more saudi artists

some pictures from the last few days:
























Above, Sameer Al Daham, one of pillars of Saudi art, who works now at the Ministry of Culture and Information.

And Mehdi Al Jeraibi, from Mecca. He collects pilgrims' hair when it gets shaved off at the end of haj (because he's got a friend who works in one of the barber shops that specialises in this). He sets these clumps of hair in resin, and suspends that around a wooden frame. They become giant negatives, as well as emblems of the rebirth that follows the end of haj when most men get their hair shaved off.

He also makes work using the inside of Meccan schooldesks that he's collected over the years. Each one is a rich, mucky palimpsest of graffiti, either scribbled or scratched - names, football teams, crushes, hearts, names in hearts, birds, and more names. here's a slightly fuzzy image of one:

and lastly here's m. ali farea.

the policeman and the doctor - two of the youngest artists in the show - to follow soon..