Art Week Riyadh: Studio hopping at JAX District/node/2596569/lifestyle
Art Week Riyadh: Studio hopping at JAX District
Some of the Kingdom’s leading artists — including Ahmed Mater, Moath Alofi, and Rashed AlShashai — are opening their warehouse-sized doors during the inaugural Art Week Riyadh at JAX District. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)
RIYADH: Some of the Kingdom’s leading artists — including Ahmed Mater, Moath Alofi, and Rashed AlShashai — are opening their warehouse-sized doors during the inaugural Art Week Riyadh at JAX District, which runs until April 13.
It is always a treat to walk into active art studios as it is the most intimate way to immerse yourself in an artist’s world. You see half-baked ideas, abandoned projects, rough drafts, and final pieces, all in one space. For art lovers it offers a rare glimpse into the process and world-building of the artist.
Visitors were invited to sketch, daydream, or take a closer look at the materials on hand. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)
On the day of our visit interested onlookers from all walks of life wandered in, soaking in the sights, sounds, and textures all around. Some artists offered bottled water and places to sit. Visitors were invited to sketch, daydream, or take a closer look at the materials on hand. It was fun and engaging.
Many of the artists dropped into their studios as people trickled — or stormed — in, engaging with those eager to ask questions, share comments, or snap selfies.
Artists at JAX often wander into other studios between projects, collaborating or simply exchanging ideas. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)
Artists at JAX often wander into other studios between projects, collaborating or simply exchanging ideas. That organic interaction supports a thriving creative ecosystem and fosters much-needed artist-to-artist connection.
JAX is a walkable district, but golf cart buggies are also available to shuttle visitors between studios if they would rather ride and enjoy the warm breeze.
While some studios are adjacent and others are shared, this invitation from the Art Week Riyadh team — spearheaded by the Visual Arts Commission — offers a vibrant glimpse into the richness of the evolving Saudi art scene.
Morad Mostafa’s Red Sea-backed debut feature ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ heads to Cannes
Updated 10 April 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: The Cannes Film Festival has revealed its official selection for 2025, with “Aisha Can’t Fly Away” by Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa featured in the prestigious Un Certain Regard section.
Developed with the support of the Red Sea Film Foundation through its Red Sea Labs program, the film tells the story of Aisha, a 26-year-old Somali woman living in Ain-Shams — a Cairo neighborhood home to a large African migrant community.
As the authorities turn a blind eye to escalating violence and rising tensions between locals and migrants, control of the area falls into the hands of various gangs. When one gang offers Aisha protection in exchange for a personal favor, her life begins to unravel.
Mostafa shared the news on Instagram, saying: “Extremely proud to announce that my first feature film ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ in the Official Selection of the 78th Festival de Cannes in the prestigious section Un Certain Regard.”
‘At The Edge’: Sharp curatorial vision shines in flagship show at first Art Week Riyadh
Updated 10 April 2025
Jasmine Bager
RIYADH: As the inaugural Art Week Riyadh unfolds across the city, it signals more than just a new entry on the cultural calendar — it marks a shift in how contemporary art is being framed, experienced, and contextualized in the Kingdom. Running until Apr. 13, the weeklong event resists the format of the conventional art fair, instead offering an expansive experience that speaks to Saudi Arabia’s evolving cultural identity.
The flagship exhibition of the event, “At The Edge,” brings together over 30 galleries from Saudi Arabia and beyond. Their curated presentations do not merely showcase work — they provoke dialogue, challenge assumptions, and reflect the complex, often contrasting, cultural currents that define both the local and global contemporary art landscapes.
Artist Joud Fahmy’s piece at the exhibition. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)
The full art exhibition, organized by the Visual Arts Commission, has been curated by Vittoria Matarrese, along with associate curators Basma Harasani and Victoria Gandit-Lelandais.
Upon entering the dedicated space at JAX district in Diriyah, one of the first major pieces you will encounter is “Le grand miroir du monde” (2017) by French-Algerian artist Kader Attia. Presented in collaboration with Galleria Continua, it marks Attia’s first time exhibiting the work in the Kingdom.
Attia, whose multidisciplinary practice spans installation, sculpture, photography and video, draws on his dual heritage to explore the lasting impact of colonialism. His work confronts historical and contemporary trauma by examining cultural identity, collective memory and the process of repair — both physical and symbolic.
Artist Mohammad Alfaraj with his work. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)
The site-specific installation features fragmented mirrors, layered atop each other, forming a grand, almost puddle-like surface of shards. It reflects the ceiling, the light — and even the viewer. Meant to be seen from a slightly elevated vantage point, the work occupies a large space, reminiscent of a shattered ice-skating rink, gliding — and guiding — visitors into the rest of the exhibition.
