The National reported that two Arab Spring paintings were taken down from our booth at Art Dubai 2012, when the gallery was called Artspace, on the advice of security officers.
Colin Simpson's report describes the gallery as based at the Dubai International Financial Centre and operating in Dubai since 2003. Both works were among the centrepieces of our display and both drew on images from the uprisings of 2011.
One was You Were My Only Love by the Moroccan artist Zakaria Ramhani, based on the widely published image of a woman beaten by Egyptian police. The other was After Washing by the Palestinian artist Shadi Alzaqzouq, a masked female protester holding up underwear printed with the Arabic word for "leave", the message protesters in Egypt sent to Hosni Mubarak.
Sossy Dikijian, the gallery's art director at the time, told the paper that the works had been cleared in advance by the fair's organisers, and that the Ramhani was rehung once one royal visit had passed before being taken down again. Art Dubai explained its protocol for royal visits, and the report notes a similar removal at another Dubai gallery.
The removal was also covered by BBC News and BBC News Arabic that week, and it shows how closely the gallery's programme was tied to the events of the time.