German gallery supports Saudi's art movement

Side by Side Gallery in Berlin is hosting a potential game changer of an exhibition in terms of Saudi Arabian Art.

After meeting Stephen Stapleton the founder of Edge of Arabia and Abdulnasser Gharem, a prominent Saudi artist in Sharjah, Akim Monet agreed for his gallery in the German capital to be used as a launching point for an artist-run foundation in Riyadh.

Amen Art Foundation, Towards an Art Foundation in Riyadh will run until mid-July and will feature Gharem's work as well as an open call for contributions and ideas towards his goal.

In a statement accompanying the exhibition launch, Monet says the meeting with Stapleton and Gharem was a "fortuitous encounter" that and that the grass-roots artistic movement in Saudi Arabia was of "momentous" importance. "In considering the deep cultural changes occurring in the Greater Middle East, with the establishment of Dubai as a major Asian hub and as a crossroad between east and west, and the very vibrant art-scene between Cairo, Beirut and Istanbul on the Levantine side, Tehran, further east, and Sharjah and Doha to the south, one cannot escape the fact that the big brother, the uncle and the father in some cases is Saudi Arabia," he said.

In that respect he has offered his gallery as "a laboratory, as a public workshop, as a forum to present the idea, but also as a platform through which to develop the project."

* Amen Art Foundation, Towards an Art Foundation in Riyadh will run until July 13 at Side by Side Gallery in Berlin