This leads into an organic labyrinth of treasures, each work nestled in a contained place yet arranged to be in dialogue with its neighbors. Artists, works, moods, materials and voices from across generations and more than 25 countries interact.
Joud Fahmy’s “Trapped Emotions: Nostalgia” (2025) — a tactile piece made of dyed wool and rope intertwined with metal — strikes a powerful emotional chord. Fahmy, a Saudi artist represented by Hunna Art, often explores gender, family and cultural identity through mixed media and audiovisual installations.
Work by artist Mohammad Alfaraj. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)
Another notable work is “Dream Coat” (2024) by Greek artist Nefeli Papadimouli, composed of cotton garments and a wooden structure. Based in Paris, Papadimouli blends sculpture, drawing, performance and participatory action. Often working with fabric and soft materials, her architectural, abstract forms echo the visual language of the late Etel Adnan. Her work reflects on how we move through and shape shared environments, investigating belonging, intimacy and collective memory.
Riyadh-based artist Maisa Sheldan, who also maintains a studio at JAX, presents a standout installation. A Saudi artist of Palestinian origin, Sheldan explores human issues and collective memory by reconstructing raw materials into symbolic forms that reflect the impact of time. Her work, represented by Hafez Gallery, blends authenticity with contrasts between the visible and the invisible. The seemingly feathered cocoon chair invites you to immerse yourself in the space and swing along. The army of animals, all made from organic materials, is a striking image and one of my favorite works on display. It is playful and tells a story.
Representing Al-Ahsa, Mohammad Alfaraj is exhibiting with Mennour Gallery. As always, the use of palms is central to his work. A son and grandson of date farmers, Alfaraj grew up in the world’s largest desert oasis. Though he studied applied mechanical engineering at university, he describes himself as “a poet of visuals.” His upbringing on a farm instilled in him a deep commitment to reuse all materials and to prioritize sustainability.
Joud Fahmy’s “Trapped Emotions: Nostalgia” (2025) — a tactile piece made of dyed wool and rope intertwined with metal — strikes a powerful emotional chord. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)
Nestled within a smaller area is “From Earth: Historic Diriyah Materials Lab,” presented by the Diriyah Gate Development Authority. A small but powerful space invites viewers to explore the raw materials that shaped Diriyah: mud, limestone, palm fronds, wool and pigments. These natural elements, drawn from the land, speak to centuries of resilience, adaptation and environmental knowledge. The exhibition forces one to separate the materials and highlights them, both in their pure state and their crafted forms: mud transformed into bricks, palm fronds woven into objects, plants used to create vibrant pigments. Far from being relics, these materials remain living resources that breathe life into the works that they are used for.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to be a part of an initiative that really is creating a platform that will give voice to practitioners from Saudi Arabia,” Dina Amin, CEO of VAC, told Arab News regarding the activations.
“Art Week Riyadh is creating a wonderful moment for the people of Saudi Arabia to really be able to engage in many ways through the exhibitions: through the different locations, through the talks, through the workshops, through the open studios,” she added.
Amin also shared a personal experience: “The other day, I was walking around and popping into the studios, and it’s just absolutely wonderful to see the variety of language that each of the artists uses in his or her own work.
“For us, Art Week Riyadh is really about creating a moment of gravitational pull where we can bring all of the different practitioners together. What we really are celebrating here is everybody’s voice. We want to share our creativity, our culture, our engagement with art with the world, but we also want to invite everyone to come and discover it.”
Rami Malek: ‘I consider myself fortunate to have shared the screen with these actors’
The first actor of Arab descent to win an Oscar discusses his latest movie ‘The Amateur’
Updated 10 April 2025
Shyama Krishna Kumar
DUBAI: Oscar-winner Rami Malek is expanding his role behind the camera with “The Amateur,” now showing in cinemas across the Middle East. Teaming up with British director James Hawes and an ensemble cast, Malek – as lead star and producer – crafts a modern spy thriller that blends classic genre tension with timely urgency, and a cerebral update.
“I just love to see things from beginning to end all the way through — every element,” Malek tells Arab News. “I hope it’s not a perfectionist aspect, but I’ve always found myself remembering moments on certain cameras, certain lenses on other actors that I would talk to the directors about, or in post-production and wanting to make sure we get the best of the best. I heard about a lot of actors who come into the editing suite, and I thought, ‘How could I do that without having to do it in this kind of sneaky manner?’
“And so (this was) the way to do that. And it was nice to see this develop, to work on the script with Dan Wilson and, of course, the great (producer) Hutch Parker, and James Hawes, and sit down day in and day out and try to make this feel as authentic and unique as possible from beginning to end.”
