For the second year running, The Saudi Art Council has organized and opened its doors for the Kingdom’s most influential art galleries to present some of the country’s leading local artists’ work. Shara Art Fair, opened on the 21st of Ramadan and running for five days, was held at the Saudi Art Council headquarters after the success of last year’s art fair. Sponsored by UBS, the world’s leading wealth manager, the sponsorship of the Shara Art Fair follows a successful collaboration between UBS and the Council during the 2015 art fairs that showcased the history and direction of contemporary visual arts in Saudi Arabia through a number of exhibitions, most prominent among them “21.39”, providing the public a unique chance to learn about the development of the visual art movement through the eyes of local artists. This year, it added a new feature for the art scene by having presented local food and furniture initiatives that made waves in the area; Medd Coffee and Roastry, Shelter Shoppe, Oil Barrel and Mashareq.
The participating galleries included Athr Art Gallery, Hafez Art Gallery, Cuadro Art Gallery and a silent auction held by Al-Mansouria Foundation, a foundation established by Princess Jawaher Bint Majed in support of creativity in the Kingdom. The gallery is set to encourage more Saudi artists to participate in the growing contemporary visual arts movement that has seen a great boom in the past few years and more galleries are set out to showcase their work for public viewing depicting Saudi culture and history through their eyes. Such an initiative not only encourages artists, but encourages the public to understand what Saudi artists portray through their canvases, sculptures, calligraphy, Islamic art and geometry and photographs, bringing together artists from across the Kingdom in one art space.
The space was divided according to the number of galleries partaking in the art fair and the number of artists showcasing their work this year was impressive with many varied pieces that surely caught the attention of newcomers and art lovers alike. To name a few from the field of Islamic calligraphy and geometric Islamic art, there’s Ahmad Angawi with his take on Hijazi patterns of “Al-Mangour” on glass and number talismans from Dana Awartani’s “The Hidden Qualities of Quantities”. Arwa AlNeami’s “spring camel” photographs in full blown vibrant colors, Ghada Al-Rabea’s pop art, Osama Esid’s “Erk Soos” and Moath AlOfi’s “Haramain” from his recent exhibit “Doors of Barlik” were all a hit with the visitors.
It was difficult to pass by and not stare in awe at the the intricate details of Izzat Batrawi’s “relief sculpture” with impressively fine and designed wood work , as was the neon installation by Majed Thobaiti depicting the ever so known arabic version “hhhh”.
There was an abundance of paintings displayed from various well-known and young up and coming artists, each painting with a significant concept of its own, each telling a story. There’s Tagreed Bagshi’s beautiful painting signifying the heroism of women and mysticism on a canvas aptly named “paradise”, a beautiful mix of collage and print in Garden 1 from Filwa Nazer’s Green Library Series. There was “The Ramadan Story” by Ola Hejazi, the vibrant work of the seven tawaf or circumambulations around the Kaaba series by Siddiqa Juma, Ammar Al-Attar’s five print series “salah” in an exquisite portrayal of the daily sacred ritual of prayer, as never seen before.
The Kingdom is seeing a new wave of art enthusiasm in all its forms with centers and galleries offering the best services to steer up and coming artists into the path they need to progress and evolve. Society is also opening up to the art movement, understanding the concept of art bit by bit and allowing a new contemporary wave to be displayed and appreciated.
Oil Barrel founders Mohammed Awlia and Omar Naseef were participating in the art fair as part of an initiative to support local brands as well as to integrate them with the art scene, a mix that sat well with Oil Barrel founders. “We enjoyed being a part of Shara Art Fair as it was also an opportunity for Oil Barrel to give its own rendition of the artistic history lesson through our version of Vision 2030. We chose a concept that was similar to the one Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented but through a hundred year timeline, vision 1930. It was a period of discovery and entrepreneurship, fast forward a hundred years later and the concept can be applied to the now.”
Oil Barrel’s corner of the art fair featured a centerpiece of stacked oil barrels with calligraphy work by artist Shaker Kashgari, a large mural by mother and daughter duo Siham Abdulgadir and Majdaline Bakr and original newspaper clippings from the 1930’s recreating a timeline on the very beginnings of the oil industry of the Kingdom. “Being part of Shara Art Fair also gave us the opportunity to test drive Oil Barrel’s latest furniture line, it was a success with lots of orders coming in. We literally recycle and reuse oil barrels in creative methods related to our brand,” said Mohammed Awlia.
Medd coffee and Roastery, a new favorite among Jeddawis was also a participant, serving their signature 100 percent organic, fair trade and freshly brewed specialty coffee, hot or cold of course, as well as sweets and snacks from local home businesses, an initiative they’ve been supporting since opening.
