Saudi artist Ahmed Mater will present his first US solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. “Symbolic Cities” is being presented in collaboration with Culturunners in partnership with Art Jameel, a Community Jameel initiative, and Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts (SASCA), and will be on view at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery from March 19 through Sept. 18.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an immersive program of dialogues and discussions across Washington D.C.

Another eye-grabbing installation is Ahmed Mater’s at Athr, a gallery from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, including a wall work made with plastic gun caps, “Cowboy Code II” (2012), which links the honor code of American cowboys with jihadist fighters. In the modern section, a related “focus” project brought a mini-exhibition of work by Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli, organized by New York University’s Grey Art Gallery.

In this exhibition, a room has been transformed into a barber shop to stress the issue of influence of  Non- Arabic speakers on the Arabic Language.

Artist Ibrahim Abumsmar has posted around four pictures that show Arabic sentences regularly used by expats from Philippines and Indians in Saudi Arabia.

Abumsmar said: “The idea came to my mind when I was in the barber shop and the Bangladesh barber was telling me his life story with his new Arabic language. 

I wanted to tell him to stop speaking and that is what I wrote in the mirror ‘Sadek Mafe gorgor kater’.