For more than two decades, Frieze has helped shape the international art calendar. What began as a London fair has grown into a global network, bringing leading galleries and collectors together in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Seoul.
Now, Frieze is making its first move into the Middle East, bringing one of the art world’s most recognisable names to Abu Dhabi.
When the fair opens at Manarat Al Saadiyat on November 19, it will build on a foundation established over 17 years by Abu Dhabi Art, which brought galleries and collectors to the city each November and developed close ties with artists across the region.
Frieze chief executive Simon Fox hopes its arrival will draw more international collectors to the UAE and help introduce artists and galleries from the region to audiences abroad. The fair also crucially arrives during a major period of growth for Abu Dhabi’s cultural scene, helping to cement the emirate's growing role as a new centre of the global art world.
Frieze had been visiting fairs across the Middle East for years, Fox says, waiting for the right opportunity to establish one of its own. That came through a partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi. Dyala Nusseibeh, who led Abu Dhabi Art, will continue as director of the new fair.
“Working with an existing venue, an existing team, and knowing that the collector base in the region has been building and maturing for some time made the decision an easy one,” Fox tells The National.
The timing was significant, too. The Zayed National Museum and Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi opened in late 2025, joining Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will follow on December 11, almost 20 years after it was first announced.
Fox believes its arrival could also influence the art market in the years ahead. “Institutional acquisitions play a huge part in shaping taste and shaping value and shaping the market,” he says.
Frieze is drawing on its international network to attract collectors to Abu Dhabi. Its representatives around the world are helping clients plan their visits, while global partner Deutsche Bank will bring wealth-management clients.
The fair will bring international galleries including Gagosian and Pace together with UAE galleries such as The Third Line and Lawrie Shabibi. The programme also features an exhibition pairing Emirati artists Mohammed Kazem and Alia Zaal, and Lebanese artist Dala Nasser’s Qubbat Duris, an installation inspired by a historic monument in the Bekaa Valley.
There will be 89 exhibitors at Frieze Abu Dhabi, compared with 142 galleries at Abu Dhabi Art’s final fair last year. Nusseibeh has said the smaller scale was a deliberate choice, intended to give visitors more room to move and allow a tighter curatorial focus, a sentiment that Fox echoes.
But Fox expects the fair to evolve as Frieze learns more about collectors in the region. The balance of local and international galleries, and the opportunities given to younger galleries and established artists, could change in the years ahead. He says it is important to “listen to local voices and make sure that the fair is of the region”.
The fair follows another major moment for the region’s art market. Earlier this month, Christie’s held its first fine-art auction in Abu Dhabi, drawing bidders from its international client base and achieving sales of $8.94 million. More than 30 per cent of registrants were millennials or Gen Z, according to the auction house. Fox has been following that trend closely.
“There is a generation, particularly in the Gulf region, of younger collectors who are really taking the time to get to know artists and to think carefully about their collections,” he says.
And Fox wants Frieze to build relationships with those collectors beyond the four days of the fair. Visits to artists’ studios and talks can help them learn more about the work they buy, and Frieze already offers such opportunities through its membership programme, Frieze Connect. He hopes to expand it in the region.
“I would love in all of the cities where we are for Frieze to be a year-round brand and not just a brand that pops up for four or five days,” he says.
Abu Dhabi Art already ran exhibitions and commissions throughout the year, and Frieze could build on that activity. It has permanent exhibition spaces in London and Seoul, and Fox says opening one in Abu Dhabi “might well be something that we should think about … over time”.
The international connections could also work in the other direction, creating opportunities for artists and galleries from the region at Frieze’s fairs abroad.
Fox points to South Korea, where Frieze Seoul launched alongside the existing Kiaf fair in 2022. Since then, he says, more South Korean galleries have taken part in Frieze’s fairs in the US and Europe.
“There’s also been a significant increase, I would suggest, in the profile of Korean artists. I think in part because of the international spotlight we’ve been able to bring, and you now see more and more Korean artists in institutional shows around the world,” Fox says.
Participation in Frieze’s international fairs is subject to an application and a committee selection process. Fox believes the relationships developed in Abu Dhabi could encourage more galleries from the region to apply, while giving the committees greater familiarity with their work.
“The more our committee learn about and feel comfortable with galleries from the region, the more likely they are then to be accepted into the fairs,” he says. “Having galleries from the region participating in Frieze fairs globally would be fantastic, and I would expect to see that as we’ve seen in Seoul.”
Frieze Abu Dhabi takes place at Manarat Al Saadiyat from November 19 to 22. The first day is invitation-only, with public admission beginning on November 20
