Beliz Tecirli

In less than a decade, Saudi Arabia has emerged as one of the world's fastest-growing centers of contemporary art. Both for Saudi artists and international creatives invited to exhibit, install, screen, teach and produce, more than 100 new events sponsored by more than two dozen new arts organizations now offer opportunities across the country. Artists such as Dana Awartani, whose neoclassically symmetrical installation "Where the Dwellers Lay" (above) nestled at the outdoor exhibition Desert X AlUla 2022, and dozens of others are showing at recently opened, large-scale venues, including Riyadh's JAX District, Jiddah's Hayy Jameel cultural center and Red Sea Film Festival, and Dhahran's cultural center, Ithra.

From hummus to harira to olive oil, ever since the dawn of agriculture, the Middle East has offered delicious, healthy, environmentally low-impact foodways that honor tradition while embracing innovation.

Amid this year’s travel bans, museum and gallery closures, lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing, visual artists are responding with fresh imagery and creative collaborations across new platforms to articulate this moment and carry culture forward into the next.

Some 90 former warehouses have been transformed into a lively cultural scene at Alserkal Avenue—the latest of Dubai’s replies to the question, “What can art do for a city?”

In the oblique and often provocative ways of contemporary art, the 17-artist exhibition “Crude” probes the roles of oil in cultures and societies of the Middle East through the eyes of artists of the region. It is “art rooted in the Gulf, yet addressing universal ideas,” says Antonia Carver, director of the new Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, which in November inaugurated its galleries with the show.

Want your camel to stand out from the herd? Don’t think too hard about endurance—it’s pretty much a given for a camel. Speed? Not every camel has it. But accessories? Maybe an artistic fur-cut? That’s up to you.