This year’s Beirut Art Fair took place during a significant level of upheaval in the region. Against many odds, the fair directors pushed forward with the event, refusing to cancel the fair. Although there were some gallery cancellations, the exhibition center was filled up. We all commend their efforts!
Opening night, which took place between 6-10 pm, was very busy. There was a positive vibe throughout the night, as people were happily surprised to see such a strong showing (despite the political situation). It was a good start, with some galleries selling well during those first 4 hours. However many of the good galleries that participated last year were noticeably absent at this fair. I started roaming around the fair, and was very impressed with the works at some of the booths. And as with all art fairs, there were some weak works. I was also not very impressed to see jewelry and furniture booths, after all this is the Beirut Art Fair. In order for the Beirut Art Fair to one day compete with global art fairs, these type of antics need to end.
Beirut was once the cultural hotspot of the region. Prior to the Civil War there were dozens of galleries dotting the landscape of this small city. There was a strong collector base, plans for museums, art centers, and exhibitions. Unfortunately Beirut’s significance as a regional art center was tarnished with the onset of the Lebanese Civil War. After the Civil War the art scene slowly started to recover with gallery openings, exhibitions, and retrospectives. One of the main things the country was missing was an Art Fair.
The fair directors never lost hope in Lebanon, despite the odds. They pushed ahead with plans for Beirut’s Art Fair. After all, Art Dubai and Abu Dhabi Art were extremely successful ventures, which put those cities on the international art circuit; there was surely space for an art fair in Beirut. So they started their first art fair in 2010, which was much smaller in comparison. It was a test fair. Each gallery was only allowed to showcase one work at this first fair. It was successful and was received warmly by the people of Beirut.
It was then morphed into a full-fledged fair, taking place in the newly constructed waterfront area of the Beirut Central District. This piece of land, which has been artificially expanded into the Mediterranean, also plays host to the Beirut Exhibition Center. The 2011 fair were received well, with very strong galleries taking booths from throughout the region. At this year’s art fair, many of these great galleries were noticeably absent. Many gulf countries issued travel warnings to Lebanon, embassies told their citizens not to travel to the country, and hotels across Beirut were reporting a significant drop in the number of visitors. Lebanon, which is usually buzzing with tourists, only received a few this year. It is despite these great odds, that the Beirut Art Fair pushed through and decided to hold the fair this year.
I walked into the fair the next day and was greeted by the Ayyam Gallery booth, which had 3 beautiful elephant sculptures made by Nadim Karam. The largest of which (which was by the far the largest I had ever seen) was priced at $650,000, by far the most expensive work at the fair. These are beautifully done, and made up of all the small characters typical of Nadim’s work.
Ayyam Gallery also had a beautiful work by Safwan Dahoul, who never fails to impress me. This one was slightly different from his usual works however, in that there was a structured, 3D effect to it.
Galerie Epreuve D’artiste, run by Middle Eastern art expert Amal Traboulsi, had a very strong booth.
Amal’s booth included two works by Chaouki Chamoun, whose canvases always incorporate small figures at the bottom of each work.
There was also a beautiful work by Edgard Mazigi, whose works are a mixture of figurative and the abstract. This work, titled Jazz, had a strong energy to it.
One of my favorite booths at this year’s Art Fair was Agial Art Gallery. The gallery’s theme for this year’s exhibition was works on paper, including works by both modern Arab masters from the mid to late 20th century as well as some of the gallery’s contemporary artists. The works were stunning and at the same time affordable. Saleh Barakat, owner of the gallery, got the pricing right for the Beirut Art Fair, and as a result, sold very well. His prices started at $500 and went up to $8,000. This is the range I believe people in Beirut are willing to spend on art at an Art Fair. One always has to adapt to the market they are in, and as a result, Saleh did very well, with many of the works sold by the second day of the fair. It is interesting to note that at Art Dubai, for example, Agial had much more expensive and larger canvases that were priced in the tens of thousands. That’s because Dubai has a much higher purchasing power than Beirut. The works were truly top quality at Agial’s booth, and I commend Saleh Barakat and Carol Chehab for putting on such a great show. The nice thing about the booth was that there were wooden racks installed so one could sift through the works; there was a great selection to choose from.
A beautiful Ayman Baalbaki:
Tagreed Dargouth’s beautiful painted mushroom clouds:
Omar Fakhoury’s work, which at first I did not understand, but upon looking closer I realized that these red and white barrels were the ones used by the army at bases and checkpoints around Lebanon. They were beautifully painted onto a stunning light blue background.
