DUBAI: From Dec. 24 to Jan. 6, Riyadh’s Malfa Hall hosted “When the Wind Turns East,” an exhibition featuring works by more than 60 contemporary artists from Saudi Arabia and China. The show — curated by Sigg Art Foundation, a French NPO, in collaboration with Jerome Sans — was part of the Common Ground Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture to celebrate 2025 as Saudi-Chinese Cultural Year, and to mark 35 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
“Among the presented works are significant pieces from the Uli Sigg Collection, composed of Chinese contemporary art, and the Pierre Sigg Collection of Saudi contemporary art, alongside works from other important collections and directly from artists’ studios,” a press release stated.
The exhibition contained three thematic sections: one “exploring landscape and collective identity,” one “examining material and spiritual realms,” and one “investigating how ancestral aesthetics inform contemporary expression.”
Nabila Abuljadayel
‘The Kiswa: Threads of Faith’
The Jeddah-born artist’s 2021 work — from Pierre Sigg’s collection — is a digital image woven on cotton textile. It was presented in the exhibition’s first section, “When the Desert Meets the Sea of Memory,” which, according to the catalogue, explored “how heritage, geography, and collective memory shape the contours of artistic identity — not as fixed legacies, but as living sediments of experience. The desert and the sea, opposites in matter yet mirrors in spirit, form the two poles of this meditation.” It’s a natural fit for Abuljadayel’s practice, which “merges art, heritage, and social engagement” and “combines historical storytelling with contemporary techniques, often reflecting humanitarian concerns and engaging global audiences.”
Xue Feng
‘Domains’
The Zhejiang-born artist’s 2018 oil painting from the collection of Uli Sigg featured in the exhibition’s “When the Desert Meets the Sea of Memory” section. “Drawing from natural landscapes, personal experience, and reflections on materiality, spirituality, and belief systems, his work transcends realistic representation to create dynamic and immersive visual narratives,” the catalogue states. “Xuecombines in his abstract paintings Rococo influences with gestural abstraction, exploring the creation of space on canvas.”
Rashed AlShashai
‘Brand 5’
This lightbox and mixed-media work from 2019, which appeared in the exhibition’s “Woven Between Light and Earth” section, is part of the Al-Baha-born artist’s “Brand” series, which he created, according to the Riyadh Art website “as a reflection of the evolution of human methods in organizing life within a global system dominated by consumer culture.” The work is reminiscent of the stained-glass windows and doors in places of worship, glass that filters sunlight, “which the artist says is akin to how capitalism filters the desire to regulate human relationships.” The series, the site says, “emphasizes the virtues of thankfulness and spiritual connection” and “invites the viewer to contemplate the possibilities of conscious consumption.”
Gao Weigang
‘Mountainside’
The Beijing-based artist’s 2007 oil painting — which appeared in the show’s “When the Desert Meets the Sea of Memory” section — is something of a rarity for someone who is best known for his sculpture and installation art, for — as the catalogue states — “transforming everyday objects into works that explore perception, memory, and the interplay between material and space.” However, that is hinted at in his deliberate blurring of the boundary between painting and frame on the right-hand side of this piece.
Lulwah Al-Homoud
‘Al Qudous’
This 2024 work, which appeared in the show’s “Woven Between Light and Earth” section, is part of the Riyadh-born, UK-based artist’s series “The Language of Existence” — a “reimagining” of the Arabic alphabet that uses geometric patterns inspired by Islamic art. “I created different geometric shapes assigned to each letter. I kind of created a new language that cannot be read, but can be felt more,” Al-Homoud said of the series in an interview with Arab News last year. “I was always drawn to calligraphy and Islamic geometry. When I learned more about the sophisticated ideas behind Islamic art and geometry, I said, ‘That what I want to do.’ I felt that it was more of a universal language, and it’s also where art and science meet.”
