When roadside billboards around Jeddah advertised one of the biggest art events in the Kingdom, one couldn’t have knowingly missed it. Given that all previous art weeks in the city were a hit, this year Jeddah Arts 21, 39 with attractions such as satellite dishes converted into art pieces, a life-sized kaleidoscope and hanging fiber glass leaves with acrylic, undoubtedly drew a discernibly massive crowd.
The Saudi Art Council (SAC) kickstarted its Jeddah Arts 21, 39 third annual exhibition under the theme ‘Earth and Ever After.’ The non-profit initiative ran a week-long art program and a set of art events featuring local and international artists.
Interestingly, this year’s exhibition inspiration for ‘Earth and Ever After’ comes from the Holy Qur’anic verses: “From this dust We created you, and in this We shall put you back, and from this, We shall raise you up once again.” (20:55) and “And Allah has made the Earth a spread for you, so that you may go about its broad ways.” (71:20).
The council is chaired by Princess Jawaher bint Majed bin Abdulaziz. Main curators heading the 2016 exhibition were Mona Khazindar and Hamza Serafi, who are also members of the Saudi Art Council.
“The aim of the exhibition is to reflect on humanity’s relationship with the Earth, to explore whether it is reconciled with each artist’s own personal bond and how an artist’s environment is inextricably bound to his sense of identity and roots,” said Khazindar.
The event features works of several contemporary Saudi and international artists. The exhibition saw a crowd of art aficionados and audiences that were engrossed in the manifested sculptures, paintings, photographs and art projects in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
Saudi artist Mohammad Haider’s artwork titled ‘Song of Campus’ spoke a thousand words. Made with tent canvas on wood outlining the world map, Haider’s piece had an amazing eye for detail.
Zahra Al-Ghamdi’s project titled ‘Cell of the Earth’ was an attention-grabbing piece of work made with a collection of cells taken from the Earth that represent a mixture of deep concepts forming the Earth’s core.
“My work is not a carbon copy of a real cell taken from Earth,” explains Al-Ghamdi. “It is an idea expressed through certain gestures, techniques and ores. My work is a symbolic depiction of these cells as they are analyzed by viewers’ naked eyes in hopes of discovering what Earth really is in their own perspective.”
A few masked men were miming and doing bits and pieces of silent drama every now and then during the proceedings of the event. Speaking to Anmar Baitalmal, we found out that a group of boys of the Humanity and Theater Club from University of Business and Technology call themselves the MACE, which is the abbreviation of mask and face. “We do theater and silent drama plays, which is something new in Saudi Arabia,” says Baitalmal, project manager of the club. “We do all these acts in silence because we want to send messages to people regarding social matters without having to say anything at all.”
Foreign art pieces showcased at 21, 39 this year included Italian-born Giovanni Ozzola’s famous chalk on stone artwork ‘Routes,’ Lebanese artist Ali Cherri’s lithograph and ink artwork ‘Paysages Tremblants’ and Syrian illustrator Boutros Al-Maari’s acrylic on canvas titled ‘Here is Damascus.’
Saddek Wasil created an interesting art piece with shopping carts portraying a symbol of consumerism and an essential necessity in modern man’s daily life. “Piling up shopping carts in a pyramid shape and adding the human element of emptiness signifies the economic fluctuations and the advent of commercial consumerism into social life which has led to the rise of other phenomena known as The Pyramid Principle,” expresses Wasil.
British/Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum had two fascinating pieces titled Coat Hanger and Plotting Table, both of which were on loan from a private art collector.
Although Hatoum’s Coat Hanger may seem like a whimsical piece at first glance, it is actually highly symbolic. A shredded map is assembled like a shopping bag and hung on a coat rack alongside a deformed coat hanger. “It transpires that this is an old map of Palestine, that features the Arabic names of Palestinian villages,” says Hatoum. “After Israel was established, the villages either disappeared or were recognized as entities by the Israelis. The piece is like an element of somebody who carries their identity or origins with them everywhere, like a shopping bag.”
