Can a fair mark its 20th anniversary and still feel unsettled? Will a debut fair make a difference by waiving booth fees? And can a gallery weekend at market’s low tide generate its own momentum? Art Dubai, Hive Seoul, and Gallery Weekend Beijing pressed on these questions this spring.

ART DUBAI

Art Dubai (May 14–17), now in its 20th year, arrived with the air of an institution taking stock of itself. Over two decades, the fair has shaped the cultural topography of the Gulf’s financial capital, and, at its best, carved out space for artists and conversations the market juggernaut tends to overlook. The appointments of Dunja Gottweis, formerly of Art Basel, and Alexie Glass-Kantor as executive director, curatorial, together with Abu Dhabi Art’s decision to bring in Frieze as its operator in 2026, had raised the stakes: this was meant to be a year of renewal, clarity, and ambition. Instead, the war in the region, and the uncertainty trailing behind it, demanded something more provisional. 

And yet the fair’s reduced scale—down to 50 galleries from over 20 countries, plus 25 institutional presentations, compressed into one main hall—proved unexpectedly refreshing. Several long-time international exhibitors—including Galleria Franco Noero and Galleria Continua—returned. Others, such as Madrid’s Sabrina Amrani, a participant since the fair’s inception, sat out. What was lost in spectacle was gained in legibility. Visitors moved through the fair without the usual fugue state of overstuffed booths and competing dinner parties. Conversations had room to breathe. Convening spaces and performance areas lent an unusual rhythm: less frenetic, more porous. The shrunken version allowed for a second, more accurate reading of both the fair and the pulse of
the market.