up the creek

With Christies and Sotheby's doing steady business here, and both the Guggenheim and Louvre primed to set up sister spaces in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai's two main fairs are quickly joining Frieze, Basel, and the Armory as mandatory stops on worldly artgoers' calendars. Art Dubai is the more mainstream of the two, while the Creek Art Fair, which is organized by the influential XVA Gallery in one of the city's oldest traditional building complexes, is more vibrant and intimate. On the roster this year are talks by Rem Koolhaas, Reza Derakshani, and other notables on topics such as censorship, collecting, and construction, as well as screenings of classically controversial films like "Lolita," "Trainspotting," and "Blue Velvet" (on tonight: Josef von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel"). "It is so relaxed, yet so alive," Dubai-based art advisor Maryam de Richard said when we asked her about the region. "People think everything is so conservative here, but it isn't. This atmosphere is the real Dubai."

—Ana Finel Honigman

Photo: Ana Finel Honigman