Dubai Haute Secrets: Sconci Gallery Dazzles Art Scene

Sconci Gallery has been around since 1977 in Italy, but it’s a relative newcomer to the Dubai art scene. This summer the Dubai Design District welcomed the Dubai branch of Sconci Art Gallery, its very first art gallery. Dr. Lorenzo Sconci is the managing director of the gallery, a smaller, family-owned gallery, which has been passed down to him from his father.

Photo Credit: Dubai Design District

The folks at D3 interviewed Dr. Sconci when they welcomed him to the district. He designed the inside of the gallery in a very minimalist, industrialist style with whitewashed walls, vaulted ceilings, exposed pipes, and dark graphite tile. He told D3 that he wanted to “create a space where the art can speak for itself.”

Photo Credit: Dubai Design District

The Sconci Art Gallery is different than many of the other galleries in Dubai that usually keep only seven to ten pieces of art at a time, often pieces which are all part of a greater theme or done in a particular style. Visitors to the Sconci Gallery, however, will find a broad range of different styles represented in the 53 works of art currently on display there. In honor of the grand opening of the Dubai location, Dr. Sconci has brought one of Italian art’s most important pieces: Mario Schifano’s I’m Infantile.

The Sconci Gallery’s Dubai collection also mixes Milanese furniture dating from the 16^th century with pieces by Fateh Moudarres and Madi Hussein, two of the Arab world’s most important artists. There truly is something for everyone to appreciate, as Dr. Sconci has even included pieces by Pippo Rizzo and Roberto Marcello Baldessari, two artists from the 20^th century futurism artistic movement. Dr. Sconci told D3 that he left Italy to set up a gallery in Dubai because he sees significant potential for the art scene in the Middle East.

“It’s a place where dreams become reality,” he told D3. “There is so much potential in this region. Art is unquestionably a growing market and being here at D3 is unique – it is the only place in the world were Arab culture meets Western and international cultures head-on.”

Sconci Art Gallery is located at the Dubai Design District’s new campus in building eight on the first floor.