Alserkal Avenue in AlQuoz region of Dubai is home to the best galleries in the MENA region; Carbon 12 Gallery, Ayam Gallery, Green Art Gallery and Leila Heller Gallery are all located in this avenue. Kourosh Nouri, the Iranian founder and manager of Carbon 12 Gallery, describes the reason behind the success and progress of this area, its proper location, professionalism and internationalism.

The name, Carbon 12, comes from its owner's interest in getting to the roots of things and nature, like charcoal, one of the most basic instruments for drawing that is created from carbon; Carbon 12 is one of the 15 isotopes of carbon, one of the most widespread and stable elements in nature. Carbon 12 Gallery is a permanent member of NADA, or in other words, New Art Dealers Alliance; This gallery started its activity in Dubai in November 2008 and was the first art space in the region that offered a comprehensive and international program of prominent artists; More precisely, the founders and managers of Carbon 12, Nouri and his wife Nadine Knotzer, have a trans-regional vision and have adopted a curatorial and non-regional approach with a strategic plan; The identity of this gallery lies in distancing itself from the trends of the regional market and artistic tendencies and methods.

The entry of the owner of the gallery, Nouri, into the world of art is interesting. Nouri completed his studies in MBA and has lived most of his life in Vienna. Since 1995-96, he became interested in art through his trips to Iran and familiarization with Iranian artistic spaces and groups, and has been collecting works ever since. By entering the field of collecting and before opening his own gallery in Dubai, he decides to change careers due to personal reasons and professional dissatisfaction, he proposes to his partner, Knotzer, to open a gallery. Nouri and Knotzer searched in the art scene of Dubai for a year, and after consecutive trips, they chose the place and the artists they wanted. From Nouri's viewpoint, the two-way relationship between the gallery owner and the artist is important, and the work of the gallery owner is thereby distinguished from the art dealer. Nouri separates the work of commercial galleries from that of the dealers through the exhibition-making process and relationships it builds with artists.

Carbon 12 artists, are from both emerging and established groups, currently consist of 12 people: Sarah Al Mehairi, Olaf Breuning, Bernhard Buhmann, Andre Butzer, Gil Heitor Cortesao, Monika Grabuschnigg, Philip Meuller, Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, Michael Sailstorfer and Amba Sayal-Bennett. Two Iranian artists are also seen among them: Anahita Razmi and Amir Khojasteh. This gallery organizes about 6 to 8 exhibitions a year and besides that, it holds artistic and academic meetings and discussions. The artists of this gallery exhibit their solo shows every two and a half years and also participate in group exhibitions and various art fairs that carbon 12 takes part in throughout the year.

Through ongoing exhibitions and curated group works, notably Carbon 12's participation in well-known art fairs such as New York's Armory Show, the gallery's artists have found their way into important art collections.