Malek stars as Charlie Heller, a brilliant but introverted CIA codebreaker whose life is upended when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a terrorist attack in London. When the agency refuses to act, Heller sets off on a dangerous, global pursuit of those responsible — using his intelligence skills to outwit enemies and seek justice on his own terms.
Apart from Malek and Brosnahan, the film also stars Laurence Fishburne, Caitriona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, and Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson, among others.
“I got to galvanize some of my favorite actors — people I’ve always wanted to work with — in this ensemble,” Malek says. “I think everyone recognizes them as people working at the top of their game. Every actor in this film is someone I consider myself fortunate to have shared the screen with. And yeah, I’m very proud of that. It’s quite the feat.”
Rami Malek on set during the shooting of ‘The Amateur.’ (Supplied)
Balfe — the Irish actress and model known for her role as Claire Fraser in the historical drama “Outlander” — plays Inquiline Davies, Heller’s asset, a hacker with whom he communicates via secure messages online.
“Rami is amazing. I have known him socially for many years, but I always wanted to be able to work with him. And so when this project came along, I was so excited to be able to get that opportunity,” said Balfe.
“And he was an incredible producer as well. We had long, long days shooting, and he’s in practically every scene of the movie. And yet he would go home and watch the rushes from the day before, and he’d have his notes when he came in the next day about what was great, or maybe things that were missed, or script changes. It was a lot on his shoulders, but he was brilliant and very generous with his time. And very welcoming and kind to everybody too, which is so important.”
Rami Malek in ‘The Amateur.’ (Supplied)
Balfe also revealed that, despite the time constraints of shooting a movie across multiple countries, “everybody was having so much fun” on set.
“Even though it was a very intense shoot and people were under real time pressure, it was such a lovely group of people to work with,” she says. “That was the best thing.”
British director Hawes is no stranger to the world of espionage drama, having worked on the acclaimed UK spy series “Slow Horses.”
“I’d been able to play in that world,” Hawes says. “Those are the kinds of films I’m drawn to — moody, atmospheric, but rooted in realism.”
While “The Amateur” nods to classic spy thrillers, Hawes aimed to update the genre for today’s world. One major change was relocating key scenes from Prague — “a city more known for beer bikes than Cold War intrigue” — to Istanbul, which he felt offered an urgent, unpredictable energy.
“We wanted it to feel contemporary — not just in the politics, but in the tech, the pacing, the stakes,” he says. “Hopefully, it still carries the soul of those older stories, but in a way that speaks to now.”
Award will celebrate ‘enormous creativity’ of Arab designers says IMA’s Philippe Castro
Updated 10 April 2025
Jean Grogan
PARIS: The Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris has announced the launch of its Arab Fashion Award — the AFA-IMA — to promote and celebrate the rising stars of the Arab world’s fashion scene.
Since its opening in 1980, the IMA has supported Arab creativity in all its forms, including fashion. It has hosted numerous shows and exhibitions highlighting the role fashion plays at the intersection of cultures.
Philippe Castro, chief of staff of the presidency of the IMA, and the man behind the new initiative tells Arab News that “the moment seems ripe” for the launch of the award.
Philippe Castro with Monique Lang, wife of Jack Lang, at an art fair in Paris in 2015. (Getty Images)
“We’re seeing Fashion Weeks popping up in Riyadh, Dubai, Beirut and Marrakesh. We’re seeing enormous creativity in fashion design in the (Arab) region as a whole and there is a growing appetite for these designers. They deserve our attention,” Castro says. “Christian Dior once said, ‘The air of Paris is the very air of haute couture.’ The same can be said today of the air of Riyadh, Beirut, Egypt, Morrocco and Tunisia. All these places have a long tradition of couture. Take Tunisia, for instance; it’s no coincidence that master couturier Azzedine Alaïa came from Tunisia.”
If Paris is the world capital of fashion, that is thanks in no small measure to Castro’s longtime colleague Jack Lang, president of the IMA. As Minister of Culture, it was Lang who saw the potential for fashion to become a booming industry for France. In 1982, he succeeded — in the face of a lot of pearl-clutching — in making the Cour Carrée of the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens the principle venues of Paris’ runway shows, moving fashion front and center in public consiousness. The number of fashion shows in Paris doubled between 1980 and 1990, after which fashion was definitively established as a sector that means serious business.
“Jack Lang made fashion fashionable.” Castro says. “We’re very lucky to have him as our president. He gave an unprecedented impetus to young fashion designers in the 1980s. Having worked alongside him for many years, as a big advocate of fashion, this award seems natural and inevitable.”
