Frieze Abu Dhabi Reveals 84-Gallery Lineup for Inaugural November Fair
Frieze has named the 84 galleries that will take part in its first ever Abu Dhabi fair, running 19–22 November 2026 at Manarat Al Saadiyat, the civic centre on Saadiyat Island that previously hosted the city's own art fair, Abu Dhabi Art. The roster, drawn from 63 cities across 36 countries and regions, marks Frieze's first event in West Asia The Art Newspaper Artsy.
Several global heavyweights — Gagosian, Pace Gallery, Perrotin, Thaddaeus Ropac and Victoria Miro — will take stands, most of them absent from recent editions of Abu Dhabi Art, the fair Frieze has effectively replaced. At 84 exhibitors the inaugural edition is marginally smaller than recent Abu Dhabi Art rounds, but the mix tilts toward names that give it a different complexion.
Galleries from the West Asia, North Africa and South Asia region form the bulk of the list. Athr (Saudi Arabia), Experimenter (India) and Saleh Barakat (Lebanon) sit alongside Dubai-based UAE galleries Carbon 12, Lawrie Shabibi, Gallery Isabelle and Green Art Gallery. Around 25 galleries with spaces in Europe and the Americas round out the international contingent, including Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala City), Richard Saltoun (London and New York), In Situ Fabienne Leclerc (Romainville) and P420 (Bologna). Five galleries from East and Southeast Asia complete the picture, among them Johyun Gallery from Busan and Pearl Lam Projects from Shanghai The Art Newspaper.
Behind the scenes, continuity and corporate restructuring run side by side. Dyala Nusseibeh, the longtime director of Abu Dhabi Art, remains director of Frieze Abu Dhabi. The Department of Culture and Tourism — the Abu Dhabi government body that oversaw Abu Dhabi Art — stays on as a financial partner, though no figures have been released. The selection committee includes Asmaa Al-Shabibi, Yasmin Atassi, Amrita Jhaveri and Sandhini Poddar, a curator at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi The Art Newspaper.
Frieze itself has a new corporate home. It now sits under Mari, the company set up by Ari Emanuel after Endeavor, Frieze's former owner, dissolved. In October 2025, Abu Dhabi's IMI Media group took a direct stake in Mari, which also runs events in the UAE such as the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open tennis tournament. Deutsche Bank, the global lead partner for Frieze Art Fairs, is sponsoring the Abu Dhabi edition as well The Art Newspaper.
The fair had faced questions about whether regional tensions might force a delay. A spokesperson confirmed that Frieze and the Department of Culture and Tourism are working towards opening as planned, despite concerns that the Iran conflict could push the fair back or shrink its scale.
November will be a crowded month on Saadiyat Island. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opens on 11 December, capping a fourth quarter that pairs the new museum with the new fair. Frieze Abu Dhabi will run alongside Frieze Masters Abu Dhabi, which takes trade and intellectual exchange across the Indian Ocean as its theme. A curated section called Global Futures, organised by London-based curator Tarini Malik, will feature artists more familiar from the biennial circuit — artists like Ala Younis — than from commercial gallery booths The Art Newspaper.
What makes the lineup notable is how quickly the fair has pulled in galleries that sat out Abu Dhabi Art. Whether those names translate into sales is a separate question — one the market will answer in November.
