The Third Line also publishes books by associated artists from the region. Books published to date include Presence by photographer Lamya Gargash (2008), In Absentia by Tarek Al-Ghoussein (2009), Cosmic Geometry, an extensive monograph on Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Karen Marta (2011), and the self-titled treatise Huda Lutfi about the artist’s Cairo based practice.
Represented artists include: Abbas Akhavan, Ala Ebtekar, Amir H. Fallah, Arwa Abouon, Babak Golkar, Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Farhad Moshiri, Fouad Elkoury, Golnaz Fathi, Hassan Hajjaj, Hayv Kahraman, Huda Lutfi, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Laleh Khorramian, Lamya Gargash, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Pouran Jinchi, Rana Begum, Sahand Hesamiyan, Sara Naim, Sherin Guirguis, Shirin Aliabadi, Slavs and Tatars, Sophia Al-Maria, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Youssef Nabil and Zineb Sedira.
Formed in early 2005 by three partners, Sunny Rahbar, Omar Ghobash and Claudia Cellini, The Third Line is an art gallery bringing to Dubai contemporary art from the region, which until now has not had a platform. The Third Line creates paths that ultimately lead to a lively dialogue between the artists and the public. It is the only gallery in Dubai to represent artists by promoting and supporting them on a long term basis.
Principle directors of The Third Line
Sunny Rahbar
Of Iranian heritage, Rahbar was born in the United States and raised in Dubai. Rahbar holds a Bachelor of the Arts from the prestigious Parsons Schools of Design. During school and after graduation, she worked in the Guggenheim Museum in a department tasked with fundraising for exhibition production. Rahbar went on to work for Sotheby’s in London. Before returning to Dubai, Rahbar was part of the team that opened the high profile art company Eyestorms’ Soho, New York gallery. Rahbar has been a high-profile independent curator in Dubai since returning from New York. She has independently curated over a dozen exhibitions. Her guests of honour opening the art exhibitions include HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Son and Daughter, and Benazir Bhutto, amongst others. Additionally, she was the resident curator of Five Green, known as one the first creative lifestyle showrooms in the UAE. Her network includes artists and collectors from throughout the Middle East, London and New York.
Claudia Cellini
Cellini has owned and operated her own art firm for the past 6 years in Southeast Asia, assisting corporate and private groups manage and grow their art collections. Her clients include JP Morgan Chase, ExxonMobil, United Overseas Bank, European Financial Group, Lane Crawford Inc, Goldlion (HK), Singtel, Mazda Motors, Tun Lok Group, Crystal Jade among others. Her firm specializes in art collection management offering art procurement services, cataloguing, inventorying, art budgeting and fiscal advisory, art programming and collection management. In Jan 2003, Cellini founded a non-profit art education program, Art Outreach, for local Singaporean schools with funding from American Express Foundation (NY), United World Collage. The Singapore Government joined forces with the group to provide significant amounts of funding, endorsement and advisory. The program currently teaches 5000 students per month and has around 150 volunteers. Its fundraising activities include large scale auctions with Christie’s and the Singapore’s Land Transport Authority. Cellini has been featured in numerous community conferences speaking on the program and the building of a non-profit. In 2004, Art Outreach was nominated for the Presidents Choice award as Best New Non-Profit Initiative.
Omar Ghobash
A patron of the arts that are yet to be, Ghobash believes in nurturing the arts of tomorrow. An Arab and a UAE national, he is deeply committed to discovering the complexity and variety of various Arab thought through the arts and believes the arts perform a vital social function. Ghobash believes in providing structures to release artistic, economic, and social energies. His community leadership expands far beyond the arts, into fields of business, governance and education. Ghobash was the Deputy CEO of the Emirates Foundation.
