Shadia Alem

I Have Seen Thousands of Stars and One Fell in AlUla

Carrying her childhood city of Mecca with her “like a cosmopolitan cube reflecting it on the world and reflecting the world”, Alem’s internal cultural filter transfuses her work. Starting as a painter, she then shifted her focus to installation, transitioning from canvas to space.  

Alem’s work has been exhibited in Saudi Arabia, throughout the Arab World, the United States, Asia, and Europe. Works such as The Black Mirror (2007), All Is Changed, 9/11 (2002–2003), and Negatives, No More (2004) document phenomena over time. In 2011, she represented Saudi Arabia with The Black Arch installation at the 54th Venice Biennale with her sister, author Raja Alem—the first participation by the Kingdom in the Venice Biennale.