Artbooth Seoul

ABU DHABI ART COMES TO SEOUL

Second base in Seoul's Gangnam... building an 'art Silk Road' between the Middle East and Korea- Four artists, including Moon-E, Richard Hearns and Soraya Abu Naba'a, open a new dialoguebetween Eastern and Western contemporary art.

Artbooth Gallery, based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), is making a full-fledgedentry into the Korean art market following its participation in KIAF SEOUL 2026.

At KIAF SEOUL 2026, held September 2-6, Artbooth presented work by Korean artist Moon-E,Irish artist Richard Hearns and Palestinian-Lebanese American artist Soraya Abu Naba'a. Theofficial booklet also lists the three as the gallery's participating artists.

The presentation goes beyond an overseas gallery joining a Korean art fair. It signals the emergence inSeoul of a new cultural link between the Middle Eastern art market and Korean artists and collectors.

From Abu Dhabi to Seoul... a cultural platform linking the Middle East and Asia

Founded in 2019 by Roger El Khoury (pictured), Artbooth Gallery draws on his more than adecade of experience in art. Building on pop-up exhibitions worldwide, it opened its firstpermanent gallery in Abu Dhabi, the UAE's cultural capital. It continues to present emerging andestablished artists in exhibitions and at international art fairs.

Artbooth regards Seoul as an emerging hub of the Asian art market.Through its Seoul presence, it aims to foster exchange between MiddleEastern and Asian art and build new relationships among artists, collectorsand audiences. The gallery sees its Seoul branch as a cultural conduit forexchange, understanding and collaboration between the two regions.

Located on Samseong-ro in Gangnam-gu, the Seoul gallery provides art advisory,secondary-market transactions, collection archiving and exhibition planning inaddition to sales.

For Korean artists, this means more than exhibiting and selling in Seoul: it offers a potential routeto collectors in Abu Dhabi, the UAE and the wider Middle East, as well as the global art market.

Moon-E, Sculpting the Invisible 'Wind'

One of the Korean artists who drew particular attention at KIAF SEOUL 2026 was sculptorMoon-E. Moon-E is a sculptor and multidisciplinary artist who explores the relationship betweenhuman emotion, nature, movement and the invisible forces that animate human life.

Artbooth presents Moon-E not simply as an artist who creates physical forms, but as a 'StorytellingSculptor' who gives sculptural expression to emotions, memories, relationships and narratives.

Born in Beirut in 1980 and raised in Ireland, Richard Hearns draws primary inspiration from thelandscape of the Burren in County Clare. His abstract paintings explore the relationship betweenlandscape, memory and identity. He also treats pentimento - the visible trace of earlier revisions- as a central element of his process.

Soraya Abu Naba'a is a multidisciplinary artist born in Florida to Arab parents and raised in theDominican Republic. Moving among painting, drawing, sculpture, textiles and performance, sheconnects femininity, motherhood, identity and belonging with nature, memory and ancestral crafttraditions. The presentation can therefore be read not simply as a group exhibition placing Koreanand international artists in one space, but as an inquiry into how memories and identities fromdifferent cultures can meet through the language of art.

From Seoul to Abu Dhabi... a new market for Korean artists?

Another notable aspect of Artbooth's entry into Korea is its two-way nature. The gallery is notonly introducing Middle Eastern artists to Korea; its network could also create a route forKorea-based artists such as Moon-E to reach Abu Dhabi, the broader Middle East and,ultimately, the international art market.

Artbooth has regularly participated in Abu Dhabi Art and is expanding its international fair network,including through Future Fair New York 2026. Beyond art sales, it offers market research, artinvestment advisory, artwork sourcing, artist commissions, installation and shipping. It alsoconnects art with hotels, companies and institutions through initiatives such as the Four SeasonsHotel Abu Dhabi 'Sustainable Art Awareness Project,' focused on environmental sustainability.

Connecting this network to the Seoul base could give Korean artists access to a new collectormarket in the UAE and the broader Middle East, beyond the familiar pathways into the UnitedStates and Europe. Artbooth described its KIAF SEOUL 2026 presentation as one in which the four artists each reveal, in their own way, how personal and collective experiences are translatedinto visual art, thereby fostering a cross-cultural dialogue linking the Middle East, Europe, the Americasand Korea.

From Abu Dhabi to Seoul, and from Seoul to the world

Artbooth's initiative, launched at KIAF SEOUL 2026, is an experiment connecting Seoul - anincreasingly prominent presence in the global art market - with the UAE, an emerging cultural andeconomic center. At its heart, Moon-E's 'wind' becomes a new sculptural language linking thedistinct art markets of Korea and the Middle East, just as it connects unseen emotions and people.

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