Though Jeddah is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia and has all the features one might expect of a global metropolis, from skyscrapers and luxury boutiques to a bustling international airport, it lacks one major cultural feature: art schools. In fact, Saudi Arabia as a whole lacks art schools, and until very recently, the only way to buy local Saudi art was directly from the artists themselves. In an effort to fill this absence, Saudi artist Ahmed Mater and British artist Stephen Stapleton founded Edge of Arabia, a nonprofit organization founded to support Middle Eastern artists. The organization opened a challenging exhibition called “We Need to Talk” in Jeddah just last week.

The exhibition, curated by Mohammed Hafiz and Stapleton, is meant to encourage the local art scene and spark dialogue among Saudi artists, Hafiz explained in a curatorial statement. “We Need to Talk” features work in a variety of media from artists including Hala Ali, Sami Al-Turki, and Noha Al-Sharif. "We Need to Talk" comes at a fortuitous point for the Saudi Arabian art community. Global interest in Saudi art is growing, but the local scene still lacks the infrastructure to fully support artists. 

As Edge of Arabia creative director Abdullah Al-Turki sees it, the lack of institutional support for art in Saudi Arabia is partly because "being an artist isn’t recognized in Saudi Arabian society as a proper job. The idea of bringing your family to a museum or an art show is still very young and weak in our region," he told BLOUIN ARTINFO last November. “Just because we work with 25 artists doesn’t mean Saudi Arabia only has 25 artists, but it’s very challenging to find new ones,” he added.  

The increasing demand for Saudi work in the international market has been encouraging, however. Hammer prices for contemporary art from Muslim countries have been breaking records as of late, most notably in April 2011, when a work by Edge of Arabia artist Abdulnasser Gharem sold at Christie’s Middle Eastern Art Sale for $842,500, more than 10 times its original estimate. Al-Turki’s list of contacts with collectors in New York, Paris, and London is growing, but his evangelical work is not without its obstacles, many of which stem from political realities in Saudi Arabia.

Like the rest of the country, Jeddah is governed under traditional Sharia law. Businesses are closed for prayer five times a day, non-Muslim houses of worship cannot be built, and secular architecture, literature, and art are curbed. The government also places strict limits on artistic expression, prohibiting art that might be taken as blasphemous or seen as openly critical of Saudi society.

Though Saudi Arabia was largely unaffected by the wave of popular uprisings that took place across the Middle East during 2011's Arab Spring, the political environment in the country remains tense. In this atmosphere, many forward-thinking Saudi artists have downplayed the political significance of their work and couched it in conservative terms. In one piece featured in the “We Need to Talk” exhibition, artist Hamza Serafi placed a yellow banner over a map of his country emblazoned with the phrase “evolution not revolution.” "It is always the choice to either be blunt and vulgar and say something that will upset people and have your work be censored, or make artwork that has a very valuable message, sustainable and gentle” and avoid censorship, Serafi told the Chicago Tribune.

Aya Alireza, the show’s assistant curator, takes a similarly soft approach when she describes the art on view. "I try to disabuse [the authorities] of the notion that the works are meant to criticize the government or are inciting people toward revolt or rebellion,” she said in an interview with the Tribune. "The reason I find Saudi art particularly inspiring is because the restrictions the artists face are what actually lights the fuel under their creativity, forcing them to think more deeply and to be more subtle in their work."