Meem Gallery

General information

Meem Gallery's expertise lies in modern and contemporary Arab and Iranian art, with a particular focus on the work of the Middle East's modern masters. The gallery's strength lies in its unparalleled access to both private and public collections of the region's leading artists. Since its 2007 launch by Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Mishal Hamed Kanoo and Charles Pocock in Dubai's Al Quoz, fast becoming the city's arts district, Meem has been the site of numerous carefully curated exhibitions, many of which introduced the work of major regional artists to Gulf audiences. The gallery has focused on the work of individual artists in solo shows, as well as art production from a geographical perspective in the group and joint exhibitions Art in Iraq Today, Art Palestine, Art Sudan, Art Morocco and Art Syria. Modern masters exhibited by Meem include Jewad Selim, Dia Azzawi, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Ismail Fattah, Parviz Tanavoli, Abbas Kiarostami, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Mohamed Melehi, M'hamed Issiakhem, Mahmoud Said, Fateh Moudarres, Louay Kayyali, Ibrahim Salahi, and Ali Omar Ermes, among others. Since 2010, the gallery has also focused on exhibiting the work of innovative contemporary artists such as Mahmoud Obaidi, Amar Dawod, Khaled Hafez and Jeffar Khaldi.

Many of the artists Meem Gallery works with have art work in leading Middle Eastern and International collections and institutions such as: Bibliotheca Alexandria; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Bibiotheque Nationale de France, Paris; British Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Freer & Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York; Gulbenkian Collection, Barcelona; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; Kinda Foundation, Saudi Arabia; LACMA, Los Angeles; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Museum of Contemporary Art, Algiers; Musuem of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Museums of Modern Art, Amman, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Tunis and Vienna; MoMA, New York; National Gallery of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Niavaran Palace; State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas; State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow; Tate Britain, London; Tate Modern, London; Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Wereld Museum, Rotterdam.

In addition to exhibiting important modern and contemporary works, Meem encourages a greater understanding of Middle Eastern art through its publications and the Noor Library. In conjunction with every exhibition held at Meem a catalogue is produced in English and Arabic, providing viewers with valuable resources on the artists and works displayed at the gallery. The Noor Library of Middle Eastern Art, held at Meem Gallery, is regarded as one of the largest international resource centres for the arts of the Middle East. While the focus of the library is on modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art, the holdings are equally strong in medieval and ancient art of the region. To date, the library houses a collection of 16,000 books, journals and auction catalogues relating to modern and contemporary Middle Eastern and Islamic art.