Shelter Shoppe, a concept store collaboration between husband and wife duo Faisal Sheraiff and Reem Basaad, was also a participant in the fair presenting home décor selected especially by the duo. “Shara Art Fair shared the same concept as the one we took up on ourselves to present in Shelter Shoppe, it was great being a part of such an amazing art movement. We choose pieces that are one of a kind. We handpick them ourselves and much to our pleasure, visitors were very pleased with our products and shared their delight as they browsed the area,” exclaimed Faisal Sheraiff. “We will definitely be participating more with The Saudi Art Council, the art lovers are exactly the target market we strive to attract to share our love for art.” Mashareq, a store that specializes specifically in traditional arts and crafts of the Islamic heritage, also debuted some of its magnificent wood work, handcrafted furniture and home accessories by Middle Eastern artisans. Their displays featured works that literally would take you decades back when woodwork was flaunted in homes, each uniquely crafted by the finest craftsmen.
The Saudi Art Council in partnership with the many galleries at the Shara Art Fair are helping artists in the Kingdom to come forward and showcase their work, simply by arranging art exhibits with exceptional concepts.
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Shara Art Fair celebrates Saudi artists
Shara Art Fair celebrates Saudi artists
Kawthar Al-Atiyah: ‘My paintings speak first to the body, then to the mind’
- The Saudi artist discusses her creative process and her responsibility to ‘represent Saudi culture’
RIYADH: Contemporary Saudi artist Kawthar Al-Atiyah uses painting, sculpture and immersive material experimentation to create her deeply personal works. And those works focus on one recurring question: What does emotion look like when it becomes physical?
“My practice begins with the body as a site of memory — its weight, its tension, its quiet shifts,” Al-Atiyah tells Arab News. “Emotion is never abstract to me. It lives in texture, in light, in the way material breathes.”
This philosophy shapes the immersive surfaces she creates, which often seem suspended between presence and absence. “There is a moment when the body stops being flesh and becomes presence, something felt rather than seen,” she says. “I try to capture that threshold.”
Al-Atiyah, a graduate of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, has steadily built an international profile for herself. Her participation in VOLTA Art Fair at Art Basel in Switzerland, MENART Fair in Paris, and exhibitions in the Gulf and Europe have positioned her as a leading Saudi voice in contemporary art.
Showing abroad has shaped her understanding of how audiences engage with vulnerability. “Across countries and cultures, viewers reacted to my work in ways that revealed their own memories,” she says. “It affirmed my belief that the primary language of human beings is emotion. My paintings speak first to the body, then to the mind.”
Al-Atiyah says her creative process begins long before paint touches canvas. Instead of sketching, she constructs physical environments made of materials including camel bone, raw cotton, transparent fabrics, and fragments of carpet.
“When a concept arrives, I build it in real space,” she says. “I sculpt atmosphere, objects, light and emotion before I sculpt paint.
“I layer color the way the body stores experience,” she continues. “Some layers stay buried, others resurface unexpectedly. I stop only when the internal rhythm feels resolved.”
This sensitivity to the unseen has drawn attention from international institutions. Forbes Middle East included her among the 100 Most Influential Women in the Arab World in 2024 and selected several of her pieces for exhibition.
“One of the works was privately owned, yet they insisted on showing it,” she says. “For me, that was a strong sign of trust and recognition. It affirmed my responsibility to represent Saudi culture with honesty and depth.”
Her recent year-long exhibition at Ithra deepened her understanding of how regional audiences interpret her work.
“In the Gulf, people respond strongly to embodied memory,” she says. “They see themselves in the quiet tensions of the piece, perhaps because we share similar cultural rhythms.”
A documentary is now in production exploring her process, offering viewers a rare look into the preparatory world that precedes each canvas.
“People usually see the final work. But the emotional architecture built before the painting is where the story truly begins,” she explains.
Beyond her own practice, Al-Atiyah is committed to art education through her work with Misk Art Institute. “Teaching is a dialogue,” she says. “I do not focus on technique alone. I teach students to develop intuition, to trust their senses, to translate internal experiences into honest visual language.”
She believes that artists should be emotionally aware as well as technically skilled. “I want them to connect deeply with themselves so that what they create resonates beyond personal expression and becomes part of a cultural conversation,” she explains.
In Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing art scene, Al-Atiyah sees her role as both storyteller and facilitator.
“Art is not decoration, it is a language,” she says. “If my work helps someone remember something they have forgotten or feel something they have buried, then I have done what I set out to do.”