Jack Lang (fifth from right) with several fashion designers including Yves Saint Laurent (center) in Paris in March 1984. (Lm-Pelletier/Archives nationales de Pierrefitte sur Seine)
Castro is a regular visitor to Saudi Arabia, where, he says, he has witnessed “an incredible evolution in fashion” over the past decade, especially in Riyadh and Jeddah.
“There is a tangible effervescence and dynamism visible with people on the streets. On my most recent visit to Riyadh, I visited concept stores selling abayas. I find the reinterpretation of the abaya and the thaub brilliantly creative,” he says. “The designers have limitless imagination; they know how to explore their own culture creatively. I was also fascinated to see superb Saudi-designed streetwear for the first time. I fell for a towelling beach robe with pockets and a hood inspired by traditional Saudi robes — pure creative genius!”
Navigating the international fashion world is a complex challenge for young international designers. Creative talent is not enough, they need experienced professional mentoring. So the IMA is partnering with the world-renowned Institut Français de la Mode (the French Fashion Institute) to help the award winners develop their professional skills in cutting, patternmaking and marketing as part of the prize.
Designer Burc Akyol walks the runway after his womenswear show at Paris Fashion Week at Institut du Monde Arabe on March 11, 2025. (Getty Images)
This first edition of the AFA-IMA is deliberately fluid. Jewellery and accessory designs are also eligible for entry. The award has two categories; Emerging Talent and Innovative Talent, with an option for the jury to grant a third award to an established Arab designer. Other categories may be added as momentum grows.
“It will evolve according to the type of entries we receive and be adapted accordingly,” says Castro. “This is an haute-couture — not ready-to-wear — process.”
The award is open to designers who are nationals of Arab League countries or part of their diasporas. The jury consists of key figures from fashion, art and culture including Pascal Morand, executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode; Pascale Mussard, the founder of Hermès’ upcycled luxury brand Petit h; Lebanese fashion designers Rabih Kayrouz and Milia Maroun; Elsa Janssen, director of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris; and Manuel Arnaut, editor of Vogue Arabia.
“We composed our jury of people at the pinnacle of their profession. We always aim for excellence,” says Castro. “The members will follow the prize-winners’ progress closely. This is not a one-off. It’s a long-term initiative to showcase the region’s enormous creativity.
“We composed the jury of good friends of the IMA — a friendly needle and thread which will make dazzling embroidery. It’s a project that comes from the heart, because fashion is all about emotion. If there is no heart, there is no point,” he continues. “We are living in an era of severity, if we can diffuse some beauty into the world, so much the better for us all.”
REVIEW: Kuwaiti Palestinian author looks at women and disability in a transformative, speculative memoir
Updated 10 April 2025
Sumaiyya Naseem
JEDDAH: Kuwaiti Palestinian writer Shahd Alshammari’s new speculative memoir “Confetti and Ashes” is a bold departure from her previous work “Head Above Water,” which was longlisted for the Barbellion Prize in 2022.
Alshammari’s layered meditation on the disabled body as both a site of loss as well as endurance is propelled forward by sharp observations and a quiet brilliance that had me turning pages well into the night.
Her first memoir, “Head Above Water,” offered an unflinching look at navigating multiple sclerosis as an Arab woman teaching literature in Kuwait. Her latest, however, ventures into a realm where memory and personal narrative intersect with poetry, imagination, and otherworldly presences.
The voices of ghosts and Zari, her qareen — the jinn-companion assigned to each person in Islamic belief — transform Alshammari’s personal narrative. It becomes a dialogue, a captivating dance between the seen and unseen worlds.
This inclusion shakes up the conventional memoir structure to broaden the scope beyond Western frameworks of storytelling. It also offers readers a visceral look at the ways living with disability and chronic illness can disrupt and reshape an individual’s perspective and worldview.
The dreamlike and omniscient voice of the qareen also mirrors the disorientation and internal struggles that come with living with chronic illness and disability.
Alshammari astutely draws parallels between the disabled body and the female body in the social and cultural context of Kuwait. In a world of able-bodied norms, she reflects on their intersecting experiences of marginalization, scrutiny, and resistance.
She rejects predictable storytelling, and not just in her writing, but also in life. Her body rebels, yet she defies societal stigmas — including concerns voiced from other women with MS.
She explores holistic wellness practices and eventually takes up squash, expanding her social circle and pushing her limits to build her mental and physical endurance.
In capturing her dual journeys of illness and wellness, the author invites readers to reflect on the disabled body not as a burden, but as a site of poetic possibility.
In “Confetti and Ashes,” Alshammari presents a profound reclamation of the self and cements herself as a vital voice in reimagining the female disabled experience.