Is Art Basel’s Noah Horowitz a glutton for punishment? Ten years ago, he was the director of the first ever online art fair, called the VIP Art Fair, an ambitious initiative that crashed on launch and left scepticism of online art platforms in its wake. Now Horowitz, director of Art Basel Americas, finds himself also overseeing the fair group’s virtual showings — known as Online Viewing Rooms (OVRs) — which must seem uncannily familiar. This week sees the opening of OVR: Portals (June 16-19), the second of three standalone, online-only fairs planned for this year.
Highlights include works by the Los Angeles sculptor Karon Davis, who references the US government’s violent prosecution of the Black Panther Party members (shown by Jeffrey Deitch) and two Saudi Arabian artists — Ahaad Al Amoudi and Mohammad Al Faraj — who look at the future of their country from a millennial generation’s perspective
 
 

London's Cromwell Place launched last October during Frieze London. The idea of the South Kensington site is to offer members exhibition space as and when they need it, rather than galleries occupying a permanent home. So far, it has proven sensible for Arab galleries in particular. Many of their collectors live in London or Europe and, with the pandemic, a second outpost has been especially important.
Last week, a group of Gulf galleries installed exhibitions at the UK hub, painting a multi-generational portrait of regional art. Anchored by the curated show of Abu Dhabi Art, Cromwell Place is also hosting Lawrie Shabibi, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Tabari Artspace and The Third Line from Dubai, and Hafez Gallery and Athr from Jeddah.

PARIS: When French-born Laure d’Hauteville launched the Beirut Art Fair in 2010 it was because she had fallen in love with Lebanon and Middle East art. 
She was determined to contribute to the Mediterranean country that had become her second home.
Due to the catastrophic port explosion on Aug. 4 last year and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Beirut Art Fair was unable to take place.
Instead, d’Hauteville decided to use the French capital as a base for her new art fair, MENART , until Lebanon had managed to rebuild itself.
The fair took place from May 27 to 30 at Cornette de Saint Cyr on Paris’ upmarket Avenue Hoche and saw galleries positioned in different rooms across three floors of the private residence and auction house.
Marking the first international contemporary art fair dedicated to artists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after months of COVID-19 lockdowns, MENART opened the artistic season in Paris with a reception for more than 2,500 visitors, of which around 90 percent were French.

The popular French street artist has announced that he will be creating a new work at the Pyramids in Giza, Cairo, in October. "This is not a photomontage... but the art work in October might be a photo collage," reads the Instagram caption under an image of the artist posing nonchalantly (and inconceivably) on the back of a rearing horse.
"I've never been so excited to work on a project, this is an incredible site and I can't wait to come back to the Pyramids for the installation," JR tells The Art Newspaper . The artist is well known for his optical illusion works at famous sites. Most recently he has created a a trompe l’oeil in Paris that makes it look like the Eiffel Tower is teetering on the edge of a deep ravine . In 2016, he took on a different kind of pyramid—the one I.M. Pei designed structure outside the Musée du Louvre—which he made "disappear" .
The commission at the Pyramids is part of the exhibition Forever is Now (21 October 2021-7 November 2021) organised by Art D’Egypte, a company that aims to promote the contemporary Egyptian art scene with annual exhibitions at historic sites. In what is billed as the first event of its kind at the 4,500-year-old Unesco World Heritage Site, it will show works by Egyptian and international artists along a trail around the Giza plateau.
 
Other confirmed participants in the show include the Italian-American artist Lorenzo Quinn; the Ukrainian artist Alexander Ponomarev; Puerto Rico-born, Los Angeles-based artist Gisela Colon; Egyptian artist Sherin Guirguis; and Saudi Arabian artist Sultan Bin Fahad....