A fantastic work of a Druze Sheikh by Hassan Jouni
Beautiful landscapes by Fateh Moudaress .
Le Violin Bleu had a whole wall dedicated to Sabhan Adam’s works. I am a fan of Sabhan’s works; his unique creatures are always full of personality. His paintings are also strong because of the bright colors he uses on dark backgrounds, giving the creatures an almost comical look. These works drew a lot of attention from the fair goers.
Ginane Makki Bacho had an installation of Beirut Street Art, where this creative artist went around Beirut taking pictures of the often neglected grapphiti that is ever present along the city’s walls.
I was impressed to see Tehran’s Azad Art Gallery at the fair, as it was nice to have some Iranian art. They had a beautiful blue calligraphy work by Ali Shirzai.
Good article! It gives me an general understanding of the fair and the local art scene situation. By presenting the various key artists, their works of art and price range, the review allows me to have a general “feel” of the patronage taste preference and their acceptable spending price-point on contemporary art works. I was disappointed by an article read recently on Art Beirut 2012 that merely listed works sold by galleries with no price range indication and visual graphics until I read yours. Thank you!
Thank you for your nice article !
Here are the result of BEIRUT ART FAIR 2012.
Hope to see you next year !
Happy summer….
BEIRUT ART FAIR CONFIRMS CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC POTENTIAL OF THE ME.NA.SA REGION
Nearly 11,000 visitors, 4500 of which on the opening night, have visited BEIRUT ART FAIR 2012 for modern and contemporary art to discover its 3rd edition. The many sales that have taken place until the closing of the fair, this Sunday evening, are but a proof of the success of the fair which was fast to assert itself on the cultural scene in the Middle East.
« BEIRUT ART FAIR showed again this year that art and culture are of great importance to create a dialog of peace, openness and exchange, » said Laure d’Hauteville, manager and founder of BEIRUT ART FAIR.
Pascal Odille, the fair’s Artistic Director since its foundation says, « BEIRUT ART FAIR 2012 has confirmed its anticipated potential. We have already sketched the outlines of the next editions, expanding to the countries of the Mediterranean Basin and beyond. » Scheduled from the 19th to the 22nd of September 2013, the fourth edition promises new surprises to collectors and art lovers.
Visitors of BEIRUT ART FAIR have perceived the positive and growing impact of the event which has asserted its unique hybrid character.
Highlighting its wide vision of modern and contemporary art and its current issues, BEIRUT ART FAIR was enriched this year with a varied cultural program including great discoveries from the ME.NA.SA region, in the fields of street art, audio-visual performance, comics, video art, sculpture, and installation art.
To these « events within the event » was added a series of conferences reasserting the role of Beirut as the cultural capital of the Arab world, Iran and Turkey.
Aurélien le Chevallier, head of the French Institute in Beirut notes, « this fair exceeds its original purpose; it contributes to the promotion of the region and the dialog between different cultures. BEIRUT ART FAIR has succeeded to meet its challenge thanks to the quality of its exhibitions, speakers and artists. We are delighted to support such a major event. »
43 galleries from 14 countries:
A platform for art scenes bubbling with creativity
A total of 43 galleries from all over the ME.NA.SA region have participated in the BEIRUT ART FAIR, showcased inside B.I.E.L’s indoor venue and integrated the cultural itinerary. Countries represented in the fair were: Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tunisia, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Brazil.
On a larger scale, artists from the diversified ME.NA.SA Region have found in BEIRUT ART FAIR an important platform to express themselves beyond the usual ideological barriers, which helped enhance their visibility.
Significant sales’ results
BEIRUT ART FAIR in its new edition has enlightened collectors’ appetite to all art forms: paintings, sculptures, designs, installation art, video and photography.
During the fair many sales took place, among which:
The German gallery Prinzessin Michaela Nikolajewna Wolkonsky sold three videos. Tajalliyat Art Gallery based in Syria sold pieces for Yousef Yousef and Marwan as well; some of their mixed media techniques were showcased by Catherin David during the exhibition entitled “Correspondences”.
