What is Noma?
On Thursday, October 15, in the middle of Frieze London week, Aldar announced a new "creative neighbourhood" in Abu Dhabi. Aldar is the emirate's leading real estate developer and the official fair partner of Frieze Abu Dhabi. The name works the way SoHo does in New York: Noma stands for North of Manarat Al Saadiyat, the exhibition center that has hosted the city's art fair since 2011.
Concrete plans haven't been released. What the announcement signals is intent. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, who chairs both Aldar and Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, said in 2021 that investing in culture "does not just mean buildings," and the Gulf has been proving it with neighborhoods built for artists: Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, JAX in Riyadh, and Miza, the creative district around Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi's port.
Frieze Abu Dhabi: November 19 to 22
The first Frieze Abu Dhabi opens at Manarat Al Saadiyat on November 19 and runs through November 22. It replaces Abu Dhabi Art, which began in 2007 and spent nearly two decades building a collector community in the city. Frieze's sixth city joins London, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Seoul.
More than 80 galleries are taking part, from 37 countries and regions, with a focus on West Asia, North Africa and South Asia. Established UAE galleries including Carbon 12, Lawrie Shabibi, The Third Line and Green Art Gallery are on the list. The fair is led by director Dyala Nusseibeh, who ran Abu Dhabi Art before it. New for this edition: Frieze Masters Abu Dhabi, built around the theme of the Indian Ocean; a Frieze Abu Dhabi Artist Award; outdoor sculpture; and In Dialogue, an annual show pairing an established and an emerging UAE artist.
Why does a fair need a neighborhood?
Because a fair lasts four days and a district lasts decades. The Saadiyat Cultural District already holds the institutions: the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2016, the Zayed National Museum, and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, which The Art Newspaper reports is due to open in December. What museums and fairs can't supply on their own is the everyday life of art: studios, small galleries, the places artists work and collectors drop in.
Noma is a bet that the next phase of the Gulf's art scene will be lived in rather than visited. It is the same bet West Palm Beach made with the NORA District and Nashville made with Wedgewood-Houston, at a very different scale.
Two artists already working from the Gulf
Collectors looking toward Abu Dhabi this month don't have to wait for Noma to be built to see artists shaped by the region.
Taher Jaoui
Taher Jaoui was born in Tunisia and works from Dubai. His large canvases layer oil, acrylic and charcoal into dense fields of color, graffiti-like marks and fragments of mathematical notation, a habit from an earlier life in finance. Up close the surface is full of crossings-out and second thoughts. From a few steps back it settles into something that feels inevitable. Filling the Gaps (2025), more than ten feet wide, hangs in Carousel's West Palm Beach gallery, and Mirror of Split Selves (2025) is in Atlanta.
Sylvain Tremblay
Sylvain Tremblay was born in Quebec and is now based in Dubai. He works between painting, sculpture and performance, building surfaces so thick and textured that his paintings behave like reliefs. His Van Gogh and Sunflowers, a sculptural painting, hangs in West Palm Beach, and his live painting sessions at Carousel Miami in the summer of 2025 showed how physical the process is.
Frequently asked questions
When is Frieze Abu Dhabi 2026?
November 19 to 22, 2026, at Manarat Al Saadiyat in the Saadiyat Cultural District.
What is Noma in Abu Dhabi?
A new creative neighborhood announced by the developer Aldar in October 2026. The name stands for North of Manarat Al Saadiyat. Detailed plans have not yet been published.
What replaced Abu Dhabi Art?
Frieze Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi Art, founded in 2007, became Frieze Abu Dhabi starting with the 2026 edition.
Which museums are in the Saadiyat Cultural District?
The Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Zayed National Museum and the forthcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Where can I see Gulf-based contemporary artists in the US?
Carousel Fine Art shows Taher Jaoui and Sylvain Tremblay, both based in Dubai, in its galleries, including West Palm Beach and Atlanta.
A name before a map
Noma has a logo, a location and a reason to exist. It doesn't have streets yet. The galleries that fill the Manarat this month will help decide what goes north of it.
