In the early 2000s, Dubai's contemporary art scene was not a given. It was a possibility waiting for a catalyst. Sunny Rahbar became that catalyst. She built audience before she built sales. She hosted film screenings and talks and club nights before she went to Frieze. She defended artists who had no gallery representation and watched them grow into artists shown in every significant Western institution. An Arabic name on a Western gallery's roster is no longer unusual. She is one of the reasons why.

She picked up a friend's camera in her late teens and never put it down. A conversation with Marie Bärsch — editorial photographer for Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar — on location as muse, the perfect shot, and why her dream project involves elephants.

Paula Mendoza was a journalist before she was a goldsmith. One course changed everything: Jewelry as Sculpture, at Washington's Corcoran School of the Arts. A pilgrimage through Peru's ancient filigree workshops did the rest. Today her pieces are worn by Beyonce, Zendaya, and Sarah Jessica Parker, her artisans in Bogota have worked with her for over a decade, and her wedding in 2026 had a dress code of all black, a lineup of five DJs from Burning Man, and a theme called Rave Royale. She is, as Leila says, something special.