șÚÁÏÉçÇű

700 works entered for Dammam’s small-format art exhibition

700 works entered for Dammam’s small-format art exhibition
More than 700 works have been submitted for the șÚÁÏÉçÇűn Society for Culture and Arts’ annual showcase. (SPA)
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700 works entered for Dammam’s small-format art exhibition

700 works entered for Dammam’s small-format art exhibition
  • Event seeks to ‘bridge the gap between artists and the public,’ organizer says
  • Successful pieces to be announced on July 17

DAMMAM: Artists from across the country have submitted more than 700 works for the șÚÁÏÉçÇűn Society for Culture and Arts in Dammam’s annual showcase.

Now in its sixth year, the “Endless Possibilities for Art” exhibition focuses exclusively on works measuring 30 cm by 30 cm and seeks to deepen connections between artists and viewers by creating interactive display environments.

A total of 705 pieces from 235 artists in 25 cities were entered for this year’s show and the submission process is now closed, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Youssef Al-Harbi, the society’s director, said: “This initiative seeks to bridge the gap between artists and the public by making original artworks more attainable and fostering a deeper connection between creators and collectors through deeper sensory and visual readings of artistic works.

“It also showcases the richness of techniques and diversity of artistic schools, reflecting the cultural and visual diversity of the Kingdom’s regions and their aesthetic uniqueness.”

The show built on the society’s ongoing efforts to champion visual arts and encouraged artists and collectors to find common ground through ownership, he said.

The society will announce which works have been chosen for the exhibition on July 17.


The Open Crate: Meet the women protecting the Arab world’s artistic heritage

The Open Crate: Meet the women protecting the Arab world’s artistic heritage
Updated 07 July 2025

The Open Crate: Meet the women protecting the Arab world’s artistic heritage

The Open Crate: Meet the women protecting the Arab world’s artistic heritage

BEIRUT: What’s the point of owning a beautiful collection — whether art or collectibles — if there’s no proper way to showcase or preserve it?

This question lies at the heart of The Open Crate, a platform designed to help collectors digitize and preserve their collections. Founded by art specialists Amina Debbiche and Nora Mansour, the company offers an inventory and archiving service that catalogs everything from fine art and furniture to watches, books, and pens.

“People know exactly which crypto they have in their portfolio. But when it comes to art, they don't even remember the name of the artist on the wall,” said Mansour, a Lebanese finance expert turned art curator.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Debbiche and Mansour noted the urgency of digitizing art catalogues — especially in the Arab world.

“The thing with art, especially in our region of the world, is that it’s mostly held in private hands,” said Debbiche, a Tunisian art aficionado.

The privatization of artwork in a region with hotspots of instability makes the act of documentation a deeply political one: a means of preserving the unspoken victims of war — art.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To explain this, Mansour gave Arab News a hypothetical example: think of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem whose house is looted — if their artwork is documented, there’s proof it existed. It’s a map of what you own.

“It’s like our child, you know — it’s like having a baby together,” Mansour joked.

The child they created, The Open Crate, boldly and indirectly addresses an unspoken issue that has long plagued the region. Like any child, it has the potential to grow and carve out a name that its ancestors, and future generations, can be proud of.

 


US Qatari Sophia Al-Maria wins 2025 Frieze Artist Award 

US Qatari Sophia Al-Maria wins 2025 Frieze Artist Award 
Updated 05 July 2025

US Qatari Sophia Al-Maria wins 2025 Frieze Artist Award 

US Qatari Sophia Al-Maria wins 2025 Frieze Artist Award 

DUBAI: US Qatari artist and writer Sophia Al-Maria has been announced as the recipient of the 2025 Frieze Artist Award, one of the art world’s most highly anticipated annual commissions. 

The award is part of Frieze London, a leading international art fair that will return to Regent’s Park from Oct. 15-19, bringing together more than 280 galleries from 45 countries.

