Zahrah Al Ghamdi
Another significant Saudi woman in art is Zahrah Al Ghamdi, who represented Saudi Arabia in 2019 at the Venice Biennale, and is most noted for her work as a land artist for over 10 years. Having faced a number of challenges in trying to establish herself as an artist in the early 2000s within the kingdom, she took off to Coventry in the UK to study. Now, in 2022, Al Ghamdi is rubbing shoulders with a number of internationally renowned artists, including Richard Long who is a prominent British land artist that inspired her PhD research. Both Al Ghamdi and Long exhibited their work at the 2022 Diriyah Biennale.
Al Ghamdi’s work explored deserted mud houses found in Al-Turaif, and created an installation that featured the use of dirt, leather, and rocks, representing a “dying history.” Zahrah often works on large scale projects that are usually inspired by the speedy changes taking place in the kingdom, especially in the environment and urban spaces, whilst also using elements of the traditional architecture of Al Baha, where she is from. She uses materials such as acacia trees, plaster, mud, cement, date containers, construction textiles, for texture and for structural depictions she uses fungal networks, building plans, rivers, and walls to create her large scale pieces of art.
