Reem Al Faisal: from monochrome to color

Welcome to Al-Monitor Riyadh.

Princess Reem Al Faisal, the granddaughter of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, has long been known for her poignant monochrome photographs capturing her homeland and cities across the world. In her new solo exhibition in Riyadh, she journeys across the kingdom and captures the people and places she sees with color photography. Elsewhere in the Saudi capital, Riyadh Seasons is in full swing with hundreds of events across the city. In Miami, Florida Saudi artist Mohammed Alfaraj has won the Art Basel Gold Award.

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Happy reading,

Rebecca

P.S. Have feedback or tips on Riyadh's culture scene? Send them my way at contactus@al-monitor.com.

1. Leading the week: “The Land of Pilgrims and Poets” by Reem Al Faisal

Photograph by Princess Reem Al Faisal on view in her solo exhibition “The Land of Pilgrims and Poets” at L’Art Pur Foundation. (Reem Al Faisal)

Granddaughter of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Princess Reem Al Faisal is among the kingdom’s pioneering photographers, whose signature black-and-white photographs have garnered her regional and international acclaim. Her work is currently the focus of a solo exhibition in Riyadh titled "The Land of Pilgrims and Poets." It explores the artist’s perception of the world around her, particularly her homeland of Saudi Arabia, through evocative photographs, and marks her foray into color photography. While several pieces return to her signature aesthetic, others offer a rich tapestry of color capturing the soul of the people and places she encounters. 

“For most of my life, I photographed in black and white, for that was how I understood the world: an expanse of shifting grays stretching from the deepest, unwavering black to the purest, unbroken white,” says Al Faisal in the exhibition’s press release. “In those monochrome tones, I found a quiet mirror of humanity itself, forever oscillating between two extremes, dwelling in the delicate gradients where shadow meets light. Light was my compass, my constant companion, its presence a revelation, its absence a truth of equal weight.”

Recently, she decided to journey across her homeland and rediscover it through the lens of her camera. “Something in me shifted,” she says. “I realized I could no longer perceive life as a spectrum of gray. Instead, the world unfolded before me as a tapestry of colors, bold, subtle, clashing, harmonious, each hue asserting itself as both subject and storyteller.”

Al Faisal notes how it wasn’t the faces of the people or the shapes of nature that held her fascination but the colors she observed. “It was color itself, its architecture, its layers, its whispers, that drew me in,” she says.

Al Faisal holds a degree in Arabic literature from King Abdul Aziz University and studied photography at the Spéos Photographic Institute in Paris. She has traveled the world, photographing people and places in a way that merges Islamic art philosophy with Arabic poetry, capturing diverse locations in China, Egypt, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, Japan and Syria. 

Date: Until Dec. 14

Location: L’Art Pur Foundation, At Takhassusi Branch St, Al Olaya, Riyadh

Find more information here.

2. Word on the street: San Marzano

A thin-crust pizza at the new San Marzano in Riyadh. (Courtesy San Marzano)

Sometimes all you want (and maybe all you need) is a slice of pizza. San Marzano, a new homegrown pizzeria in Riyadh’s Laysen Valley, provides a cozy, upscale setting to indulge in some of Italy’s culinary specialities. Dim lighting, plush seating and a sleek mocktail bar with a pizza oven in the back set the scene for a meal of mouthwatering Italian dishes. For starters, try the parmigiana and the creamy cacio e pepe arancini. For mains, diners should try the restaurant’s namesake San Marzano pizza, made with tomatoes, fresh or buffalo mozzarella, basil and olive oil. Another standout is the zesty burrata and truffle pizza. For pasta, especially if you prefer a spicy kick, opt for the lasagna, the spicy rigatoni picante or the truffle ravioli.

Location: Laysen Valley, Riyadh

Find more information here.

3. Riyadh diary

An aerial view of Riyadh Season 2025. (Courtesy Saudi General Entertainment Authority)

• Riyadh Season Returns for Fifth Edition

Considered Saudi Arabia’s biggest and one of the Middle East’s largest entertainment festivals, Riyadh Season is in full swing and has taken over the capital with design-led night life and art installations, headlining sports and performances and dozens of games and rides that run way after midnight. 