Presented in partnership with Forma, the award supports early- to mid-career artists in debuting new works. This year, Al-Maria will perform “Wall Based Work (a Trompe LOL),” a live stand-up comedy show held daily inside the fair tent.

Based in London, Al-Maria works across drawing, collage, sculpture, film and writing. (Supplied)

The work marks Al-Maria’s first attempt at stand-up, in which she will blend sharp humor with her long-standing interest in mythology, empire and pop culture.

“In partnership with Forma, we are proud to continue supporting artist-centered programming,” said Eva Langret, director of Frieze EMEA. “Al-Maria’s debut stand-up promises a collective experience exploring vulnerability, creativity, shared anxieties and LOLs.”

Sophia Al-Maria, ‘Mothership,’ 2017. (Supplied)

Meanwhile, Chris Rawcliffe, artistic director at Forma, said: “By wielding humor as a tool for survival, Al-Maria not only provokes reflection but actively reshapes the cultural conversation 
 Al-Maria is more than an artist and critic, she is a catalyst for change, and an indispensable voice in both the art world and the wider social landscape.” 

Al-Maria’s proposal was selected by a jury of leading industry professionals, including curator and museum consultant Lydia Yee and the artistic director of exhibitions at Ikon Gallery, Melanie Pocock, artistic director of exhibitions at Ikon Gallery, as well as Langret and Rawcliffe.

Based in London, Al-Maria works across drawing, collage, sculpture, film and writing. Her practice is unified by a focus on storytelling and mythmaking, often reimagining histories and envisioning speculative futures. Her work has been shown at major institutions and biennales, including the Gwangju Biennale, the New Museum and Whitney Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, and Tate Britain.


Artists push the boundaries of technology in new media arts residency in Riyadh

Artists push the boundaries of technology in new media arts residency in Riyadh
Updated 43 min 37 sec ago

Artists push the boundaries of technology in new media arts residency in Riyadh

Artists push the boundaries of technology in new media arts residency in Riyadh
  • Residency displays futuristic artwork inspired by the natural landscape and culture of the Kingdom
  • Diriyah Art Futures brings together artists from around the world, combining art, science and technology

RIYADH: Diriyah Art Futures opened a new residency displaying cutting-edge artwork in Riyadh on Wednesday evening.

The Mazra’ah Media Art Residency spring/summer 2025 open studio displays work that combines art, science and technology.

It is a three-month program designed for artists and scholars working across new media and digital art.

The theme, “High-Resolution Dreams of Sand,” explored the evolving relationships between humans, nature and technology in rapidly changing environments, informed by the distinctive contexts of Diriyah and Riyadh.

The evening’s open studio offered a behind-the-scenes look at work in progress from the spring/summer 2025 residents, alongside talks and studio discussions.

In the studios, Arab News met with various artists including Saudi Arwa Al-Neami whose creations explore themes of acceptance, identity and societal transformation.

During the residency, she undertook an artistic investigation of șÚÁÏÉçÇű’s landscapes, collecting sand samples from various regions across the Kingdom.

Through nano microscopy and advanced imaging techniques, she created an immersive sensory experience that transforms microscopic grains of sand into pieces of art in the form of films, virtual reality and 3D-printed sculptures.

She told Arab News: “I am currently researching seven different areas in the Kingdom, where I’m exploring the sound of the sun using specialized sensors during sunrise and sunset. The resulting sound waves are translated into frequencies that create audible sounds.

“By analyzing the sound of the sun and the atomic structure of sands, I produce artwork that highlights the differences across various regions of șÚÁÏÉçÇű.”

For 90 days, artist Dr. Stanza has been creating a whole body of work based on șÚÁÏÉçÇű using real-time data including weather forecasts, pollution stats and news feeds.

Using an AI prompt, he created the series “Sons of Time” — an interactive Internet installation inspired by cybernetics and the future.

His other work, “Machine Cities,” connects 90 cities and towns across the Kingdom and tracks them in real time, presenting a visualization that the public can engage with.

The London-based artist has exhibited worldwide and earned numerous awards for his use of the Internet as an art medium.

