ArtInfo.com has sales from Abu Dhabi Art as it opens this weekend:
- Haunch of Venison: an untitled Ahmed Alsoudani work went for $200,000 to an international collector familiar to the gallery.
- Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac: buyers bought works on paper by contemporary Iranian artist Rokni Haerizadeh in the $5,000-8,000
- Galerie el-Marsa: a work by Nja Mahdaoui for between $90,000-95,000 to an Emirati collector
- Opera Gallery: works by Bernard Buffet for around $200,000 and $550,445 pieces by Danaeifar Dalí sold to a French collector
- Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery: four works by Iranians Soody Sharifi for $8,000 each, and one by Afsoon for $5,000.
- Silk Road: a painting by emerging Iranian artist Nikoo Takhani for $8,000 to a French collector, and a mixed-media work by Hawer Amini for $2100 to a Dubai-based Iranian collector.
- Waterhouse & Dodd: A prominent local collector bought all seven works by Jemima Patterson for $20,000, and the same buyer acquired a piece titled “Warholiness” by Patrick Hughes for $125,000. Of particular buzz was the acquisition by two separate private collectors of Gregory Scott‘s video “At the Beach,” an edition of four from which two sold for approximately $25,000 each
- Lam Gallery: two untitled collages by Abdulaziz Ashour, acquired by a new young collector from the Gulf who paid $16,000 for the pair.
- Turkish Dirimart: “Lilly,” a large stitched fabric mounted on canvas by Ramazan Bayrakoglu, went to a prominent middle Eastern collector for $50,000; Anselm Reyle‘s 2010 “Straw Bale” for $12,000 to a Dubai-based international collector
Jeff Koons Joined Curious Buyers at Abu Dhabi Art’s Vernissage, as Modest Sales Swept the Fair (ArtInfo.com)