Walking out of the exhibition territory, you bump into the eminent Homegrown Market, who played a pop-up gift shop for the 21, 39’s ‘Earth and Ever After’ exhibition. “We tried to stay within the theme of the exhibition, so a lot of products featured here are either art inspired or to do with the environment and are also environmentally-friendly,” said its founder Tamara Khadra.
Khadra’s platform was an inspiring one featuring organic and handmade products, promoting local and regional designers. “Although there is a lot of talent in the region, it’s either that most of them cannot afford to have their own stores or they don’t have the time or capability to run the store. So, we facilitate that for them.”
It didn’t stop there! The following day featured the Al-Hangar exhibition at Saudi Arabia’s historic area of Al-Balad and an exhibition at Tasami Gallery. Meanwhile, Athr Gallery presented two solo exhibitions namely ‘Show Me the Light’ by Palestinian artist Ayman Yossri Daydban and ‘The Whole Truth’ by renowned Lebanese/British artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan.
In the art series was a preview of ‘Izn Praise of Hands’ that was hosted by one of the main sponsors of 21, 39 program, Van Cleef & Arpels.
As part of the art week, SAC sponsored a tour of the Old town of Al-Balad where historic buildings, including Waqf Al-Khunji Al-Kabeer, are being renovated and converted to an arts and cultural center by the council.
Prominent Hijazi architecture fanatic Ahmad Sami Angawi collaborated with Athr Gallery to showcase his first solo exhibition titled, ‘Al-Mangour; Loved & Beloved’ in the city of Al-Balad. The exhibition shone light on the beauty of Al-Mangour, a forgotten Hijazi craft, through the documentation and analysis of the creation process.
A solo exhibition titled ‘The Everlasting Now’ by Emy Kat and curated by Hamza Serafi was the final exhibition in the series of art events. “21,39 is the highlight of the year for art lovers in Jeddah and presents a unique opportunity to showcase the work of today’s most talented artists in cooperation with leading art galleries in Jeddah,” said Serafi.
“The Saudi Art Council is a group of local art enthusiasts who contribute to the local community through the promotion of art and culture in Jeddah,” explains Mohammed Hafiz, Vice Chairman of SAC. “By organizing 21,39 we are enabling contemporary artists to present their creations to a wider audience than they would otherwise reach, while giving Jeddah’s art enthusiasts a whole week in which to enjoy and celebrate the universal language of art.”
Following last year’s success of 21,39 the council subsidized guided tours of the main exhibitions to around 5,000 students from 200 schools.
Commenting on the ‘Earth and Ever After’ exhibition theme, UBS — a partner of SAC, said “This year’s theme, the abundance and beauty of the earth, couldn’t be more timely. It invited us to reflect on humanity’s relationship with the Earth as well as how an artist’s environment is inextricably bound to a sense of identity and roots.”
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Jeddah Arts 21, 39: Man’s relationship with Earth in spotlight
Jeddah Arts 21, 39: Man’s relationship with Earth in spotlight
From struggles to innovation: How Saudi calligrapher Abdulaziz Al-Rashedi revolutionized Arabic script
- ‘I feel there is a holy light within the letters,’ says Abdulaziz Al-Rashedi
DUBAI: Saudi calligrapher and arts instructor Abdulaziz Al-Rashedi’s first love was the pen. His fascination with writing began in elementary school in the Eighties in his hometown of Madinah.
Al-Rashedi talks about holding a pen in the same way a musician might discuss holding their instrument. In the eyes of the calligrapher, writing is an artistic act, like a dance, that has its own kind of magic.
“What I loved about the pen was the way the ink was flowing out of it,” he tells Arab News. “The pen led me to my love of writing Arabic calligraphy.”
But there were challenges imposed by the conservative social environment of the Kingdom in the Eighties and Nineties.
“People didn’t regard art as something important. During that time, people thought that art couldn’t generate money. For them, it was a waste of time,” he says. “In such a depressing environment, I was suffering from people’s lack of interest. They were saying that the writing would distract me from my studies. But actually, it encouraged me to study.”
