B. 1993
Lives and works between Jeddah and London
Basmah Felemban is an emerging artist whose skills as a self-taught graphic designer invest her practice with a distinctly contemporary digital edge. Felemban’s artworks range in medium from drawing, sculpture, digital animation and coding. Within her practice Felemban creates wildly imaginative cosmological works in game form. Felemban is a builder of worlds, contrivedof characters and environments that wittily combine diverse inspirations, including impossible mathematical forms and game theory. The artist’s practice, while seemingly chiefly concerned with the technologies of the present and their innovative possibilities, is simultaneously anchored in the traditions of previous artistic forms making hers a uniquely dynamic and positively challenging opus.
In 2014, she won the Arab Women Awards in the “Young Talent” category, and was consequently invited to be on the judging panel. She received an MFA (2013) in Traditional and Islamic Art from The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London, where she focused on 12th-14th century Islamic manuscripts, with a specific interest in those that discussed cosmographies, mythical creatures and cartography.
This research gave a historical backing to her own projects, sculptures and installations, which likewise depict traditional Arab and Muslim cosmogonies and illuminate esoteric meanings in literature, poetry, numerology, and Islamic art. Her current practice explores worldbuilding as a method to understand the mysteries in her family history, the role of imagination in rewriting identity, and the ways humans have resorted to bridging gaps in collective memory.
Collaboration is also key for Felemban, she is constantly generating opportunities for
connection in her works. A major community project is Saudi Street Art, an online platform which encourages the public to focus their attention on the expressive art found on their citywalls, as a means to better understand the younger generation’s concerns and interests.
Selected exhibitions of Felemban include her first solo exhibition with ATHR gallery, Consecrated Networks (2024), Jeddah, KSA. Selected group exhibitions include First Islamic Arts Biennale (2023), Diriyah Biennale Foundation, Jeddah, KSA; So It Appears (2023), Institute for Contemporary Art, Virginia Common Wealth University, Virginia, USA; Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age (2022), Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf, Germany ; The Secrets of Alidades (2021), 21'39 Saudi Arts Council, Jeddah, KSA; Desert to Delta (2017), AMUM, Memphis, USA; Prince's School of Tradition Art Master of Arts Graduation Show (2017), PSTA, London, UK; Parallel Kingdom (2016), Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Texas, USA; Rhizoma, Edge of Arabia, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2013) and Journey To The Heart of Islam: Hajj Exhibition (2012), British Museum, London.
Forthcoming (2025), the artist will be in residence with Art Explora in Paris.
Felemban’s work can be found in the Greenbox Museum, Al Mansouria Foundation and the Basma Al Sulaiman collection.