A personal exhibition of Saudi artist Ahmed Mater kicks off today in King Abdullah Economic City, showcasing his works produced over the past ten years, including film, photography, sculpture, structural works and multimedia.

“Between how and how to” draw attention to the fundamental changes taking place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and documented by the artist Ahmed Mater through his work sites and cultures waged by the wheel and the remarkable developments and unexpected changes. The exhibition consists of five chapters, touring through which the recipient on a journey between the current changing pace of the Kingdom, and its economy rentier in the past, and the importance of Mecca location where the new and promising future, and at the end of the tour brings the artist to consider the years of life Bohmlha; Natured and death.

Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury wins the 4th Samdani Art Award

Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) announced Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury as the winner of the 4th biannual Samdani Art Award — Bangladesh’s premier art award. The winner of the Samdani Art Award receives a six-week residency at the Delfina Foundation in London, to develop their ideas, sharpen their practice, and widen their networks. The Dhaka Art Summit has become the global meeting point for research, discourse and engagement with South Asian art and its connections to the rest of the world. This year over 300 artists, 65% of whom are Bangladeshi, are featured in 10 curated exhibitions led by Chief Curator Diana Campbell Betancourt (also Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation) who is joined by guest curators from international institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Swiss Institute in New York and Para Site in Hong Kong amongst others. Over 120 speakers participated in 16 panel discussions and two symposiums that strive to ground future developments of art in South Asia within the region’s rich past and drawing to the Summit institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern, M+ in Hong Kong, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and Artspace Sydney to mention a few.

Mat Collishaw’s Thresholds opens at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford on 2nd of March. Featured by the BBC, Frieze, The Daily Telegraph and many others, this virtual reality exhibition was described by The Art Newspaper as ‘a full-on sensory experience, Mat Collishaw’s virtual reality magnum opus’.

This April, Iván Navarro will transform Gallery Hyundai in Seoul into a synesthetic experience with his exhibition The Moon in The Water. The Chilean-born artist’s second solo show with the gallery will provide the viewers with three distinct environments, triggering the sensory system through sound, sight, and movement.

Sean Scully at Cuadra San Cristóbal

Works by one of the world’s leading abstract artists, Sean Scully will go on show at Luis Barragán’s iconic modernist landmark, Cuadra San Cristóbal in Mexico City from 7 February. Curated by Oscar Humphries, Sean Scully – San Cristóbal is the first exhibition to be presented at Cuadra San Cristóbal and it is first time the artist’s sculptures will be shown in Latin America.

The dramatic geometries and strong colours that form part of the architecture are a fitting backdrop to Sean Scully’s powerful and emotive works. Built in 1966 as an equestrian and residential complex, the design of Cuadra San Cristóbal represents the apex of Barragán’s ‘high period’. In the interior spaces, including the horse stalls, paintings on aluminium and copper will be shown.

Each stall will present a different aspect of Scully’s work, in a sequence made all the more powerful by the repetition of the architecture. The artist’s recent sculptures, in both Cor-Ten and painted steel, including the monumental Boxes of Air, will be installed in the grounds.

Bill Viola at Hilliard University

Art Museum, Louisiana

Bill Viola’s video installation The Raft (2004) is part of a special exhibition series focused on historically significant film and video artists at Hilliard University Art Museum, Louisiana. Commissioned by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens and first shown as part of the Cultural Olympiad, the work depicts a group of men and women struck by a massive onslaught of water. Described by the artist as ‘an image of destruction and survival’, the New York Times said of the work that it was, ‘a stark, visceral metaphor for the collective experience of natural disasters and acts of war that feels both acutely contemporary in the video and timeless.’

Compiled by Mariam Nihal