“While I’ve been here, what I’ve really learned about șÚÁÏÉçÇű is it’s a very warm and inclusive country that’s moving forward toward 2030.

“There’s a whole series of ideas about AI and agency that (are) also incorporated within my artworks. I look forward to presenting some of these works here in the future,” he told Arab News.

Indian artist Harshit Agrawal has taken his time at the residency to contemplate the juxtaposition of Diriyah’s rich heritage with its exponential development in the past few years.

Set against Diriyah’s historic farms and Riyadh’s evolving environment, the participants were encouraged to consider the impact of technology on natural and constructed landscapes.

“While I was here, I was quite fascinated, in my early days by the cultural richness, the different practices of culture, but also Diriyah as a city in transition in this beautiful time where it’s developing into something else with all these constructions and all these new things that are happening,” Agrawal told Arab News.

In “Machinic Meditations,” the artist was particularly fascinated with subhas, or prayer beads, that are commonly used in șÚÁÏÉçÇű.

This prompted his research, where he also found electronic subhas. “It’s quite fascinating to move from this kind of manual device to an electronic version of it,” he said.

“I started thinking — because I work a lot with machine learning, AI data— what is the extreme scenario of that? So, I created these devices, which are motorized systems that rotate these beads autonomously, and they keep doing that continuously.

“And with each rotation, they pick up new human data to meditate on. It’s kind of the machine’s version of meditating, but on human data and climate data.”

In “Data Excavations: The New Soil,” the artist takes inspiration from construction and excavation machinery, using its mobility as a way to write out words in a choreographed manner using light strips.

“It’s been a really exciting time to be here, because it’s a great intersection between deep cultural practices that are here that I can kind of see in the city, but also really cutting-edge studios and facilities that I’ve had and (been) exposed through the material residency,” he said.

The open studio event welcomed a number of artists and prominent figures in the art scene, aiming to introduce them to the findings and research of this year’s cohort around new media arts in the region.

“Having șÚÁÏÉçÇű attracting so many different cultures right now is a great thing, for artists to meet and research in the new media and technology is a great thing because they can implement their culture’s ideas in so many different ways and that’s what we see here — it’s a great cultural bridge,” visual artist Lulwah AI-Hamoud, who was attending the event, told Arab News.

DAF Director Haytham Nawar and DAF Director of Education Dr. Tegan Bristow delivered opening remarks, followed by talks from Dr. Anett Holzheid, an ZKM science and art researcher and curator, and Mizuho Yamazaki, an independent writer and scholar.

Attendees then enjoyed an open studio preview with Dr. Stanza, before a break for networking and a tour of the fabrication lab, sound lab and prototypes.

The evening concluded with studio discussions featuring Arwa Alneami, Harshit Agrawal and Reem Alnasser, all media artists.


Exhibition on animal rights in Athens spotlights Arab artists

Exhibition on animal rights in Athens spotlights Arab artists
Updated 02 July 2025

Exhibition on animal rights in Athens spotlights Arab artists

Exhibition on animal rights in Athens spotlights Arab artists

ATHENS: An art exhibition at EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, ponders a challenging yet crucial question: What are the rights of animals?

The exhibition, “Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives,” curated by EMST’s artistic director Katerina Gregos, is among the most ambitious staged by a public institution on animal ethics at a time when wars rage around the world and basic human rights are in crisis.

The show presents more than 200 works by 60 contemporary artists from four continents and runs until Jan. 7, 2026.

Evocatively curated, with works unfolding in the various rooms of the museum in dialogue with the visitor and each other, the various depictions of animals prompt both philosophical and political questions.

The show evokes questions on the nature of humanity, the emotional intelligence of animals and how to confront systems of political domination, such as colonialism and rampant industrialization, that have restricted humans and animals.

From the Arab world, Egyptian artist Nabil Boutros has created “Celebrities,” a moving series of studio portraits of lambs, ewes and rams. Each image depicts not only their aesthetic beauty but seemingly also their emotional state.

