Cactus Moon Studio is an online exhibition platform founded by Taymour Grahne, presenting tightly curated exhibitions of some of the most compelling emerging, mid-career, and established painters working today. Focused primarily on painting, alongside works on paper, ceramics, and photography, Cactus Moon Studio collaborates directly with artists across geographies to produce concise exhibitions of new work drawn directly from their studios.

The platform is designed for a generation of collectors and audiences whose engagement with contemporary art increasingly begins digitally, in their own time, from anywhere in the world. Rather than replicating the traditional gallery online, it embraces the strengths of the digital format — global reach, direct access to artists’ studios, and the freedom to engage with exhibitions over time — creating a space where compelling new work can be discovered and considered thoughtfully. Pricing and availability are shared openly, reflecting a commitment to transparency and clarity in the online experience. It also places particular emphasis on accessibility, with many works offered at price points that encourage both new and experienced collectors to engage with exceptional contemporary painters.

Each project is developed in close collaboration with the artist and accompanied by commissioned texts, video content, and studio documentation, offering audiences deeper insight into a practice and its process. Works are shipped directly from the artist’s studio to the collector, streamlining logistics and reducing environmental impact.

Cactus Moon Studio runs alongside Taymour Grahne Projects, building on more than a decade of exhibiting artists at pivotal moments in their careers, many of whom have since gained major international recognition. The two programmes operate in parallel. Taymour Grahne Projects itself continues exactly as it is - a focused commitment to a core group of represented artists, shown through exhibitions at our Dubai gallery and international art fairs. Cactus Moon Studio is the parallel space, built on more than a decade of exhibiting artists at pivotal moments in their careers - where I can champion work that moves me, and where new collectors can encounter contemporary art without needing to be already inside the room.

Through an ongoing programme of exhibitions released twice a month, Cactus Moon Studio balances focused solo shows with thematic group presentations, fostering sustained engagement with artists’ practices and dialogue across generations, geographies, and approaches to contemporary image-making.

The name draws from the moon cactus — a vivid, hybrid plant that exists somewhere between the natural and the surreal, and that grows grafted onto another cactus: two distinct plants living as one. It reflects the spirit of the platform: a place for experimentation and unexpected encounters, and a structure built to let remarkable work flourish.

Cactus Moon Studio presents an ongoing programme of solo and thematic group exhibitions featuring emerging, mid-career, and established painters from around the world. Upcoming presentations include projects by Diane Chappalley, Morteza Khakshoor, Hilary Doyle, Joanna Whittle, Michael Gac Levin, Loubna Rizqi, Hannah Whitaker, Aaron Zulpo, Susan Lichtman, Iain Andrews, and Shaun Ellison, among others.

Taymour Grahne is a London- and Dubai-based art dealer and the founder of Taymour Grahne Projects (founded in 2013) and Cactus Moon Studio, an online exhibition platform dedicated to contemporary painting. Known for identifying and championing significant artistic voices at pivotal moments in their careers, Grahne has built a programme spanning exhibitions, art fairs, and online presentations, with a particular focus on painting and artists working across and between the Global South and the West.

Born in London and raised between London, Beirut, and New York, Grahne draws on a transnational upbringing that has been central to his curatorial approach, shaping a programme that engages with layered geographies, diasporic histories, and shifting cultural contexts. His involvement with the art world began during his studies in International Relations at Boston University, where he founded Art of the Mid East, an online platform dedicated to bringing greater visibility to artistic practices from across the Middle East.

After completing an MA in Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York, Grahne opened his first gallery at 157 Hudson Street in New York City’s Tribeca neighbourhood. The space — formerly home to the iconic Area nightclub, associated with figures such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat — marked the beginning of a programme defined by close collaboration with artists at formative moments in their careers, many of whom have since gained major international recognition. The gallery later operated spaces in London before establishing its current flagship at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai in 2025, presenting artists from across the world, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East, North Africa, and their diasporas.

Through his programme, Grahne has placed works in major international museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The British Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Barjeel Art Foundation, Dalloul Art Foundation, Nasher Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, MACAAL, and X Museum. The gallery’s programme and artists have been widely featured in leading international publications including The New York Times, Frieze, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Financial Times, The Art Newspaper, Artnet News, and The Observer.

Grahne has spoken at institutions including Wellesley College, Kingston University, and Regent’s University, and continues to explore new models for exhibiting, discovering, and collecting contemporary art through both physical and digital platforms.