Total Arts at the Courtyard

Founded in 1992 as one of Dubai’s first dedicated art spaces, which  relocated to The Courtyard after the building’s inauguration in 1998. It was the very first gallery in what is now known as Al Quoz Creative Zone (formerly industrial district). As Dubai evolved, so did Total Arts. It gradually moved beyond a commercially focused gallery model into an interdisciplinary platform for experimentation, dialogue, and collaboration. From early on, it embraced conceptual and multidisciplinary practices—visual art, photography, performance, text, and sound—often in conversation with architecture, design, and craft. Its exhibitions consistently pushed boundaries, challenging market-driven norms and introducing process-driven, raw, and sometimes socially or poetically charged works.