Book Review: Contemporary Kingdom, The Saudi Art Scene Now

Happy Saturday all
A while back, I wrote a post about the current artistic scene in Saudi and how it's blooming and getting more appreciation. You can find the post here. I recently purchased Contemporary Kingdom, and I have been reading it on and off, so I thought it's time to review it today.

This is a very good book that highlights the most known Saudi artists and their iconic pieces. It's written in English. The books starts with a collection of essays that talks about Saudi and the development of the arts and designs there. Followed by a chapter on artists that highlights 26 Saudi artists. Ten of them are Saudi females. Then comes a chapter on galleries, another on art and design initiatives, and a final ones on patrons. These three chapters make this book a great resource for starting artists. It's packed full of useful information and important names.

Snaps from the book

Snaps from the book

Snaps from the book

What I love about this book is that it shows you the creative minds in Saudi and give them the recognition they deserve. It shows a colourful and impressive part of the Saudi culture that isn't shared on the media.

Recommended!

You can buy your copy from the publisher online   

The Artistic Scene in Saudi

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all have a blessed day :) 

I was speaking to my mom earlier when we embarked on an interesting conversation about the Art scene in Saudi and the changes that happened to it through the years. My mother is a silent artist. She paints and draws, but she just keeps her art at arms length. Not a lot of people get to see her amazing creativity. I was trying to convince her to submit for an exhibit coming up soon in the Gulf through Loud Art exhibit that is sponsored by NTI. I told her the concept was "Executing Cultural Shock." She was surprised and I told her all about the changes that have been happening and what artists have been producing these day. So, this is what I will share with you today!

Few years ago, art in Saudi meant classical paintings and realistic drawings of landscape and animals. With the growth of social media and various design courses, creative minds started reaching out of the norm to put their visions outward in new format.

This month alone, Saudi Arabia has witnessed two of the biggest Art & Design events; The Jeddah Art Week and The Saudi Design Week in Riyadh. They both included some of the most creative Saudi and Arab artists and designers that brought their point of views into reality. A lot of them reflected on the Arabian gulf and represented it with a unique, thought provoking ways. 

Here are some examples from the Jeddah Art week:

Source

Source

"I believe I can drive" Source

These are only few examples. Sadly, I wasn't able to attend since I am living in London and all, but the pictures on twitter and Instagram made me feel like I was there. Just by searching the hashtags you can find a lot of pictures and some took videos of walk throughs in the exhibition. *I love you social media!* 

The Saudi Design week in Riyadh followed that event and brought amazing creative artists. This event was more educational and eye opening with talks and workshops. 

If you go to the website you can go to each designer's page

Can you see how awesome and controversial the new art in Saudi is? The event of LoudArt from last year has been covered in Sketchbook magazine, an online magazine interested in showcasing art and culture. It is based in Bahrain. These are few interesting images from that event:

   

There are more medias supporting Saudi and Arabian artists and designers such as Edge of Arabia. It is worth taking a look there if you would like to see more from Saudi creatives.