DUBAI.- Sotheby’s Dubai has launched The Gallery Collective, a unique partnership with the UAE’s homegrown galleries from November 2024 through to 2026. The two-year series will present a rotating calendar of exhibitions held at Sotheby’s in the heart of the DIFC. Every six to eight weeks, a partner gallery will make the space their own, curating a show that presents their vision through the artists that they champion.

Each gallery will bring their own, fresh perspective to the programme, with the first tranche of participants including: Tabari Artspace; Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery; Leila Heller Gallery; Iyad Qanazea Gallery; Aisha Al Abbar Gallery; The Third Line; Lawrie Shabibi; Carbon 12; Efie Gallery, and Green Art Gallery.

Sotheby’s Dubai gallery is open to the public Monday to Friday from 10am to 6pm. The Gallery Collective will also be accompanied by a free series of talks.

First Look into the Programme

Jewels
12 November 2024 – 6 January 2025

The series opens with Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery and the distinctive works of New York based artist Khalif Tahir Thompson and acclaimed American artist Summer Wheat. Thompson’s emotionally charged pieces, characterized a vivid color palette, explore themes of identity, cultural heritage, and personal narrative. Wheat’s textured, vibrant paintings focus on femininity, labour, and community through bold, figurative compositions and innovative use of materials.

Hot Spots
9 January – 10 March 2025

Hot Spots is the first collaborative exhibition between Tabari Artspace and The Third Line. Showcasing a collective of artists from across the Middle East and North Africa, working across disciplines, the exhibition seeks to foreground new connections and dialogues between the galleries' represented artists.

The title draws inspiration from the language and codes of advertising, particularly the vocabulary used in travel marketing. By adopting this commercial vernacular, the exhibition brings forward deeper themes of human movement, cultural attachment, and globalisation.

Form and Rhythm
12 March – 7 May 2025

At the intersection of contemporary and Islamic art, Form and Rhythm brings together an intergenerational group of artists using geometric abstraction and the application of traditional crafts in their artistic practice. Long a cornerstone of Lawrie Shabibi’s programme, contributing artists include Hamra Abbas, Dima Srouji, Farhad Ahrarnia, Timo Nasseri, Mohamed Melehi, Nabil Nahas and Shahpour Pouyan. The exhibition comprises ceramics, works of cut stone and glass, Mughal-inspired hard stone inlay and Persian micro-mosaic as well as paintings and silkscreens.