From Canvas to Context: The Emergence of Contemporary Exhibition-Making in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 1965-2022

Abstract

This thesis investigates the evolution of exhibition-making practices in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, spanning the years 1965 to 2022, It argues that individual artists’ travel experiences played a critical role in transforming the local exhibition landscape from informal, artist-led presentations into increasingly professional and curatorial formats. Drawing on primary sources including over nine artist interviews, 24 exhibition catalogues, 100 press archives, and institutional records, the study offers the first sustained academic analysis of how international exposure shaped curatorial strategies, spatial approaches, and conceptual frameworks within Saudi exhibition-making. The research offers an original contribution by tracing how, in the absence of formal art education or curatorial infrastructure, early exhibitions were led by artists who simultaneously acted as organisers, educators, and cultural mediators. Over time, a new generation of artists, many of whom studied or exhibited abroad, introduced conceptual practices, collaborative models, and research-based exhibitions that gradually shifted the scene towards contemporary formats. These shifts are examined through key curatorial case studies such as Common Spaces (1999), Yom (2002), Limited Edition (2011), We Need to Talk (2012), and the 21,39 Jeddah Arts initiative (2014–2022). Rather than viewing these changes as institutionally driven, the thesis foregrounds the agency of artists and their transnational networks in redefining the purpose, form, and audience of exhibitions. It argues that travel functioned as a substitute for institutional training and as a catalyst for experimentation, opening new curatorial possibilities grounded in both global discourse and local realities. This study contributes to scholarship on exhibition histories, curatorial practices, and art history. It proposes a framework for understanding the professionalisation of Saudi art exhibitions not as a linear adoption of international models, but as a complex negotiation between personal trajectories and cultural transformation.