A new wave of NFT art from the Gulf is set to enter the virtual realm as more artists and gallerists from the region join in on what seems to be a crypto art gold-rush.
NFT art, or digital art that is tokenised on the blockchain and purchased using cryptocurrency, made headlines in March following a Christie’s auction where a digital artwork by artist Beeple sold for a staggering $69.4 million.
It wasn’t just the price tag that caught the world’s attention, but the technology through which the artwork was sold, too. NFTs, which stands for non-fungible tokens, are digital certificates that authenticate ownership of certain digital assets – videos, music, drawings, or even tweets, memes and articles – through blockchain technology.
In the region, a number of people, including Bandar Al-Wazzan, founder of Bawa digital art gallery in Kuwait, have seen an opportunity to be a pioneer for dealing crypto art.

DUBAI – In the age of Instagram and all digital outlets, it is so  important to see art and appreciate the artist’s work in person. In its 14th iteration, Art Dubai was one of the first institutions in the world to provide the opportunity of attending a physical art fair since the coronavirus outbreak in March 2019.
My name is Stephany Sanossian and I attended this year’s Art Dubai and brought to artmejo my favourite picks from the fair! After seeing over 100 works by artists from all over the globe, I was truly inspired by each and it was tough to pick and choose! Out of everything, here are my highlights of Art Dubai 2021:
 
What makes you stop and stare at a particular artwork?
For me, it is two things. One, the uniqueness of the work. Two, the artist’s ability to take me inside their thoughts and own world using a simple piece of work.
ATHR Art is a Saudi Arabian contemporary art gallery with a spectacular booth at Art Dubai. Curated by Alaa Tarabzouni , the gallery was representing artists Sara Abu Abdallah , Mohammad Alfaraj and Ahaad Al Amoudi .

‘Salad Zone’
Contemporary Saudi artist Abdallah uses video, installation, poetry, images and conversations to create her work. “Through references to gender roles and the female experience, (she) explores issues of obscurity and value, probing the social and cultural conditions of contemporary Saudi Arabia,” according to Athr Gallery. “Salad Zone” is a 20-minute single-channel video projection that is both funny and alarming.
 
It was inspired by a story a friend told Abdallah about an argument that took place at her home, the artist told Arab News last year. “My friend was so angry that she took a stick and started smashing the TV,” she said. “I thought it was funny, because the TV room seems to be where a lot of anger develops. It’s also the place in a home where people gather the most.”

The Noor Riyadh festival of light and art is running until April 3, held at sites across Saudi Arabia's capital city.
An exhibition of historical artworks that use light, from international explorations in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent works from the kingdom, is also on until June 12 at the King Abdullah Financial Centre.
4. 'Diwans of the Unknown' by Dana Awartani (2021). Location: Light Upon Light, King Abdullah Financial Centre
Arranged like a miniature screen, in Diwans of the Unknown the Palestinian-Saudi artist Dana Awartani projects lines of poetry from female poets of the pre-Islamic age to the 12th century. The phrases are stitched into gauzy sheets of silk that are lit from the side, so that the words float like ghosts from another age. The work is a continuation of Awartani’s 2018 large-scale sound installation, in which the whispers of these poems swirled around gravestone-like silk cloths, embroidered in complex geometry.

As the world slowly begins to emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeks to reengage its population with cultural activities. Noor Riyadh - which translates from Arabic to "Light of Riyadh" - is a citywide light and art festival illuminating the Saudi capital of Riyadh for the next three months. Due to the global pandemic, 2020 was hardly characterized by cultural events or communal gatherings. But globally, society has gradually begun to emerge from a state of self-preservation, lockdowns and solitude, and begun a return to normalcy. As the Saudi public re-integrates into post-pandemic society, the Noor Riyadh festival aims to transform urban spaces into art that immerses and engages the community.
The second half of the festival, which takes the theme "Light Upon Light," is a retrospective exhibition tracking light art from the 1960s to the present. It runs until June 12 in the King Abdullah Financial District Conference Center. Saudis are eager to leave the challenges of 2020 behind and look to a "brighter future," according to Director of Riyadh Art Khaled Al-Hazani. The festival, "a celebration of light and art on an unparalleled scale," has already proven popular with Saudis, who have flocked to see the exhibitions on display. Lulwah Al Homoud, one of the Saudi artists exhibiting her work, considers the inaugural festival as the beginning of a "golden age of Saudi art," she says.

