the existing fair Abu Dhabi Art and hold its own event in the emirate in November 2026. A spokesperson for Frieze declined to comment on the financial terms of the partnership.
The Abu Dhabi fair will be Frieze’s first show in the Middle East and eighth in total: the brand organises two editions in London, and one each in Seoul, New York and Los Angeles, as well as New York’s The Armory Show and Expo Chicago.
Meanwhile, Frieze’s rival Art Basel will launch its own Middle East fair this February in Doha, Qatar. Rumours circulated prior to that announcement that Art Basel would in fact launch in Abu Dhabi; a spokesperson for Frieze declined to comment as to whether Frieze impacted this plan.
News of the Abu Dhabi venture comes the same week as the Hollywood tycoon Ari Emanuel finalised a major deal, first announced in May, to buy Frieze, along with a number of sporting and live events, from Endeavor, the entertainment company he once led. Emanuel did so via his new holding company, Mari, for which he has raised $2bn in equity. Among the investors in Mari is IMI, an Abu Dhabi-based media group. Notably, the Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, has also invested in Mari.
“Live events and experiences have never been more powerful,” Emanuel said in a statement when the deal was finalised. It is not yet known whether Mari’s takeover will impact Frieze’s publishing business, under which it produces its leading contemporary art magazine of the same name.
These deals are not the first Emanuel has struck with Abu Dhabi. Under his lead, Endeavor developed longstanding financial ties to the emirate via Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund run by the influential figure Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who was described in a 2021 New Yorker article as a "longtime friend" of Emanuel. In 2016, Mubadala financially supported Endeavor when it acquired the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) for $4.2bn, and UFC began holding events on Yas Island, which is being developed as the entertainment island within Abu Dhabi.
The Mari deal also includes the acquisition of Mubadala offerings such as the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, a women’s tennis tournament.
The collaboration with DCT comes with family ties. Khaldoon Al Mubarak is the older brother of Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, who as the chairman of DCT oversees many of the emirate’s arts and entertainment projects.
In a statement, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak said Frieze Abu Dhabi "was rooted in the achievements of Abu Dhabi Art and will carry them onto the global stage, reinforcing the emirate’s position as a cultural capital while offering Frieze a unique gateway to the region".
A Frieze spokesperson described the Abu Dhabi partnership as "the fair's gateway into the Global South".
Frieze Abu Dhabi will be held, like Abu Dhabi Art, in Manarat Al Saadiyat, the exhibition and event venue within the Saadiyat Cultural District, and Dyala Nusseibeh will remain as the fair’s director. Deutsche Bank, Frieze’s longtime sponsor, will likewise partner on the Abu Dhabi fair. The German bank has recently deepened its presence in the emirate, whose financial services sector is growing.
DCT will have a presence at this year’s Frieze London, which opens next week (15-19 October), with a lounge to showcase DCT projects and work by Lamya Gargash, an Emirati artist who was first to represent the UAE at the Venice Biennale in 2009.
The next, and final, edition of Abu Dhabi Art, will be held 19-23 November. Among the 140 exhibitors taking part are Pace, Leila Heller, Niru Ratnam and Athr.
