The Young Saudi Artists (YSA) exhibition was initiated by Athr Gallery three years ago to serve as an incubation program for new artistic talents across the country to showcase emerging social attitudes in art. And in the same vein, each YSA term has no doubt progressed in bringing for the fresh names to the artist’s roster. But the important question remains whether the platform has been used in its full potential for those with a voice and an idea to share, if not sell.

In the city of Makkah, a new future is being drawn up. Its contours are becoming visible amidst a landscape teeming with initiatives - from the most public to the most private - aimed at developing and reinventing seemingly fixed rituals, states and assumptions; culminating, perhaps, in the re-imagining of life at the center of the Islamic world.

Hazem Harb: I use faces embodying the forgotten past like the history of Palestinian people which is in a state of complete oblivion.

Nasser Al Salem,  Kul  and  Kul I . Al Salem is the first Saudi Arabian nominee. His calligraphic work (seen on the cover) redefines the traditional process of this ancient art. Nasser Al Salem is a 29-year-old calligrapher from Mecca who learnt his craft in the holy mosque surrounding the Kaaba. He has reinterpreted one of the most ancient Islamic traditions into a series of ink on paper works called Kul, meaning "everything" or "all".

An estimated 45 million USD worth of artworks were exhibited at Art Dubai over the course of the four-day fair. Strong sales – including major acquisitions by collectors and visiting museum groups – were reported at Pilar Corrias (London), Nubuke Foundation (Accra), Athr Gallery (Jeddah) Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (Dubai), and Galerie Rodolphe Janssen (Brussels).

One of the strongest work in the Art Dubai 2013: Ahmed Mater shows the shrine in Mecca, as it really is and - thanks to elaborate camera technology - but as no one can see it.   The antagonism of cant and dismantling illustrates the paradox of the Kaaba: for one thing, they all, for others it does not contain anything.   Ahmed Mater, "golden hour", 2011.