Money for art's sake in Dubai

The Life: Dubai's young Monda Gallery sells exclusive prints of art work by global, contemporary artists rather than the originals.

Brothers Etienne and Gilles van den Peereboom run the Monda Gallery in Dubai, which exhibits modern art from around the world. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

Six months of pre-dawn breakfast meetings and catching up at the airport to snatch a conversation were what two brothers needed to start an art gallery.

When Gilles van den Peereboom left his job with Samsung in Seoul a year ago, he came to stay in Dubai with his older brother Etienne, who was working with ArthurDLittle as a principal and whose work meant he spent much of his week travelling.

"A time came when both of us had enough of salaried jobs," says Etienne, who quit the management consultancy in August. Etienne, 42, and Gilles, 27, launched Monda Gallery on February 19 with three artists whom the Belgian brothers had grown to appreciate during their travels.

While the Emirates has several art galleries selling original works, Monda aims to source high-quality, exclusive prints of work by global contemporary artists.

"In itself, the potential is enormous," says Patrice Molinari, a Dubai-based private equity investor. "The world market for art sales is estimated at about US$60 billion [Dh220.38bn]. There is a clear trend towards art buyers increasingly acquiring culturally strong art pieces. There is an untapped market of consumers who would like to acquire art pieces but cannot afford to pay the price for an original, and there are very limited options to acquire quality reproductions."

Dubai's art market has grown to the point where it has room for players both large and small.There are an estimated 125 galleries in the emirate.

Christie's was the first big name from the international art market to enter the Emirates. In 2006 it raised $8.5 million from its inaugural Dubai sale of international modern and contemporary art focusing on Arab, Indian and Iranian artists. Another auction house, Bonhams, followed Christie's path to Dubai and raised $13m in its first sale in 2008.

As the auction houses are reporting sales returning to pre-crisis sales levels, small galleries are thriving, too. Monda Gallery launched with 13 canvases from the Kolkata artist Arpita Kar, the Hanoi artist Nguyen Ba Tuan and the Bangladeshi-Danish artist Shefali Ranthe, who is based in Dubai. The brothers chose the artists based on their potential to make it big in the art world, and their ability to represent their countries through landscapes and people.

Ba Tuan paints the riverside of north Vietnam and has a series of monochrome canvases dedicated to Ha Long Bay. Kar's canvases portray environmental destruction amid increasing urbanisation.

Etienne van den Peereboom wants to work with the artists to develop exclusive series for Monda Gallery. "This way we can develop our collection in line with the theme we want to develop - cultures and countries from around the world - in line with what we think our customers appreciate and look for."

Like any other gallery bringing art from emerging countries to the global audience, Monda faces the question of whether it is moulding artistic expressions to suit the tastes of the global marketplace. But that possibility will always be there and artists and galleries need to sell their work, Etienne van den Peereboom says. With the limited-edition prints, the copyright remains with the artists, who enter into an agreement with Monda Gallery on the number of prints, size and cost of each frame.

While Monda Gallery does not have studio space, it is holding an exhibition at The Shelter until Thursday, to be followed by another in Dubai and, later, one in Brussels. It is also selling through its website (www.mondagallery.com) and plans to link up with stores in malls for greater visibility. By summer, the gallery expects to have about 15 artists.

The brothers have invested about $30,000 in the project and plan to start looking for investors later this year. They would like to raise $300,000 to $500,000 in the first round of funding.

The price of the prints will vary with the artists but for now it ranges from $190 for small frames to $950 for large ones "We enable [artists] to earn more from one canvas," Etienne van den Peereboom says. "We also increase the value of the original."