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Good Morning!
- Frieze to launch a new fair in Abu Dhabi.
- A new art space in London focused on the global majority opens.
- Gagosian announces a new Jeff Koons exhibition.
THE HEADLINES
THE GULF HEATS UP. On Friday, Frieze announced it is launching a fair in Abu Dhabi in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism, with plans to turn Abu Dhabi Art into a Frieze-branded franchise in 2026. Next month’s edition will go on as planned. The move echoes a deal ARTnews’s Daniel Cassady reported on last November—though that one was said to be between DCT Abu Dhabi and Art Basel. That partnership never materialized, and in May, Art Basel instead announced a new Gulf fair—in Qatar. Frieze will have its work cut out for it: one influential mid-size New York dealer described Abu Dhabi Art last year as “more of a private trunk show than an actual art fair.” And with Art Basel recently announcing exhibitors for its inaugural Qatar fair in February—including every mega-gallery and plenty of blue-chips—the competition will be fierce. The fair companies are keeping things positive in their announcements, but make no mistake: the fight for the Gulf’s burgeoning collector base will be brutal.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOB. October 22 will mark the 100th birthday for Robert Rauschenberg, who died in 2008 at 82. The world is celebrating with over 30 exhibitions around the world. But, as the New York Times reports, the celebration is coming with some more deflating news. The artist’s foundation is selling off his 22-acre compound in Florida—long the site of an artists’ residency—following severe damage suffered from Hurricane Ian in 2022. Efforts to fix the damage have been stymied by sustainability surveys that found the property to be permanently at risk. “If they don’t sell it now, they won’t be able to sell it in the future because it’s about one inch above sea level,” David White, a senior curatorial adviser to the foundation, told the Times.
THE DIGEST
Loewe’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection—Jonathan Anderson’s last collection with the brand—draws inspiration from Josef and Anni Albers. [Loewe]
Architecture critic Catherine Slessor gives a preview of Fondation Cartier’s new Jean Nouvel–designed museum building. [The Guardian]
Ibraaz, a new art space in London funded by Swiss Tunisian investment banker Kamel Lazaar and focused on global majority arts, will open October 15. [The Art Newspaper]
Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, closed an exhibition six months early after over a dozen artists requested to withdraw their works. The artists allege that the school removed or altered works it considered political. [Hyperallergic]
Gagosian announced Jeff Koons’s official return to the gallery, a solo show at 541 West 24th Street titled “Porcelain Series.” It’s his first exhibition with the gallery since 2018. [ARTnews]
THE KICKER
LABUBU-MANIA. 2025 might well be the year of Labubu. The creepy-cute plushie has somehow become the accessory of choice for celebs, fashionistas, and downtown crowds from New York to Bangkok and Hong Kong. But how did we get here? For Wired, senior writer Zeyi Yang spent months—and traveled across four countries—tracing the rise of Pop Mart, the company behind the toy, and how it has become a symbol of China’s growing soft power. One fascinating detail: for all the hysteria about Labubu’s supposedly “demonic” character, Yang reports that Pop Mart founder Wang Ning specifically designed his stores to “feel like places of worship.” In a follow-up story, Yang explores the economic forces behind Labubu’s success—specifically how Hong Kong, and later China, became manufacturing hubs for toy giants from Mattel to Disney. Decades of experience in toy production, he writes, paved the way for an explosion of Hong Kong and China-based toymakers. The long tail of globalization strikes again.
Safe travels to London this weekend!
