‘Every time there’s an uptick in an art scene – like you’re seeing now in Saudi, and like you saw in China 20 years ago – there are artists who are important both for their work and also for the convening power that they have,’ says Philip Tinari, the director of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing and Shanghai – and the curator of Mater’s first institutional retrospective. ‘That’s been Ahmed Mater. His studio has been a place to converge; he’s been a conduit for ideas; he’s been a node of connection.’
Since the early 2000s, Mater has been pivotal to the Saudi art scene. He got his start as part of the Shatta collective, with four other artists and poets, at Al Muftaha Art Village in his home province of Asir in the south of Saudi Arabia. Then, with Abdulnasser Gharem, Stephen Stapleton, and Ashraf Fayadh, he formed Edge of Arabia, which toured Saudi contemporary art abroad and challenged assumptions about the lack of art in the kingdom. Back in Jeddah, Mater set up Pharan Studio, which in the absence of an infrastructural system in Saudi played a crucial role as a space for lectures, discussions, and exhibitions. Now based in JAX, the new cultural district outside of Riyadh, his studio continues to bring together different creative practitioners, hosting graphic designers, musicians, artists, and visitors passing through to collaborate or simply discuss art and ideas.
