Tom Butler calls himself old-fashioned. He doesn’t look old-fashioned. He looks around the same age as me and I’m still fighting to be considered ‘down with the kids’, although I struggle with most forms of technology and TikTok just plain baffles and annoys me in equal measure.
Sadly the younger, and admittedly not-so-younger, generation, would probably agree with Tom. For as they buy and sell ‘artworks’ in the digital sphere, in the shape of non-fungible tokens (or NFTs), he is an artist in the traditional sense. Remember those? Real paints, brushes and canvases.
With all the focus on technology it would be easy to consign art to the history books, to be looked on in amazement by students-of-the-future studying science, tech, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as a reminder of a bygone era.
But UK-based Butler disagrees. He told Arabian Business: “I think with art, it’s got to be something tangible really. I think that means that it’s not going to die out any time soon and that’s also why there is the importance of having galleries in high streets still, certainly in the UK. Because people need to get up close and see and really experience it. It’s something you really don’t get from online. Part of the whole experience of buying art is being close to it.”
And it would seem Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, believes similar. On Saturday he issued directives stating tenants who plan to rebuild or renovate their properties in Al Quoz Creative Zone will be exempted from rents for up to two years as part of plans to transform Dubai into the global capital of the creative economy by 2025.
The move is part of the framework of the 100-day plan for the Al Quoz Creative Zone development project that aims to transform the area into a comprehensive integrated creative zone that attracts talent from across the world.
Ironically, Butler combines the old and the new in his paintings of Dubai – capturing the historical sites of the emirate alongside the stunning, modern cityscape vistas. And he admitted his work helped smash any previous pictures he had of the city in his mind before first visiting back in 2017.
Butler, who is set to display his work during an exhibition, ‘Iconicity’, at the Mestaria Gallery in Al Quoz’s Alserkal Avenue, said: “Before I considered doing Dubai, I had pre-conceived ideas about it being very sleek and a very lucrative place that had perhaps turned its back on heritage and had kind of become this massive forward-thinking city.
“But when I came and I experienced it first hand, I experienced a different side as well and I was keen to capture that.
“This exhibition is all about the celebration of the new, the iconic parts of the skyline and the innovations, but also alongside its heritage as well. The older parts of Dubai and how that’s still relevant. Perhaps offering people another take on what they already know.”
The show will feature new original artwork collages, sketches and the launch of limited edition prints.
To date, Dubai Culture has awarded 4,500 certificates of accreditation to creatives and artists of different nationalities.
It is a level of support that wasn’t necessarily available to Butler when he graduated from Swansea University, in the UK, in 2000, with a First in Illustration.
Moor To Life 
Luminocity 
Marina Lights 
Magic Hour 
Hide and Souk
His career would take him through designing children’s books and gift cards, to a spell mastering the trade as a professional painter and decorator, before finally landing his big break.
He said: “Because people know it’s so tough, I think that there isn’t enough encouragement perhaps. It is fierce and to stand out you’ve got to have something special that companies are willing to take a punt on. It’s like the music industry, everything really has been done before and it’s taking a style and putting your spin on it, that’s the way forward.
“I had all-but-abandoned the idea of making a living from my art and I was keeping it going more as a hobby, selling stuff online, and that’s where I got picked up in the end. But it was a good ten years, maybe more, after university.”
Despite the emergence of alternative investments, namely cryptocurrency, to tempt investors, art remains an attractive investment asset given its ease of mobility and increase in value over time.
However, Butler said the purchase of a piece of art stretched far beyond making money.
“I think that, first and foremost for me, if I’m buying artwork it’s because I love it and I want it on my walls, I want it in my life. That’s the primary reason and then, after that, if it creeps up in value, then fine,” he said.
“I think it’s a good investment. If nothing else it’s something that can be handed down to generations to come. But I don’t look at it as a financial investment. I feel that it’s more about taking pleasure in the everyday,” he added.
The Iconicity exhibition opens on December 11 and is set to run through to December 25.
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