Forty warehouses in an industrial district turned into the Gulf's most serious contemporary art quarter, and it is free.
In 2007 Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal converted a group of marble and cement warehouses in the industrial district of Al Quoz into gallery space. It has since become the centre of the contemporary art scene in the Gulf, and it is entirely free to walk into.
There are around forty units across the original avenue and a 2015 extension.
The galleries
Carbon 12, Green Art Gallery, The Third Line, Lawrie Shabibi, Ayyam Gallery, Leila Heller and Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde among others, showing work from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia at a serious commercial level. Several represent artists who show at the major biennials.
This is where you find contemporary Emirati, Iranian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Pakistani art being taken seriously, rather than the decorative work sold in hotel lobbies.
Concrete
A multi-purpose space designed by OMA — Rem Koolhaas’s practice — and completed in 2017, with movable translucent polycarbonate walls that let the interior be reconfigured entirely. It hosts exhibitions, talks and fashion shows and is the architectural high point of the site.
Cinema Akil
The Gulf’s only dedicated arthouse cinema, showing independent and international film, with a proper programme rather than a token one. It runs festivals and retrospectives and is a genuine cultural institution.
The rest
Nyx and other cafés, a specialty coffee roaster, a zero-waste grocer, a Japanese restaurant, a jiu-jitsu gym and a theatre space. A4 Space is a public working and reading room.
Hours — read this before going
The galleries operate on art-world time, not tourist time. Most open around 11am or noon and close at 6 or 7pm, and most close on Sundays; some also close Saturdays. Several shut entirely for the summer, roughly July and August, or move to appointment-only.
Check the Alserkal website and the individual galleries before travelling out. Turning up to a locked industrial estate is a common and avoidable experience.
Getting there
Al Quoz is an industrial district with no metro station of its own. Taxi is the practical answer — about fifteen minutes from Downtown, twenty from the Marina.
Nearby
Al Quoz more broadly has become the workshop district: Jameel Arts Centre is on the Creek rather than here but is the other serious contemporary space in the city, purpose-built, free, and excellent.
