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

Desert X is an annual art biennial which displays the works of international artists in California’s Coachella Valley, and this year, it is bringing the works of two Arab artists for its 13th edition, which kicked off on March 12.
Saudi artist Zahrah Al-Ghamdi is showcasing her installation “What Lies Behind the Walls,” a larger-than-life sculptural wall made out of 6,000 tiles containing cements and soils that are stacked to form striking patterns.
 

The festival, dubbed Noor Riyadh, will also feature workshops, discussions, tours, presentations, volunteer programmes, cinematic and musical events, and recreational and educational activities.


“It aims to improve the city’s quality of life in line with the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and to enhance the cultural and artistic aspects of the city, by transforming Riyadh into an open art gallery that blends the traditional with the contemporary,” said Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Minister of Culture.


Prince Bin Farhan said the festival sought to enhance community interaction, spread art and beauty throughout the city, and enrich the daily life of its residents and its visitors, by promoting art in public places and the local art movement, and encouraging more creativity and innovation.


 

لندن: عبير مشخص

في دورته الرابعة واجه أسبوع «مسك» للفنون جائحة كورونا، واحتمالات مختلفة، منها المضي قدماً أو الإلغاء، لكن «كورونا» لم تستطع تأجيل موعد عشاق الفن والثقافة مع الحدث الفني البارز على روزنامة الفن والثقافة في السعودية. في حوار مع ريم السلطان، الرئيسة التنفيذية لمعهد «مسك» للفنون، عبّرت عن الإصرار والتفاؤل في آن واحد. قالت لـ«الشرق الأوسط» إن الجائحة فرضت على المنظمين صيغة رقمية للوصول للجمهور، لكنها لم تمنع من إقامة بعض الفعاليات على الأرض. تحدثت معنا حول فعاليات الأسبوع، وأيضاً ألقت بنظرها على ما سيقدمه المستقبل. السلطان تتحدث بحماسة جميلة، تتوجها بابتسامة لطيفة لم تفقد تأثيرها عبر شاشة الكومبيوتر، تعود معي لمرحلة الإعداد للأسبوع الفني. تقول: «كنا ننظر بقليل من القلق إلى مدى التفاعل مع الصيغة الافتراضية، لكن التفاعل كان أكثر من جيد، والمشاركات بشكل عام كانت كلها إيجابية». ترى في الموضوع العام الذي يغلف فعاليات الأسبوع، وهو «صياغة الثقافة»، عنصراً جاذباً، فهو «يلمس كل الفئات، ولهذا كانت هناك مشاركات وقبول من أطراف مختلفة». تشير إلى المشاركين في الفعاليات: «شارك معنا أكثر من 65 مختصاً وخبيراً في الفنون والثقافة، تقريباً من أكثر من 10 دول»، ترى أن الموضوع (صياغة الثقافة) وأهميته وتوقيته كانت عناصر جذب للمشاركين.

JEDDAH: Inside the ancient walls of the Palazzo Rhinoceros gallery in Rome, Italy, Saudi artist Sultan bin Fahad is staging his first solo exhibition in Europe, “Frequency,” a multisensory exploration of spirituality that runs until Dec. 10.
The Palazzo Rhinoceros is a 17th-century palace located at the center of what was once Imperial Rome. It has been transformed by French architect Jean Nouvel and is now a residential arts hub and the new seat of Alda Fendi’s arts foundation.
Bin Fahad’s exhibition is spread over two floors and consists of six installations, each of which is designed to resemble a spiritual journey in which both the environment and rituals evoke emotions in the individual.

Recognising the traditional miniature’s capacity for carrying multiple narratives and its unique relationship with text and image, Turkish curators Azra Tüzünoğlu and Gülce Özkara are demonstrating the contemporary miniature’s farreaching subversive potential in the Miniature 2.0: Miniature in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.
The show features 14 artists across Turkey, South Asia and the Middle East. Exploring their shared cultural heritage, works by Halil Altındere, Dana Awartani, Fereydoun Ave, CANAN, Hayv Kahraman, Imran Qureshi, Shahzia Sikander, Saira Wasim and others readapt the traditional miniature to delve into colonialism, identity politics, forced migration and representation.

Misk Art Institute (MAI), under the auspices of the Misk Foundation established by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has launched Imprint, a photography, film and digital exhibition (Oct. 4, 2020 — Jan. 28, 2021).
Curated by Latifa Abdul Rahman Al Khalifa and featuring the works of 17 Saudi and Gulf artists, the show is being held at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Fine Arts Gallery (or Masaha, meaning ‘space’ in Arabic), established in 1985 in Riyadh as a governmental hall dedicated to fine arts. It was renovated by MAI and reopened in 2019.
 

IMPRINT: RE-IMAGINING IDENTITY
Photography and Digital Exhibition



The concept of identity is complex and layered, especially when attributed to the Arabian Peninsula and its Gulf. The people who live in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries are the descendants of ages of civilizations whose footprints and maritime trade merged to a variety of languages, religions and ideologies.
The core of this exhibition Imprint is to invite artists based in Saudi Arabia and its neighboring GCC countries to explore their definition of identity in the form of photography, film and digital artworks. The image is a vessel that interprets both space and time, as well as encapsulating moments that are an extension of oneself. As producers and consumers of their image, participating artists can shift the gaze from the politics, oil-wealth and religion attributed to the Gulf, and instead offer new and personal narratives.

ROME: Saudi artist Sultan bin Fahad has chosen Rhinoceros, an art gallery in Rome’s historic heart, for his first solo show. The exhibition, “Frequency,” is staged in a 15th-century building recently renovated by French architect Jean Nouvel, and includes six installations featuring light, incense, shadows, music and sounds. Each piece describes a spiritual journey to modernity through many cultures, but one that is firmly linked to Islam. “Rome chose me and not vice versa. This idea wants to be a bridge between cultures,” Fahad told Arab News from Los Angeles, where he lives. He could not be in Rome for the opening of the exhibition, which is open to visitors until Dec. 10.

Artissima presents Artissima XYZ , the contemporary art fair's new digital platform that will run alongside the physical exhibitions scheduled to show at the Turin Museum Foundation in Italy. For the 2020 edition, the Back to the Future, Drawings, and Present Future sections will live on the Artissima XYZ digital platform supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation from November 3 to December 9. The XYZ name itself derives from the intersectional approach of the virtual platform, which translates the physical elements into an immersive experience on digital channels. Some of this content will be produced directly by the galleries and artists, while others will be overseen by Ordet's  editorial team, consisting of Edoardo Bonaspetti, Stefano Cernuschi, and Anna Bergamasco. 
 
https://xyz.artissima.art/Sezioni%2520curate/disegni/

Christie's, the WHO Foundation and UN75 on Thursday unveiled "The Future is Unwritten", healing arts auction series, to support a global Covid-19 response through the arts.
As part of The Future is Unwritten's initiative to engage the international art world in UN priority areas, and World Health Organisation (WHO) Solidarity Series of Events, the auction series aims to increase awareness around a global path to recovery and raise critical funds to mobilise artists and health professionals in support of communities most vulnerable, at-risk and with the weakest health systems to act effectively in response to the pandemic, says a press release. 
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said, "This initiative represents a unique opportunity for the art world to step up to this global challenge and support communities on the front line of the pandemic, ensuring everyone, everywhere has the tools they need to overcome it."