Not everyone disregarded his interest in pursuing calligraphy, however. Al-Rashedi’s late father was always a supporter.
“He was a believer in writing, and conserving it,” Al-Rashedi says. “He thought I was doing something important with my life, even though others thought it wasn’t important. They likened it to making scribbles. I was literally making art on my own. None of my friends shared this interest with me and there were no calligraphy institutes to encourage this talent. The situation was very difficult.”
But in 1993, Al-Rashedi learned there was, in fact, a master Saudi calligrapher living in Madinah: Ahmad Dia. He kindly agreed to teach Al-Rashedi the basics of Arabic calligraphy. And, perhaps just as importantly, to do so in his home, which Al-Rashedi compares to a school and a museum, as well as a meeting place for calligraphers.
“I was young, but he treated me like a man,” the artist recalls. “For us calligraphers, he was like a spiritual father figure, who planted a seed of determination in us. He always encouraged us and never told us off if our writing wasn’t on point.”
Al-Rashedi remained in contact with his tutor until Dia’s death in 2022 during the COVID pandemic. “When he died, it felt as if the light went off,” Al-Rashedi says.
Al-Rashedi also trained himself by copying the work of another important figure: Hashem Al-Baghdadi, the influential Iraqi calligrapher and educator who published books on the rules of Arabic calligraphy. Al-Rashedi describes the pre-social media era as a “truly dark period” when there were no opportunities to host exhibitions or share his work with others.
“People weren’t communicating with each other. It was a period that lacked (opportunity) and even good materials, such as pens and paper,” he recalls.
But with the advent of social media, most notably Facebook, and the opening of a few art galleries, including Jeddah’s Athr Gallery in 2009, things improved drastically. Today, Al-Rashedi is able to share his work on Instagram and other platforms, displaying the skills he has honed over three decades of practice.
Arabic calligraphy is an internationally respected art form that has existed for thousands of years, exercised in Islamic texts and found on monuments around the world. So, what is its long-lasting secret?
“I often ask myself why the curves of Arabic calligraphy have bewitched people for so long, and I believe it inevitably has something to do with its holiness,” he says. “Allah has been an inspiration for calligraphers and their innovation of writing. I feel there is a holy light within the letters of Arabic calligraphy.”
But Al-Rashedi also believes that, for many years, calligraphy has been stuck in a rut, untouched by modern innovation or creativity.
“Many calligraphers have literally said that Arabic calligraphy has reached its end and no one could add anything new to it,” he says. “Such an idea is incorrect.”
Indeed, Al-Rashedi has invented his own form of Arabic calligraphy, which he calls “3punt.” (He says the name refers to the size of the letters, which are written using three different pens.)
“It depends on the idea of lessening the thickness of the letter. Usually, one pen is used in Arabic calligraphy. But I discovered that the original bulkiness of Arabic scripture and the usage of just one pen prevents Arabic calligraphy from having new forms of writing being added to its system.”
Based on a strict set of rules, Al-Rashedi’s 3punt calligraphy contains 55 “subtypes of writing,” he says. It has its own lightness and elegance, with carefully choreographed flowing lines of slender Arabic script.
Ultimately, Al-Rashedi believes that Arabic calligraphy is about connections.
“If we look at Latin or Chinese scripture, on letters like ‘n,’ ‘e,’ or ‘r,’ they are based on separate components. But with Arabic calligraphy, you can connect six or seven letters in one go,” he says. “Without a doubt, Arabic writing — as an art form — is superior to other types of writing.”
US contemporary artist Brendan Murphy discusses his first show in Riyadh
RIYADH: The American contemporary artist Brendan Murphy brought his solo exhibition “Complete Control” to Ahlam Gallery in Riyadh on Nov. 7. The Riyadh show is the conclusion of a global tour that Murphy began in June 2024 at Fineart Oslo.