Riyadh Season 2025 spans 11 entertainment zones and a diverse array of international events, including 15 world championships and 34 exhibitions and festivals. New this year is Beast Land, a vibrant zone near Riyadh’s Hittin district featuring more than 40 shops and restaurants, 15 games and 12 entertainment spaces.

The festival’s programming also includes 14 new Gulf and Syrian plays, along with participation from Indonesia, Kuwait and South Korea, expanding its local and international offerings. Boulevard City, consistently one of Riyadh Season’s most popular and central zones, will host six new experiences this year, bringing the total to 19 unique attractions alongside 80 restaurants and cafes, 14 plays and eight sporting championships. Nearby, Boulevard World will showcase three new countries — Indonesia, Kuwait and South Korea — joining returning destinations such as Egypt, France and India as well as regional showcases representing Africa, Asia and the Levant. 

For a slower pace and a touch of sophistication amid the festival buzz, The Groves (Chapter IV) offers garden-style laneways, live jazz and acoustic sets under the stars, lounge-style terraces and dining venues spanning global cuisines. From there, visitors can easily dive back into Riyadh Season’s broader lineup, including Noor Riyadh — the annual light-art festival — Soundstorm Music Festival, and numerous other cultural and entertainment events across the city.

Date: Until March 2026

Location: Across Riyadh

Find more information here.

• Dar Al Qalam Stages Second Residency 

Taking place at various locations Al-Balad, the historic district of Jeddah, is the second edition of Dar Al Qalam. Staged by the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Global Center for Arabic Calligraphy, one of the initiatives of the Saudi Ministry of Culture, the residency includes the participation of 10 local and international artists with expertise in the arts of Arabic calligraphy and its intersection with contemporary art. The artists were selected by a specialized selection committee comprising Huda Abifarès, Lulwah Al-Homoud and Hassan Radwan. The residency runs until Jan. 16 with an open studio hosted on Jan. 8-10. 

Date: Until Jan. 16, 2026

Location:  Various in Al-Balad, Jeddah

Find more information here.

• Mohammed Alfaraj wins Art Basel Gold Award

Saudi artist Mohammed Alfaraj won the Art Basel Gold Award on Sunday at Art Basel Miami Beach. Known for his multidisciplinary art that explores memory, ecological transformation, ritual and society, Alfaraj's work is rooted in the palm tree oases of his home city, Al-Ahsa. His first institutional solo exhibition is presently on view until Jan. 4 at Jameel Arts Center in Dubai titled "Seas are Sweet, Fish Tears are Salty." 

Date: Jameel Arts Center exhibition runs until Jan. 4, 2026 

Location: Jameel Arts Center, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Find more information here.

4. Book of the week: ‘The Book Smuggler’

Saudi writer and novelist Umaima Abdullah al-Khamis’s "The Book Smuggler" offers a historical novel charting the story of a bookseller during the Islamic Golden Age. The novel, which explores themes of culture, knowledge and conflict, won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2018. Taking place at a time when the Muslim world spanned three continents, young Mazid al-Hanafi sets out from his village in what is now Saudi Arabia and finds himself in Baghdad, where he impresses a distinguished man by reciting poetry. After he is initiated into a secret sect, he begins smuggling books by caravan and then by boat as he travels to Cairo, Jerusalem, Almeria and Cordoba, Spain. On his way he meets historical characters such as Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, whose destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Cairo in 1009 was one of the events that triggered the Crusades.

5. View from Riyadh

Visitors during the ninth edition of Misk Art Week view a massive artwork by Saudi artist Abdullah Hammas. (Courtesy of Misk Art Week)

6. By the numbers

• Last year’s Riyadh Season attracted 20 million visitors from 135 countries, according to the Saudi Gazette.
• The event’s brand value — an estimate of the financial worth of Riyadh Season as a cultural and commercial brand — reached an estimated $3.2 billion as of September, Asharq Al-Awsat reported, quoting Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.