Everybody knows that Dubai and Abu Dhabi have a little bit of tension. Bloomberg’s Farah Nyeri explains that their opposing art fairs are less about competition than differentiation:

To William Lawrie — former head of contemporary Middle Eastern art at Christie’s, who has just opened the Lawrie Shabibi gallery in Dubai — they are quite distinctive. “At Abu Dhabi Art, you can find Matisse, Picasso, 20th- century modern masters,” he said.

At Art Dubai, “you’d be more likely to find emerging artists, especially from emerging markets. Either by design or by trial and error, they’ve become quite different entities,” he said.

Dubai Art Fair Emerges From 2010 Slump, Targets Collectors of Mideast Art (Bloomberg)