Part of Nabil Boutros's 'Celebrities' series. (Supplied)

“I wanted to talk about the human condition through these works,” Boutros told Arab News. “These first portraits of (these animals) show they are different. They have different races, different attitudes and different characters, but we never look at them.”

“What is our relationship with animals? Is it just about food, about slaughtering?” he asked. “We are all part of this world and there is a whole organic structure that connects us that has been forgotten.”

Boutros’ touching portraits, exalting the personality and individuality of each animal, similar to traditional human portraiture, show us a rarely encountered world of animals and their emotional depth.

The show presents more than 200 works by 60 contemporary artists from four continents and runs until Jan. 7, 2026. (Supplied)

“They’re very expressive,” said Boutros, when discussing the moments he photographed them. “We imagine that they don’t have feelings, but that is not true.”

Algerian artist Oussama Tabti’s “Homo-Carduelis” is an installation that covers an entire wall of empty birdcages, each encompassing a speaker playing a birdsong created by human voices to imitate that of birds.

The work strives to show the connection between animals and humans. “The idea for the work came from the goldfinch, an appreciated bird in Algeria,” Tabti told Arab News.

“Born and raised in Algeria, the goldfinch was always in our daily soundscape.

“My work talks about the relation between the bird and the human because people appreciate (the goldfinch) and have it as a pet. They keep the bird in a cage and sometimes even go for a walk with it.”

Tabti finds the relationship at times “awkward and strange.” He thinks that Algerians at times “identify themselves in the birds.”

He added: “The work goes beyond the state of Algeria to reflect on the state of the human condition. Each one of us is in our own cage; it could be work, the environment or even one’s identity.

“I thought the bird in a cage would be a good metaphor for what we are today as human beings. We human beings are able to accomplish a lot but we live in a society that does not let us be completely autonomous.”

“For this installation,” said Tabti, “it was important for me that we can hear the birds, imitated by human beings, so it is like a human in a cage.”


Imaan Hammam continues to highlight Arab culture  

Imaan Hammam continues to highlight Arab culture  
Updated 01 July 2025

Imaan Hammam continues to highlight Arab culture  

Imaan Hammam continues to highlight Arab culture  

DUBAI: Dutch Moroccan Egyptian model Imaan Hammam touched down in Cairo this week for an undisclosed photoshoot and shared highlights from the trip on social media, set to music by the late Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafiz.

Posting to her 1.7 million Instagram followers, Hammam offered a visual diary of her stay, capturing a mix of street scenes, style moments and local ambiance. 

The carousel opened with a mirror selfie in an elevator, where she wears a high-waisted printed maxi skirt paired with a black fitted top. In another shot, she appears in a more laid-back look featuring camouflage trousers, a white tank top, a grey hoodie and yellow sneakers.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

She also shared a short video that captures her tuk-tuk ride through a narrow alley, followed by snapshots of Cairo’s street life, including a local bookstore and a rooftop view of a mosque at sunset.

Hammam’s Cairo visit reflects a growing interest in reconnecting with her roots, something that also drives her latest passion project, Ayni.

Launched earlier this year, Ayni is an archival platform dedicated to preserving and celebrating Arab artistic expression through Hammam’s perspective. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In a video she shared on the Ayni’s Instagram account, she said: “For me, its always been so much deeper than just fashion. It is about staying connected to my roots, telling stories that move me and shining a light on the voices that need to be heard.” 

She said her hope for Ayni is for it to grow beyond a personal vision and become a “real community.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hammam is one of the most in-demand models in the industry. She was scouted in Amsterdam’s Centraal Station before making her catwalk debut in 2013 by walking in Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture show.  

Hammam has appeared on the runway for leading fashion houses such as Burberry, Fendi, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Marc Jacobs, Moschino, Balenciaga and Carolina Herrera, to name a few, and starred in international campaigns for DKNY, Celine, Chanel, Versace, Givenchy, Giorgio Armani, Tiffany & Co. and others.