Ayyam Hosts its 20th Young Collectors Auction

On the evening of 27 May, the Young Collectors Auction, now in its 20th edition and the third of the 2014 season, was held at Ayyam Gallery in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai amassing over $1,173,000 from seventy-seven lots, 81 percent of which sold.

The auction highlighted works by Middle Eastern artists in the media of painting, photography, limited-edition prints, sculpture, and installation works. Significant sales of contemporary works included conceptual photographer Lara Zankoul’s playful yet poignant work Feminine Side (2013), which sold for $6,000, three times its estimated price. Alireza Fani’s conceptual photograph Shut Up! (2009), which comments on the hindrance of free speech in Iran through charged symbolism, sold well above its estimate at $10,000.

In addition, Syrian painter Kais Salman’s New Wave (2012), which comments on today’s rampant consumerism through a disfigured heroine, sold for twice its estimated price at over $21,000. She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not (2012), Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin’s satirical take on prescribed gender roles and the secret lives of a conservative state, sold for over twice its estimate at nearly $14,000.

A highlight of the May auction included a rare collection of paintings by modern and contemporary Syrian pioneers, boasting leading figures such as Fateh Moudarres, Louay Kayyali, and Moustafa Fathi. An untitled work by Fathi, employing the late artist’s signature wood block stamp, sold at three times its estimate at $90,000. The top lot of the evening was Kayyali’s Boats, a poignant still life made during the 1960s that sold well above estimate at $156,000.

The twenty-first edition of The Young CollectorsAuction will be take place at Ayyam Gallery (Al Quoz) in September 2014.

For more information, visit www.ayyamgallery.com