From AlUla To Venice: Arts AlUla Celebrates Growing Global Reach With 20 Artists Connected To Its Programmes Featured At 61st Venice Biennale

Arts AlUla celebrates the participation of more than 20 Saudi and international artists, who have featured across its programmes, at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Taking place from 9 May to 22 November 2026, the event marks a major milestone, signalling AlUla’s growing role in shaping the global cultural conversation.

Represented across national pavilions, institutional exhibitions and independent programmes, the 2026 Venice Biennale also highlights the global reach of artists that have worked with Arts AlUla including many who have collaborated across its festivals, exhibitions and wider cultural initiatives – reflecting the depth and evolution of AlUla’s growing creative ecosystem. These include leading voices from Saudi Arabia and beyond, who have been championed across AlUla’s rapidly maturing art and design programmes, including at the AlUla Arts Festival, Desert X AlUla, Wadi AlFann, and the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum.

Through site-specific commissions, public art installations, groundbreaking exhibitions and long-term collaborations, these artists have helped to shape international cultural discourse, inspired by the natural, cultural and sociological landscapes of AlUla.

Several of the artists participating at the 2026 Venice Biennale have contributed to Desert X AlUla over its four editions, these include Aseel Alayaqoub, Basmah Felemban, Dana Awartani, Filwa Nazer, Ibrahim Mahama, Kader Attia, Manal AlDowayan, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Monira AlQadiri, Nasser AlSalem and Wael Shawky. Works by Dana Awartani and Manal AlDowayan were acquired as part of the AlUla Public Art Collection.

Dana Awartani, a regular to AlUla with artworks included in Desert X AlUla 2022 and this year’s Arduna exhibition presented by the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum represents Saudi Arabia at the official country pavilion. Supporting her in Venice is assistant curator for the exhibition, Hafsa Alkhudairi, who is curatorial lead at the Royal Commission for AlUla.

Reflecting on her works in AlUla, Saudi-Palestinian artist Dana Awartani said:

“In AlUla, I’m reminded that heritage can be a living, evolving presence, something that inspires contemporary art while remaining firmly rooted in Saudi tradition. It is a city rich in cultural layers that are defined by passage, and those layers continue to influence my work in meaningful ways.”

Since its inception in 2020 as Saudi Arabia’s first biennale, Desert X AlUla has established itself as a pioneering platform for land art. The exhibition serves as a precursor to Arts AlUla’s flagship long-term project, Wadi AlFann, a permanent global cultural destination for contemporary art currently under development in the dramatic desert canyons of AlUla.

This year’s Venice Biennale also features works by globally recognised pioneers Agnes Denes, Manal AlDowayan and Ahmed Mater, who have been commissioned to create monumental permanent works embedded in the landscape of AlUla, as part of Wadi AlFann.

Commenting on her participation at Venice, Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan said:

“AlUla is a library of stories. This land holds an archive of narratives and identities that numerous civilisations engraved into its rocks for centuries, telling us about the tools they used, the animals they farmed and the lives they led. If you exist in AlUla today, you are part of its story. It has been a privilege to collaborate with the AlUla community, whom I have been fortunate to work with before and who hold a special place in my heart.”

Meanwhile, there are also several artists participating whose landmark works form part of the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum collection, including Sara Abu Abdullah, Tavares Strachan, Simone Fattal. The museum recently held its inaugural exhibition, Arduna, as part of this year’s AlUla Arts Festival, bringing together regional voices and international masters in a dialogue that reflects AlUla’s growing curatorial confidence and global outlook.

Coinciding with the Biennale, the Saudi Ministry of Culture will also present A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World at the Abbazia di San Gregorio, featuring additional works by the Royal Commission for AlUla’s Abdulmohsen AlBinali and other artists engaged across Arts AlUla’s programmes.

Hamad AlHomiedan, Director of Arts and Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for AlUla, said:

“Congratulations to these pioneering artists. Arts AlUla is proud to see so many of the artists who have engaged with our programmes contributing to this vital edition of Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most significant platforms for contemporary art. Throughout our initiatives, we are committed to collaborating with diverse artists from Saudi Arabia and beyond to develop ambitious works inspired by the distinct cultural and natural context of AlUla. The quality and quantity of artists that we have worked with, present at the 2026 Venice Biennale reflects the strength of the creative relationships and long-term artistic collaborations being developed through Arts AlUla.”

The 61st Venice Biennale runs until 22 November 2026. For more information on Arts AlUla programming please visit experiencealula.com.