The show features a number of Murphy’s iconic “Spaceman” sculptures, with a particular focus on his limited-edition collectible series titled “Magication.”
In an interview with Arab News, Murphy said the main goal of his show is to bring people “into the moment.” He also stressed that he felt a “creative cultural resonance” with the Kingdom, where he believes people have shown “an appetite for creative works.”
He said: “I have a lot of stuff I’m working on, but I’m focused on building a foundation in Riyadh right now. This show is not a one-shot deal, I want to be a part of this renaissance (that’s happening in Saudi Arabia) for the next five to 10 years, at least. I want to be a part of it — I want to lead it if I can.”
Murphy’s body of work includes colorful abstract paintings and sculptures of his signature Spacemen, which explore themes of beauty, power, and the human experience.
As a kid, watching astronauts and space shuttle launches played a major role in Murphy’s life and eventually became one of his main artistic inspirations.
“My spacemen have little to do with space travel,” he explained. “They epitomize embracing the unknown — taking that step — more than somebody that literally is flying into darkness.”
Murphy’s Spacemen come in various sizes and forms, including small collectibles and large-scale installations. This versatility allows them to fit into diverse settings, from private collections to public art displays. The sculptures can be found across the world, including a 13-foot Spaceman in Houston’s Minute Maid Park baseball stadium and a 22-foot Spaceman in Oslo.
Murphy hasn’t always been an artist. He was once a professional basketball player in Europe, and then became a Wall Street trader. “I did not make a full pivot into accepting that I was a creative person until I was maybe 29,” he said. Today, he is one of most financially successful contemporary artists in the world.
In 2021, Brendan created his “Boonji Project” — a collection of his artwork as non-fungible tokens — and launched it on the Ethereum blockchain (which uses the cryptocurrency Ether). It became the largest primary NFT sale in history, producing $15.5 million dollars.
His work has proven popular with both serious collectors and celebrities, including the tennis players Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, as well as US business mogul Warren Buffett.
Inspired by artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jackson Pollock — famed for their use of color — Murphy’s art aims to encourage the viewer to tune into their emotions and discover the unknown.
“I love color as a means of communicating a feeling,” Murphy said. “When I make something and I get it right, my work creates energy and that’s pretty cool. Color is the easiest way of creating energy; different colors connect with different feelings.”
Murphy said his practice, by choice, demands that he step out of his comfort zone. He utilizes non-traditional methods and rare materials including chrome and diamonds to create conceptual pieces. He has become famous for his extravagant works of art, including “Frozen with Desire,” a sculpture of an astronaut encrusted with 6,200 diamonds, priced at $25 million.
“As an artist, you have to be uncomfortable all the time,” he said. “Find comfort in what you can control, then break it and go where you have no idea what you’re doing.”
Mark Strong plays ‘interesting version’ of all-powerful ruler in ‘Dune: Prophecy’
JEDDAH: The latest big-budget sci-fi series takes fans back to the familiar universe of Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” but 10,000 years before the events of the recent movies starring Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet.
The HBO Max show “Dune: Prophecy” — streaming in the Middle East on OSN+ — follows the rise of the shadowy Bene Gesserit sisterhood. British actor Mark Strong takes on the role of Emperor Javicco Corrino, a man who has become ruler of the galaxy at a tumultuous time.
No stranger to playing characters in powerful positions — most recently, he portrayed the ruthless mob boss Carmine Falcone in another HBO series, “Penguin” — Strong claims that his Emperor Corrino is a little different to the usual screen versions of such men.
“I’m playing a very interesting version of the guy in charge,” Strong tells Arab News. “So, he is the emperor of the universe, which is a great part to play as an actor, obviously, but what’s fascinating about him is his vulnerability — the fact that he is managing a fragile peace.
“So, the guy isn’t what I normally am asked to play, which is people with power who know what they’re doing. He’s very unsure of himself. He doesn’t feel like he’s inherited the ability of his father, he feels a bit of an imposter. He’s trying to deal with a world that he’s not in control of. And I love that juxtaposition of a man that’s supposed to be in charge and supposed to know what he’s doing, and actually he’s very unsure of himself.”
