Last year, "In The World But Don't Know The World"
by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui at London's October
Gallery was one of Art Dubai's most talked-about works. Stretching 33 by 18 feet, made of multicolored bottle caps, and rumored to be
priced in the $1 million range, the monumental metal tapestry
has remained one of the fair's iconic images. This year
the gallery has returned, along with Anatsui. His majestic "Skylines" is smaller in size than last year's work, and will be "displayed in a completely different way, as more of a
sculptural piece," explains the gallery's Elisabeth Laloushek.

"I think what draws people to Anatsui's work is his use
of the most humble material and how he
basically transforms it into gold," says Laloushek. "It is a very alchemical
process, and I think it is the holding together of various
contradictions that makes his work so interesting." Among art by the gallery's host of Mideast names — including Laila Shawa, Wijdan,
Golnaz Fathi, and Rachid Koraïchi — is also a piece by Nigerian-American Nnenna Okore. "Ashoebi II," a clay-and-burlap piece
complements Anatsui's fascination with the tangible and
the tapestry-like.

October Gallery represents an increasing trend at Art
Dubai of Western galleries that have an intriguing blend
of East and West in their stable of artists. These include
Viennese Galerie Krinzinger, who are showing works by
Gavin Turk, Eva Schlegel, and Valery Koshlyakov alongside Kader
Attia, Inci Furni, and Alfred Tarazi. At New
York's LTMH Gallery, pieces by Alexis Laurent and
Gayle Mandle hang alongside those by Shirin Neshat,
Farideh Lashai, and Afsoon. Beirut/Hamburg-based Sfeir-Semler melds pieces by Phillip Taaffe, Christine Streuli,
and Elger Esser with those by Walid Raad, Akram Zaatari,
and Timo Nasseri.

At Paris's Galerie Chantal Crousel, works by Allora & Calzadilla, Claire Fontaine,
Gabriel Orozco, and Mona Hatoum are on display.
Fontaine's "Diviser la Division," featuring alternating neon words in
Arabic and Hebrew, was produced for the Attfocus
Biennial in Jerusalem and "is infused with a critique
concerning the partition of the country into two separate
entities — Israel and Palestine," explains dealer Chantal Crousel. "The sentences in the two languages have a slightly
different nuance in meaning because translation itself
functions here as a form of violence. It is an invitation to
draw new lines — an urgent necessity in a conflict that seems
to have no solution." Meanwhile, Allora & Calzadilla's "Intermission" is an intriguing series of woodcuts exploring
leisure time during war, the garish faces and strange setting depicting "U.S. soldiers in Iraq playing an impromptu game of
polo on donkeys during Halloween," Crousel says.

At Galerie Nathalie Obadia, new works by iconic
Portuguese-based Joana Vasconcelos veer away from her
more recognisable crochet-covered animal heads (although
these are on display too). "Material Girl," a strange collage
of different colors is part of the gallery's aim
to "show that Vasconcelos does not only do animals, but
that she's doing something else — in fact, she has been doing
these paintings for almost seven years." More striking
works can be found at a solo show of Swoon's works at
Galerie LJ from Paris. The American artist's
graffiti-like drawings bear more than a passing resemblance
to the stencils of Banksy. "Swoon has engaged a lot with the
region, and did a two-month residency at the
Townhouse Gallery in Cairo in 2009," explains director
Adeline Jeudy. "I was interested to see her artist view on
Arab society and life in Cairo. This is therefore a work that
seems relevant to be shown at Art Dubai."

With galleries coming from as far and wide as Moscow,
Porto Allegre, San Francisco, Paris, Budapest, and
Melbourne, the works on show bridge the distances
between these cities. Art Dubai and the coinciding
Sharjah Biennial, Crousel says, "offer an inviting way of reading and
interpreting contemporary art that encourages us,
gallerists from all over the world, to present artists whose
work is directly enlightening the time and the society
in which we live, bringing new forms in rendering our
experiences and our aspirations."