The art of becoming

As the year gets underway, Saudi Arabia is kicking off a packed cultural calendar, with a series of exhibitions and entertainment openings showcasing modern and contemporary art across the Kingdom. Highlights range from the much-anticipated opening of Six Flags Qiddiya Park outside Riyadh to major group exhibitions in Jeddah, including “I Am Not What I Am, I Become” at ATHR Gallery. Riyadh will also host the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale later this month, alongside the fourth exhibition at Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), which explores the intersection of technology and the natural environment.

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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:  ‘I Am Not What I Am, I Become’  

Sumayah Fallattah. ​Untitled. 2025. Textile. 51x45cm. (Courtesy of the artist and ATHR Gallery)

The group exhibition “I am not what I am, I become”, currently on view at ATHR Gallery in Jeddah, explores identity as a process rather than a fixed or static image. Curated by Afia Bin Taleb, the show brings together artworks composed of fragments from diverse materials to examine how the self is formed, questioned and continually reshaped over the course of a lifetime. Rather than presenting identity as something resolved or complete, the works frame it as a perpetual state of becoming, marked by moments of uncertainty, self-questioning and doubt.

“The exhibition began as an inward gesture, an attempt to approach the self without image, resemblance, or the comfort of clear definition,” writes Bin Taleb in the curatorial text. “As the works took shape, this gesture unraveled into something more uncertain. What emerged was not a series of portraits, but a collective process of questioning: intimate, unresolved, and sometimes uncomfortable.”

Participating artists include Sara Abdu, Dalal Al-Obaidi, Dania AlSaleh, Lulua AlYahya, Asma Bahmim, Sultan Bin Fahad, Ayman Yossri Daydban, Sumayah Fallattah, Rami Farouk, Basmah Felemban and Tamara Kalo.

“The process of making became the exhibition’s true ground,” writes Bin Taleb. “Each artist was tasked with an impossible feat: choosing what to reveal and what to protect, deciding which memories, forms, or materials could carry the weight of the personal without becoming illustrative.”

The resulting works draw on traces of family life and the natural world, reflecting ideas of control, liberation and resistance that oscillate between acts of revelation and withholding. The artists, writes Bin Taleb, “are not documenting who they are, but continuously navigating how they arrive at themselves.”

Dates: Jan. 7 - April 30

Location: ATHR Gallery, Jeddah

Find more information here.

2. Word on the street: Mirzam

An array of Saudi breakfast dishes at Mirzam. (Courtesy of Mirzam) 

Listed in the first-ever MICHELIN Guide for Riyadh, launched in December 2025, Mirzam has quickly established itself as one of the city’s go-to spots for a traditional breakfast. Located near the King Abdullah Financial District, the restaurant offers an elevated take on Saudi cuisine, celebrating the diversity and richness of dishes from across the kingdom’s regions.

Mirzam has drawn diners from across Saudi Arabia and beyond thanks to its refined yet deeply rooted approach to local flavors. Standout dishes include the Mirzam platter, a generous selection of appetizers — such as foul, hummus and salads — served with warm, freshly prepared Arabic flatbreads. Other highlights include the Kibda Hijazi, or lamb’s liver, and the chef’s specialty dessert, maasoub: a decadent take on the traditional Yemeni dish made with flatbread, cream, honey and mashed bananas, finished with a scattering of nuts.

Location: Takamul Plaza, Riyadh

Find more information here.

3. Riyadh diary

An exterior view of Diriyah Art Futures (DAF). (photo courtesy of Diriyah Art Futures)

• ‘Of the Earth: Earthly Technologies to Computational Biologies’

How is our relationship with the natural world being reshaped in the digital age? A new exhibition at Diriyah Art Futures (DAF) — the region’s first center dedicated to new media arts — takes up that question in its fourth major show since opening in December 2024. Curated by DAF’s director of exhibitions, Irini Papadimitriou, the exhibition brings together works by more than 30 artists exploring the entanglement of technology, nature and extraction, while challenging the idea of technology as separate from — or dominant over — the natural world. Instead, the works underscore how digital systems remain deeply dependent on human labor, natural resources and the planet’s finite materials.

Date: Jan. 14 - May 16

Location: Diriyah Art Futures, Diriyah, Riyadh

Find more information here.

• Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale returns for third edition

Titled “فِي ٱلْحِلِّ وَٱلتِّرْحَالِ “ / In Interludes and Transitions, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026, explores the world as a multitude of processions. Located once again in the historic site of Diriyah, the third edition reflects on the migrations, movements and transformations that continuously connect the Arab region with the rest of the world. This year’s show will present works by over 65 artists from more than 37 nations.

Date: Jan. 30 - May 1 

Location: Diriyah Biennale Foundation, Diriyah, Riyadh

Find more information here.

• ‘Bedayat: The Beginning of Saudi Art Movement’

The Saudi Visual Arts Commission, one of 11 commissions under the Ministry of Culture, has announced a landmark exhibition celebrating and documenting the formative years of Saudi modern and contemporary art. Spanning the 1960s to the 1980s, the exhibition captures a generation of artists whose work shaped the kingdom’s artistic landscape during a period of rapid social and cultural change. The exhibition is the result of extensive research conducted by the Visual Arts Commission, drawing on academic studies as well as firsthand accounts from artists and key figures of the era. Curated by Qaswra Hafez, it brings together painting, sculpture, works on paper and a wide range of archival materials — many of which will be presented to the public for the first time.

Date: Jan. 27 - April 11

Location: National Museum of Saudi Arabia, Al Murabba’a District, Riyadh

Find more information here.

4. Book of the week: ‘The Sailor’s Secret’

Released in November 2025, this book follows a boy who survives a shipwreck and washes ashore in Ras Madrakah, a forgotten village in Oman where the sea speaks in riddles and the rocks seem alive. At the same time, in England, a woman sends her husband into the Arabian desert to uncover a sacred secret linked to the same storm that wrecked the boy’s ship. Told with the magical lyricism of Arabian Nights, The Sailor’s Secret weaves a tale of wonder and intrigue, rich with omens and prophecies that ultimately guide its protagonists home.

5. View from Riyadh

Aerial view of Six Flags Qiddiya City (Courtesy of Six Flags Qiddiya City)

Six Flags Qiddiya City, the largest amusement and theme park in Saudi Arabia, opened its doors on Dec. 31, 2025. It features, among numerous highlights, Falcon’s Flight, the world’s tallest, longest and fastest rollercoaster. Located around 40 minutes from Riyadh, the park marks Six Flags’ first-ever theme park located outside of North America.

6. By the numbers

• Falcon’s Flight, Six Flags Qiddiya City’s famed rollercoaster, is 640 feet high, equivalent to a 60-story building.
• Six Flags Qiddiya City features 28 rides and attractions distributed across six themed lands: Steam Town, Discovery Springs, Twilight Gardens, Valley of Fortune, Grand Exposition and City of Thrills.
• The park covers 320,000 square meters making it bigger than its counterparts in the United States.