New street art installations by British artist Slinkachu in Dubai for Dubai Walls (March 2016).

04 Apr 2016

Known for its luxury shopping, futuristic architectural skyline and extravagant nightlife, Dubai is an emerging business capital that you might not expect to host a major Urban Art project. However, the growing popularity of contemporary art in the last couple years has inspired a new wave of projects, pop-up events and collectors excited to take a part in the rapidly growing Contemporary market.

Capitalizing on this early trend is Dubai based investment company Meraas Holding with the launch Dubai Walls (March 2016), an Urban Art public project with the goal of introducing Urban Art to the Middle East. The project will convert the CITY WALK in Dubai into an open-air public gallery highlighting the city’s ever-expanding cultural profile. Featuring 15 of the world’s finest street artists including Ron English, D-Face, The London Police and our own miniature installation artist Slinkachu, various large-scale wall murals have been painted showcasing the many different styles of Urban Art.

Not quite the average aerosol wall-based street artist, Slinkachu will set up 10 of his miniature installation sculptures around the city which will later be printed and pasted in large format. The complexity of his work, which involves sculpture, installation and photography embodies the heart of the Dubai Walls project making use of various forms and mediums practiced within the street art style.

Riding the wave of momentum from the Middle East’s largest international art fair, Art Dubai, just this past March, Dubai Walls is surely to be a pre-cursor for more events geared to show emerging styles of Contemporary art. There’s a lot of money moving around the bustling business capital and this is attracting many collectors and dealers to the Middle East where the rapidly growing art market has a decidedly Contemporary focus growing by 21% in Modern and Contemporary Art in 2014 and continuing to rise in 2015(1).

See Dubai Walls website (link below) for more information.

SLINKACHU | Urban Art in the Middle East