Stéphane Custot’s got a sense of optimism about him that is envious, but also infectious. Construction delays and an apartment in flames on New Year’s Eve in Dubai’s The Address aside, the French-born dealer says there is a gap in the Dubai art market for Contemporary Western art and he’s here to fill it.
He oozes matter-of-factness and says buoyant things like: 'What’s happened until now is the past. What’s important especially here in Dubai is what’s happening now and what’s happening next,' and 'To be an art dealer is to be intuitive, it’s not to be reasonable.'
It was intuition, admits Custot, that first led him to Dubai just over two years ago. It was Alserkal Avenue, Dubai’s preeminent art district, that convinced him to set up an outpost in the Arab world after 25 years of operating from Europe.
Marc Quinn, Ian Davenport, Bernar Venet, Pablo Reinoso and Fabienne Verdier all took time out of their busy schedules to show their new Dubai dealer some support at his inaugural show, 'The World Meets Here'. The space is marvellous, all 700 sq m of it enveloped in nine-metre-high ceilings. This is what Dubai can do that London can’t: large-scale sculpture and a new conversation.
With the region in flux courtesy of a plunge in oil prices and a war with Yemen, finance is the name of today’s game, but Custot retorts: 'When you have the best thing, you always find a client.' What about Custot’s blue chip art and its hefty price tags? 'Of course there’s no market for Western art here because there’s no dialogue yet.'
'What’s important especially here in Dubai is what’s happening now and what’s happening next,' explains Custot. Pictured left: Untitled, by Bernar Venet. Right: Cassis Madagascariensis Longitudes, by Marc Quinn, 2011
The exhibition gathers the work of Marc Quinn, Ian Davenport, Bernar Venet, Pablo Reinoso and Fabienne Verdier, all of whom took time out of their busy schedules to show their new Dubai dealer some support at his inaugural show.
'...To be an art dealer is to be intuitive, it’s not to be reasonable'. Pictured: Chaos Frenético, by Jedd Novatt, 2014
The 700 sq m space is enveloped in nine-metre-high ceilings, giving large-scale sculpture a brand new dimension.
Forming part of the emerging Alserkal Avenue, Custot Gallery will 'fill the gap in the Dubai art market for Contemporary Western art.' Pictured: Maze, by Frank Stella, 1966
With the region in flux, finance is the name of today’s game, but Custot retorts with: 'When you have the best thing, you always find a client.' Pictured: Ascèse, by Fabienne Verdier, 2015
INFORMATION
’The World Meets Here’ runs until 7 May. For more information, visit the Custot gallery website
ADDRESS
Alserkal, Avenue Unit No. l-84
Street 6A, AL U.A.E, Dubai
-
Florencia Rodriguez on the importance of curiosity, criticism and cultural freedomFlorencia Rodriguez, architect, writer and artistic director of this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, comments on the state of the States
-
Jean-Michel Othoniel takes over Avignon for his biggest ever exhibitionOriginally approached by Avignon to mark their 25th anniversary as the European Capital of Culture, Jean-Michel Othoniel more than rose to the challenge, installing 270 artworks around the city
-
What is the future for design in Africa? Designer Hicham Lahlou shares possibilities for the continent at largeThe Moroccan designer celebrates 30 years of his practice. Here he speaks from his studio in Rabat about his own career and the creative possibilities for design in Morocco and the rest of Africa
-
‘Artists are being asked to be vulnerable’: inside the Sharjah Biennial 2025In the UAE, the 16th Sharjah Biennial, titled ‘To Carry’, seeks to give voices to an international range of artists
-
Art Dubai 2024 considers community and belongingWhat to see at Art Dubai 2024 this weekend, an oasis of art, design and ideas
-
Unseen images by JK Bruce-Vanderpuije are a glimpse of life in 20th-century GhanaLate Ghanaian photographer JK Bruce-Vanderpuije’s works are on show at Efie Gallery in Dubai, offering a vision of a nation across the decades
-
How the Sharjah Biennial 15 is subverting art world legaciesBuilt on the vision of late curator Okwui Enwezor, the Sharjah Biennial 15: ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’ offers a critical reframing of postcolonial narratives through major new commissions
-
‘The Art of Advocacy’: Aïda Muluneh’s vivid photographs are forces for changeAt Efie Gallery, Dubai, Aïda Muluneh’s upcoming show, ‘The Art of Advocacy’ (12 January – 24 February 2023) surveys the photographer’s art as a tool for change, and debuts a new work, revealed exclusively here
-
Takashi Murakami’s Dubai debut pops with colour, nostalgia and darker undertonesNadine Khalil interviews Takashi Murakami ahead of his first exhibition in the UAE, at Perrotin’s ICD Brookfield pop-up space, as the gallery also launches its first permanent Middle Eastern outpost
-
Gallery Collectional launches during Dubai Design WeekThe new gallery in Dubai’s Eden House opens with inaugural exhibition ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ and unveils new mirrors by Sabine Marcelis
-
Sharjah Biennial 14 is raising the emirate’s cultural cachetThemed ‘Leaving the Echo Chamber’, the 14th edition of the Sharjah Art Foundation-driven initiative presents over 60 major new commissions
