FT WEEKEND

First the Louvre, now the Guggenheim – Abu Dhabi will boast outposts from two of the world's most important museums come next year, when the New York art institution opens its Frank-Gehry designed gallery in the UAE. But before they arrived, there was the homegrown Abu Dhabi Art Fair, which debuted in 2009 and quickly attracted major art galleries to come and do business. Now in its 17th year, the fair is the biggest in the region, with more than 140 galleries representing and an emerging artist programme curated by the significant Syrian-born artist Issam Kourbaj. Next year, it will evolve into Frieze Abu Dhabi. A paricular highlight of this edition is Joana Choumali's photographs, showing with Ivorian gallery Farh Fakhri, which she prints onto fabric and embroiders with cotton and wool thread to create textured, dream-like scenes of life in west Africa.