Arts AlUla, in partnership with Desert X, has announced the artist roster for the upcoming edition of Desert X AlUla, the international open-air exhibition that transforms AlUla’s dramatic terrain into a living canvas for contemporary art. The biennial brings together Saudi and international artists whose site-responsive sculptures, installations, and earthworks invite immersive public encounters with AlUla’s extraordinary natural formations and layered cultural history.
This landmark presentation features 11 artists working across a wide range of disciplines, from large-scale kinetic sculpture to sound-based works that resonate above and beneath the desert surface. Each commission responds directly to AlUla’s unique environmental conditions and cultural narratives, forging meaningful connections between art, land, and community. The participating artists are Sara Abdu, Mohammad Alfaraj, Mohammed AlSaleem, Tarek Atoui, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Agnes Denes, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Basmah Felemban, Vibha Galhotra, and Héctor Zamora.
The fourth edition of Desert X AlUla will take place from 16 January to 28 February 2026 and marks the region’s first public art biennale. Co-curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, with Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi returning as Artistic Directors, the exhibition unfolds within the striking landscapes of Wadi AlFann, a future global destination for large-scale land-based artworks. As a pre-opening programme of Wadi AlFann, Desert X AlUla is also a key highlight of the annual AlUla Arts Festival, which reimagines the ancient city as a centre for contemporary art, design, and cultural exchange.
Artworks will be installed across diverse settings, from the ancient Oasis to canyon corridors extending in all cardinal directions, emphasizing AlUla’s vast geographical and symbolic reach. Sustainability remains central to the exhibition’s approach, incorporating traditional rammed-earth construction, wood and stone carving, and ecological expertise from the AlUla Native Plant Nursery. All commissions are produced in Saudi Arabia using locally sourced materials and the skills of regional artisans, with collaborations involving Madrasat Addeera and the AlUla Music Hub ensuring deep community engagement.
The curatorial framework draws inspiration from the writings of Kahlil Gibran, particularly his reflection on dreams as “space without measure.” Informed by Gibran’s ideas around imagination, perception, and human possibility, Desert X AlUla 2026 invites visitors to reflect on boundless horizons shaped by light, memory, and creative invention—revealing how art can emerge organically from place.
Hamad Alhomiedan, Director of Arts & Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for AlUla, noted that the 2026 edition brings together an exceptional range of artistic voices whose works engage deeply with the land. He emphasized that the commissions honor AlUla’s heritage while situating it firmly within a contemporary global context, serving as a precursor to Wadi AlFann, the permanent open-air museum of monumental art set to open in 2028.
The participating artists for Desert X AlUla 2026 include:
Sara Abdu is a Saudi-born artist of Yemeni heritage whose practice reflects her position “between geographies.” For this edition, her work A Kingdom Where No One Dies: Contours of Resonance layers poetry and geological strata into sculptural walls of rammed earth, reviving ancient construction techniques common to cultures around the world.
Mohammad Alfaraj, a multidisciplinary Saudi artist, weaves a labyrinth of living fables inspired by the landscapes of his childhood in Al Ahsa. Centred on a palm tree made of many grafted trunks, his work What was the Question Again? reflects harmony, renewal, and the intimate relationships between people and the environment.
Mohammed AlSaleem (1939–1997), the renowned Saudi Modernist and founder of Riyadh’s first art house, is represented, on loan courtesy of the Riyadh Art collection, The Royal Commission for Riyadh City, through five rare sculptural works never before seen. The Thorn, AlShuruf Unit, The Triangles, Flower Bud, and Al Ahilla were created in the 1980s, their geometric forms ascending skywards, each imbued with symbolic meaning inspired by desert landscapes and celestial motifs.
Tarek Atoui is a Lebanese-born artist and electro-acoustic composer celebrated for immersive sound-based installations and collaborative performances. His new project The Water Song is a continuation of Bayt Al Hams (The Whispering House) presented at the AlUla Arts Festival 2025. Atoui will treat the landscape as an archaeological site, where half-excavated instruments emerge from the earth.
Bahraini-Danish is the collective practice of Batool Alshaikh, Maitham Almubarak, and Christian Vennerstrøm Jensen, who work across art, architecture, design, and publishing. Their kinetic sculpture Bloom responds to the desert’s interplay of shadow and sunlight, its spinning forms merging with terrain to create a shifting, participatory dialogue between visitor and place.
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is a Cuban-born, US-based multidisciplinary artist whose work channels land, light, and spiritual heritage. Imole Red is inspired by AlUla’s intense sunsets and West African Yoruba traditions, synthesising colour and energy into a blossoming, alchemical garden that honours the valley’s past and its connection to water.
Agnes Denes, the Hungarian-born, US-based pioneer of ecological and land art, presents The Living Pyramid, the latest iteration of a worldwide project. The monumental, plant-filled structure sited in AlUla’s oasis is an exploration of the cycles of life from soil to seed to blossom and speaks to the universal language of optimism, resilience, and beauty.
Ibrahim El-Salahi, a leading Sudanese Modernist, presents an installation inspired by resilient acacias that grow across AlUla’s canyons. Haraza Tree is his forest of sculptural meditation trees that envisions unity emerging from multiplicity, linking heaven and earth in a harmony of form and meaning.
Basmah Felemban is a Saudi artist known for her installations rooted in Islamic geometry. Magnifying the smallest geological elements into monumental limestone sculptures, her work Murmur of Pebbles reflects on the ancient rivers that shaped AlUla’s desert, carrying resonance and memory within each pebble form. The piece was originally commissioned for Desert X AlUla 2024, curated by Maya El Khalil and Marcello Dantas, and has been revisited for the 2026 edition through the curatorial lens of Space Without Measure.
Vibha Galhotra is a New Delhi-based artist whose practice addresses climate change and environmental degradation. In Future Fables, she encloses fragments of AlUla’s demolished buildings within a steel framework, transforming rubble into a shelter for shared narratives, collective reflection, and imagining new futures.
Héctor Zamora, the Mexican-born artist known for blurring boundaries between art, architecture, and public participation. Inspired by both traditional Saudi drums and hyperbolic paraboloid forms, his work Tar HyPar transforms the valley into a musical instrument, inviting visitors to create energy through collective sound.