For Strong, the success of the current “Dune” movie and TV franchise is down to the source material.
“The base of the whole thing is these amazing novels that people adore. They are incredibly complicated — really rich. A lot of what we know as modern science fiction, whether it’s ‘Star Trek’ or ‘Star Wars’ or whatever, they come from those books,” he said.
“It’s a world that you want to try and have a go at, because nobody’s done it before. The series, obviously, is set before the movies and in a very different world. And it’s great to have a go at something that that is as fresh as this.”
Princess Rajwa attends parliament session in Jordan
DUBAI: Saudi-born Jordanian royal Princess Rajwa Al-Hussein attended a ceremony marking the inauguration of the first ordinary session of the 20th Parliament in Amman on Monday, marking her second public appearance since the birth of her first child this summer.
The royal showed off an elegant black ensemble for the occasion, complete with an oversized belt by Dior and pumps by Chloe. The look was finished off with the Goji Mini Bag in Black by Jill Sander.
Princess Rajwa was photographed alongside Queen Rania, who showed off a red look courtesy of Maison Valentino and Altuzarra.
Princess Rajwa made her first public appearance since the birth of Princess Iman bint Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II at a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification match in October.
On August 3, 2024, the royal welcomed her first child, Princess Iman, with Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah.
At her birth, Jordan’s King Abdullah posted a tribute to his granddaughter on social media. Translated from Arabic, the post read: "I thank God for giving us our first granddaughter Iman bint Hussein. I congratulate beloved Hussein and Rajwa for their newborn.
“We ask God to raise her well and protect her for her parents. You have lit up our family.”
Princess Rajwa, who celebrated her 30th birthday in April, is the daughter of late Saudi businessman Khalid bin Musaed bin Saif bin Abdulaziz Al-Saif, who died in January this year, and his wife, Azza bint Nayef Abdulaziz Ahmad Al-Sudairi.
Flormar seeks to expand Saudi footprint to meet growing demand in beauty market
DUBAI: Skincare and makeup brand Flormar is planning to triple the number of its stores in Saudi Arabia over the next four to five years to meet the demand of a burgeoning and increasingly competitive market.
Established in Milan, Italy, in the late 1950s, the company is now headquartered in Turkiye. Arab News spoke to CEO Matthieu Gomart about why he is so keen to increase the brand’s presence — currently 25 outlets — in the Kingdom.
“The beauty market in the Middle East — and specifically in Saudi Arabia — is quite dynamic,” he explained. “They have double-digit growth, making it one of our most exciting markets.”
Flormar has undergone something of a transformation in recent years, refining its product lines and formulations to appeal to a broader, more discerning audience.
Gomart said the brand’s approach has evolved to focus “on high-quality makeup at affordable prices” that aligned with skincare and ethical beauty trends.
The company’s clean and vegan products, designed to enhance skin health, have been particularly well-received among Saudi consumers, he added, noting an increasing appetite for natural ingredients and skin-friendly formulations.
It is a trend highlighted by panelists at Riyadh’s Hia Hub beauty conference in October. Industry insiders, such as Chalhoub Group president Patrick Chalhoub, told Arab News the under-30 demographic “use skincare products more frequently and are willing to experiment with innovative products, even with brands that are not necessarily very popular.”
With an entire conference dedicated to growing the Kingdom’s skincare market, it is no wonder Flormar has identified it as a target segment.
Gomart said Saudi consumers were also embracing innovations such as “skinification” — adding skincare benefits to makeup products.
To meet this demand, Flormar is adapting its offerings to include sun protection and hydration in its makeup line.
“Saudis have a strong appetite for those nutrients,” he said.
Flormar’s growth includes partnerships with local retailers, distribution through pharmacy chains, and plans to expand its e-commerce footprint.
“We are happy to be contributing to the rise of self-expression in Saudi Arabia,” Gomart added.
