Arts AlUla and Desert X AlUla, the international, open-air biannual exhibition, is excited to announce the exceptional line-up of Saudi and international artists whose site-responsive earthworks, sculptures, and installations will create multisensory public engagement with the awe-inspiring landscapes and layered heritage of AlUla.

Held in collaboration with Desert X, this landmark edition brings together 11 artists whose diverse and monumental works reflect a wide spectrum of ideas, materials, and traditions. From monumental kinetic sculpture to sound-based explorations above and below ground, each commission is deeply rooted in relationships to AlUla’s dynamic and distinctive environment. The participating artists are:  Sara Abdu, Mohammad Alfaraj, Mohammed AlSaleem, Tarek Atoui, Bahraini-Danish, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Agnes Denes, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Basmah Felemban, Vibha Galhotra, and Héctor Zamora.

Desert X AlUla, the region’s first public art biennale will return for its fourth edition from 16 January to 28 February 2026. This edition is co-curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, with Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi returning as 2026 Artistic Directors. Situated amidst the stunning vistas of Wadi AlFann, an emerging global cultural destination for monumental art in the landscape, Desert X AlUla is a pre-opening programme of Wadi AlFann and a highlight of the AlUla Arts Festival – an annual celebration that transforms the ancient city of AlUla into a showcase of contemporary art, design, and culture.

From a unique setting within the ancient Oasis to the compass-like canyons radiating North, South, East and West, artworks will be presented across AlUla’s extraordinary landscapes. This edition embraces sustainable practices from traditional rammed earth techniques to wood and stone carving as well as drawing upon the expertise of the botany experts at the AlUla Native Plant Nursery. Working in harmony with the terrain’s natural character of dunes, valleys and rock faces, Desert X AlUla 2026 will foster meaningful ways of viewing and listening to the land while limiting ecological impact.

All of the commissioned art works were produced and fabricated in Saudi Arabia, using locally sourced materials and relying upon the craft and skill of regional artisans, including collaborations with Madrasat Addeera, AlUla’s art and design centre, and the AlUla Music Hub.

The curators’ theme is inspired by the words of visionary Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran, who once described dreams as Space Without Measure. Drawing on Gibran’s meditations on possibility, perception, and the boundless nature of the human spirit, Desert X AlUla 2026 invites visitors to contemplate the infinite horizons and  soaring imagination that flourish when art responds to place. Audiences will explore spaces shaped by light and shadow, ingenuity and memory.

Hamad Alhomiedan, Director of Arts & Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), said: “At Desert X AlUla 2026, audiences will encounter an extraordinary diversity of artists whose works converse deeply with the land. From sound and sculpture to living installations and historic forms reimagined, this year’s commissions create spaces that honour AlUla’s heritage while inviting visitors into its present, where the ancient and contemporary meet.

We welcome audiences to experience the unique landscapes of AlUla through works that reflect the richness of its stories, its resilience, and its distinct place in the global dialogue of contemporary art – as a precursor to Wadi AlFann, the permanent monumental open-air museum of art in dialogue with AlUla’s landscapes, unveiling from 2028.”

The participating artists for Desert X AlUla 2026 include:

Sara Abdu is a Saudi-born artist of Yemeni heritage whose practice reflects her position “between geographies.” For this edition, her work A Kingdom Where No One Dies: Contours of Resonance layers poetry and geological strata into sculptural walls of rammed earth, reviving ancient construction techniques common to cultures around the world.

Mohammad Alfaraj, a multidisciplinary Saudi artist, weaves a labyrinth of living fables inspired by the landscapes of his childhood in Al Ahsa. Centred on a palm tree made of many grafted trunks, his work What was the Question Again? reflects harmony, renewal, and the intimate relationships between people and environment.

Mohammed AlSaleem (1939–1997), the renowned Saudi Modernist and founder of Riyadh’s first art house, is represented, on loan courtesy of the Riyadh Art collection, The Royal Commission for Riyadh City, through five rare sculptural works never before seen. The Thorn, AlShuruf Unit, The Triangles, Flower Bud, and Al Ahilla were created in the 1980s, their geometric forms ascending skywards, each imbued with symbolic meaning inspired by desert landscapes and celestial motifs.

Tarek Atoui is a Lebanese-born artist and electro-acoustic composer celebrated for immersive sound-based installations and collaborative performances. His new project The Water Song is a continuation of Bayt Al Hams (The Whispering House) presented at the AlUla Arts Festival 2025. Atoui will treat the landscape as an archaeological site, where half-excavated instruments emerge from the earth.

Bahraini-Danish is the collective practice of Batool Alshaikh, Maitham Almubarak, and Christian Vennerstrøm Jensen, who work across art, architecture, design, and publishing. Their kinetic sculpture Bloom responds to the desert’s interplay of shadow and sunlight, its spinning forms merging with terrain to create a shifting, participatory dialogue between visitor and place.

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is a Cuban-born, US-based multidisciplinary artist whose work channels land, light, and spiritual heritage. Imole Red is inspired by AlUla’s intense sunsets and West African Yoruba traditions, synthesising colour and energy into a blossoming, alchemical garden that honours the valley’s past and its connection to water.

Agnes Denes, the Hungarian-born, US-based pioneer of ecological and land art, presents The Living Pyramid, the latest iteration of a worldwide project. The monumental, plant-filled structure sited in AlUla’s oasis is an exploration of the cycles of life from soil to seed to blossom and speaks to the universal language of optimism, resilience, and beauty.

Ibrahim El-Salahi, a leading Sudanese Modernist, presents an installation inspired by resilient acacias that grow across AlUla’s canyons. Haraza Tree is his forest of sculptural meditation trees that envisions unity emerging from multiplicity, linking heaven and earth in a harmony of form and meaning.

Basmah Felemban is a Saudi artist known for her installations rooted in Islamic geometry. Magnifying the smallest geological elements into monumental limestone sculptures, her work Murmur of Pebbles reflects on the ancient rivers that shaped AlUla’s desert, carrying resonance and memory within each pebble form. The piece was originally commissioned for Desert X AlUla 2024, curated by Maya El Khalil and Marcello Dantas, and has been revisited for the 2026 edition through the curatorial lens of Space Without Measure.

Vibha Galhotra is a New Delhi-based artist whose practice addresses climate change and environmental degradation. In Future Fables, she encloses fragments of AlUla’s demolished buildings within a steel framework, transforming rubble into a shelter for shared narratives, collective reflection, and imagining new futures.

Héctor Zamora, the Mexican-born artist known for blurring boundaries between art, architecture, and public participation. Inspired by both traditional Saudi drums and hyperbolic paraboloid forms, his work Tar HyPar transforms the valley into a musical instrument, inviting visitors to create energy through collective sound.

Alongside the unique commissions, Desert X AlUla 2026 will present an expanded programme designed to deepen visitor engagement with AlUla’s landscapes and the exhibition’s ideas and theme. Artist-led workshops, including sessions by participating artists themselves, will invite audiences to create and explore concepts and materials in direct response to the desert environment.

Guided art hikes, curated tours, and stargazing tours will offer immersive journeys through the landscape and artworks, while specially commissioned artist performances, participatory events, wellness sessions, and family-focused programming will animate the site with sound, movement, storytelling and play. A specially curated live music programme at the Visitor Pavilion, developed in collaboration with AlUla Music Hub, will further connect visitors to AlUla, creating moments where art, nature, and community converge.

Desert X AlUla 2026 offers visitors the rare opportunity to explore site-responsive works in some of the region’s most remarkable locations, including the desert canyons that will one day house AlUla’s permanent Wadi AlFann, Valley of the Arts.

Read More: Events & Updates