The artworks, which encompass a range of media, including music, sculpture and performance, can be found in two main areas: The King Abdul Aziz Historical Center and the King Abdullah Financial District, where visitors can also view “Light Upon Light,” an exhibition of light art from the 1960s to the present, which is on view until June 12. While the global art community will have to view the artworks virtually, Saudis have already been flocking to the venues in record numbers. “One of the most critical aspects of Vision 2030 is the flourishing of the Saudi creative economy, which we are trying to foster, and this is one of the main highlights of Noor Riyadh as a program,” Anas Najmi, adviser to the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, told Arab News. “Despite all of the challenges of the pandemic, we managed to give the experience to 15,000 visitors in just one day. Secondly, over 1,200 jobs were created as part of the Noor Riyadh festival, half of which are for Saudis.”

RIYADH — The “Light Upon Light” Exhibition, which is being held at the King Abdullah Financial District as part of the first edition of Noor Riyadh, is the largest group art exhibition that monitors the artistic movement in the lighting arts since 1960s until todate. It includes 30 masterworks of light art divided into four sectional “rays” that survey light as an artistic medium: “Perceiving Light,” “Experiencing Light,” “Projecting Light,” and “Environmental Light.” Each ray blends time and unites established artists of diverse geographic origin. From immersive installation to video and sculpture, visitors to “Light Upon Light” will experience a richly illuminated exhibition in all its spatial and sensory phenomena. This historical presentation of light art is a groundbreaking event for culture in Saudi Arabia. Noor Riyadh, one of the world’s most exciting festivals of light and art combining the highest quality of light artworks across the city, began on March 18 and will run through until April 3. Filled with spectacular installations, the fest will light up the night sky of the capital city of Riyadh. The “Projecting Light,” pavilion presents artworks that use the transmission of light to create the work instead of focusing on light as a medium. In 2019, Saudi artist Sultan Bin Fahd worked on the art piece titled “Once he was a ruler”, which is a collection of photographs, in which ancient sculptures depicting the kings of the ancient Lihyan Kingdom in Northern Arabia are shown, where he modified them by placing layers of X-ray images, and these images were collected, superimposed in illuminated light boxes at the event. Through his abstract drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, the artist tackled cultural issues related to his homeland in the Kingdom. The artist also re-narrates historical stories and novels using art, and transmits these narratives through contemporary means to reconstruct them with a personal character. While Saudi artist Dana Awartani is participating in the event with her work “Divan Al Majhoul 2021, which combined textiles, hand embroidery and poetry.

دبي، الإمارات العربية المتحدة (CNN) -- شهدت المملكة العربية السعودية، مساء الخميس، انطلاق احتفالية "نور الرياض" والتي تضمنت عرض أعمال فنية تفاعلية تعتمد على الإضاءة في مواقع متعددة بأنحاء مدينة الرياض
وتضمنت الاحتفالية مشاركة 60 من كبار الفنانين في مجال فنون الإضاءة، ينتمون لأكثر من 20 دولة حول العالم، منهم 23 من الفنانين السعوديين، وفقاً لوكالة الأنباء السعودية "واس"
 
وتشتمل احتفالية "نور الرياض" على 60 عملاً فنياً، تضم جميع أشكال فنون الضوء، من بينها أعمال تاريخية وهندسية وضوئية، ومنحوتات، وعروض للإضاءة، وعروض تفاعلية، وقطع حركية، وتركيبات وأعمال خارجية، ومجموعة من أشكال الفن الخفيف، يتاح لسكان وزوار مدينة الرياض الاستمتاع بها عن قرب في مختلف أرجاء المدينة، مع تخصيص مركزين رئيسين للاحتفالية في كلٍ من مركز الملك عبدالله المالي ومركز الملك عبدالعزيز التاريخي بالمربع