FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATHR Gallery Unveils Dynamic Programming for Inaugural Art Week Riyadh
April 6–13, 2025 | JAX District, Riyadh
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 24 March 2025 – ATHR Gallery is proud to announce its official programming for the inaugural edition of Art Week Riyadh, taking place from April 6–13, 2025 in the heart of the JAX Arts District. The week-long program features two major exhibition openings, exclusive industry workshops, and the launch of a cultural initiative blending art, music, and community.
True to its name - which translates to gardens in Arabic - Riyadh has transformed from a desert oasis into a global cultural capital. Today, its fertile ground cultivates a thriving creative ecosystem. Nowhere is this evolution more visible than in JAX District, a former industrial zone reimagined as a dynamic cultural hub.
As Art Week Riyadh debuts under the theme At The Edge, ATHR is proud to announce its bold new campaign: #MakeYourMark| #اترك_أثرك# - a tribute to the artists, cultural leaders, and tastemakers shaping the future of Saudi Arabia’s flourishing art scene.
ATHR will open two separate exhibitions at its JAX warehouse space (H21) on April 7 from 4-11pm. Vessel of Wreckage, a solo exhibition by Basmah Felemban, weaves sci-fi-inspired mythos exploring memory, migration, and inherited narratives into a collective and dynamic whole. Through paintings, graphical drawings, generative images, and interactive works, Felemban constructs a mythical world that reflects on the challenges of tracing her family’s journey from Palembang, Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. The exhibition also features The Wave Catcher, her acclaimed installation previously featured in the first edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, expanding her investigation into identity, displacement, and the search for truth.
All Beautiful Things Are Fragile, a group exhibition featuring ATHR Gallery artists Mohammad AlFaraj and Ayman Yossri Daydban alongside invited guest artists Adel Abidin, Rund Alarabi, Hayfa Algwaiz, Neïl Beloufa, Petrit Halilaj, Tamara Kalo, Basim Magdy, and Athier Mousawi - navigates the fragile nature of memory, remembrance, and identity in a region where history is often fragmented, rewritten, and translated across multiple languages. Through ephemeral gestures and fragmented archives, the participating artists reclaim lost narratives and confront this historical erasure with acts of resilience, offering poetic reflections on what it means to remember in the face of disappearance.
To complement its ambitious exhibitions, ATHR Gallery will present additional groundbreaking programming spanning installation, educational workshops, and more. As part of At the Edge, Ayman Yossri Daydban will present Tree House (2019/2023), an installation of ten ground-level panels that reflect on the idea of home, identity, and new notions of citizenry. The work draws on a home he created during his residency in Detroit—not one defined by geography, but by a community unified through the culture of techno music. Through this lens, Daydban explores the self in contrast to his current residence in Jeddah, where the absence of such communal spaces built around music and dance is deeply felt. Tree House becomes a meditation on belonging, memory, and the invisible structures that shape collective experience.
At SaMoCA (Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art), ATHR will host two industry-focused workshops in the museum’s podcast room. On April 9, Caren Rabbino, founder of Fast Forward Consulting, will lead a session offering strategies for building resilient, sustainable art spaces - from audience engagement to digital expansion. On April 10, the team behind Artlogic will explore the technologies transforming gallery operations, from cloud-based inventory to online sales tools.
ATHR launches its #MakeYourMark |#اترك أثرك campaign with a special celebration on April 8 at ATHR JAX, featuring Saudi superstar DJ Cosmicat. The evening will bring together Riyadh’s creative community for a night of art, music, and connection. With this bold and multifaceted program, ATHR invites visitors to engage deeply - with the work, with each other, and with the flourishing cultural landscape of Saudi Arabia.
Vessel of Wreckage and All Beautiful Things Are Fragile open to the public on 7 April and will be on view through 26 June 2025.