Ayyam Gallery based in Lebanon, UAE, and Syria sold two big compositions for Inaya Hodeib. The Lebanese Gallery Agial attracted quite a number of visitors with their exhibition focusing mainly on paintings, and sold, among others, a piece for artist Ayman Baalbaki. For its first participation, Sabrina Amrani Gallery based in Spain, sold two art installations for the Algerian artist Zoulikha Bouabdellah. Lebanese gallery Art On 56th took the opportunity to inaugurate its new venue, which was a huge success. VDA Galleries negotiated the sale of photographs for Jean-François Rauzier as well as Marc Harrold and Willy Rojas, among others. Based in Brussels and Hong-Kong, ChinaToday gallery got a huge success with paintings for young artist Lin Hairong. One cannot but point out the comeback of Iraqi Gallery Waddah Faris which was the focus of attention of collectors with its monumental sculpture for Hussein Madi, and sold photographs for Rifat Chadirji, from The Palm Massacre series. EMMAGOSS was widely successful; Manuella Guiragossian sold many of her pieces, Emmanuel Guiragossian sold two pieces he had worked on in Dresden and in Beirut, and Jean-Paul Guiragossian sold three pieces on paper that he had worked on in Beijing. As for Epreuve d’Artiste gallery, one sculpture for Maya Eid was sold as well as multiple pieces for Zeina Abirached; moreover, collectors and institutions were very interested in Chaouki Chamoun’s works. Sophie Lanoë gallery from Paris was very happy with her first participation in the fair and sold works for Reda Abdel Rahman as well as a seat by Fady Salame. Trait Noir-Aroya gallery sold a piece for Mohamed El Baz. Janine Rubeiz gallery’s gamble on young photographers paid off by selling a piece for François Sargologo.
Young Syrian sculptors found buyers on the stand of Samer Kozah gallery which sold as well the painting entitled Oriental Man for Amjad Wardet. For its first participation in BEIRUT ART FAIR, Art Chowk gallery based in Pakistan and Dubai sold three pieces for Simeen Farhat. Young Joanna Seikaly Art Gallery managed to sell a piece for Sermaan Khawann to a Danish collector; Rafik Majzoub’s paintings were a huge success as well. South Border Gallery based in Brazil negotiated the sale of a piece for Wifredo Lam as well as paintings for young Cuban artists such as Rodolfo Valdes, Antonio Montes De Oca and Jorje Ortero. Tunisian gallery Le Violon Bleu concluded the sale of many pieces for Syrian artist Sabham Adam, as well as a piece for Farid Belkahia.
Design galleries expressed their delight as to the new development of the fair, especially: Smogallery, Musk & Amber lifestyle concept store, Carwan Art Gallery, 20-21 Gallery, Ghassan Zard Abou Jaoude Gallery, Ramy Boutros Design, as well as SPARE ARTS GALLERY.
Contemporary jewelry designers Marie Munier and Christina Debs Fine Art Jewelry were very successful.
The L.A.S. Lebanese Autism Society supported by Mark Hachem gallery received a warm welcome by selling five paintings drawn by young autistic artist Tlais Ali, and the proceeds of the sale were donated to a specialized organization.
Showcased artists…
Not only has BEIRUT ART FAIR been a platform for exchange, discovery and enriching cultural interactions, it has offered as well an exclusive opportunity to meet artists. Wandering through the Fair one could meet many an artist from the caliber of: Marwan Kassab Bachi, Abdullah Murad, Zeina Abirached, Jorg Abou Maya, Amjad Wardet, Anwar Azzi, Asif Ahmed, Ayman et Mohamad Said Baalbaki, Boutros AlMaari, Chaouki Chamoun, Charles Khoury, Hicham Lahlou, Lara Tabet, Alain Vassaoyan, Katya Traboulsi, Anita Toutikian, Samar Mogharbel, Rita Awn, Alfred Tarazi, Roy Samaha, Tilmann Krumrey, Nabil RIzk, Yasan Halwani, Rania Matar, Rashid Al Khalifa, Rifat Chadirji, Simeen Farhat, to name a few…
This extensive presence of artists has given BEIRUT ART FAIR 2012 a different tone and secured the event a space in the era of dialog and openness.
Fair organizers, Laure d’Hauteville, Pascal Odille, Jean-Marc Decrop, Marine Bougaran, Rania Tabbara and Guillaume Taslé d’Héliand invite collectors and artists from the four corners of the world to join them in the next edition of BEIRUT ART FAIR from the 19th to the 22nd of September 2013.
Interesting and nice,specially seeing larger in the same frame