Wafaa Bilal, Chair, Ashes Series, 2003-2013 (Courtesy: Lawrie Shabibi Gallery)
Wafaa Bilal, Chair, Ashes Series, 2003-2013 (Courtesy: Lawrie Shabibi Gallery)

Art

The Armory Show in New York will focus on the Middle East region next year

Anna Seaman

December 06, 2014

Two Dubai galleries will be participating in the The Armory Show in March, when its Focus section sheds light on art from the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean (MENAM). Curated by Omar Kholeif, in a devoted section of the New York art fair that takes place over two piers in central Manhattan, the MENAM focus will feature Meem Gallery and Lawrie Shabibi from Dubai. Among others, it will also show work from two Istanbul galleries – Galerist and Galeri NON as well as Gypsum Gallery from Cairo, the first Egyptian gallery to ever exhibit at The Armory Show, Taymour Grahne from New York and Claude Lemand from Paris.

The art work will attempt to show a cross section of art from this vast geographic region and from several generations.

Meem will be exhibiting the work of Marwan Kassab Bachi, whose large retrospective opens in Sharjah tonight. Known simply as Marwan, he is well known for his distinctive style and monumental paintings, utilising the recurrent themes within his work of self-portraits, portraits, figures and silhouettes. By bringing together important works from the 1960’s to the 1990’s, Meem gallery will curate a focused booth that exemplifies his artistic practice and production.

Lawrie Shabibi will show a new piece of work by Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal. Pictured on this blog post is The Ashes Series, which he began in 2003 after the American invasion of Iraq. For this series he made models of images depicting destruction to create a new set of visual narratives.

For the Armory Show, the details have not been released yet but it will be so interesting to find out what it and also to see the effect on New York and international audiences. Armory Focus is presented in collaboration with Edge of Arabia, and education partner, Art Jameel.

* The Armory Show takes place from March 5-8. For more info visit www.thearmoryshow.com

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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