"For more than two decades, Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has spearheaded the development of Qatar's cultural institutions, leading them to world renown. Can her vision-and budget-do the same for the region's art market? This question lies to central to the inaugural Art Basel Qatar, which opened yesterday (3 February) to VIPs."
"Horowitz refers to the unusual, "boothless" format of the new fair. There are just 87 exhibitors (around one-third the size of a typical Art Basel fair), each of whom are showing solo artist presentations pre-selected by a curatorial team led by the artist Wael Shawky. These have been divided across two venues near each other in the upscale Mshereib district. In the larger venue, M7, blue-chip galleries present mostly large-scale presentations of international and regional artists, likely aimed at institutional buyers. Certainly it is difficult to imagine many private collectors snapping up Meriem Bennani's vigorously gyrating sculpture, jointly shown by Ludovico Corsini and Francois Ghebaly, or Maha Malluh's hefty metal cubes offered by Krinzinger. The second venue, Design District, where stands are slightly cheaper, hosts more of the emerging to mid-tier galleries. Some of have never taken part in an Art Basel fair before and provide more accessible price points-like the sculptural paintings by the Emirati Sarah Almeihari brought by Carbon 12 in Dubai for under $10,000-to entice new buyers."
Sheikha Al-Mayassa has driven Qatar's cultural institutions for over twenty years, raising global recognition. The inaugural Art Basel Qatar opened on 3 February with a strong commercial emphasis alongside institutional aims. The fair adopts a boothless format with 87 exhibitors presenting curated solo shows selected by a team led by Wael Shawky and split across two nearby venues in Mshereib. M7 houses blue-chip galleries showing large-scale, institutionally targeted works, while the Design District features emerging and mid-tier galleries with more accessible prices, including works under $10,000 to attract new buyers. The concise format received positive reactions as a corrective to sprawling fairs.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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