Diriyah: Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), the first hub for New Media Arts in the Middle East and North Africa, has announced in a press release today the lineup for CONTINUUM '25, an exhibition celebrating the creative output of the participants in its inaugural Emerging New Media Artists Programme. Running from September 13 to November 15, 2025, in Riyadh, CONTINUUM '25 marks the beginning of an annual exhibition series spotlighting innovative voices shaping the future of new media and digital art in the region and beyond.
According to Saudi Press Agency, the exhibition brings together 11 emerging artists from around the world, including: Turki AlQahtani (Saudi Arabia); Khaled Makshoush (Saudi Arabia); Salma Aly (Egypt); Samia Dzar (Algeria); Aya Abu Ghazaleh (Jordan); Dhia Dhibi (Tunisia); William Brooks (Wales); Junsoo Kim (Korea); Youssef El Idrissi (Morocco); Kyle Donald Marais (South Africa); and Mohamed Al Mubarak (Bahrain).
CONTINUUM '25 showcases the artists' major new works developed during a year-long programme at Diriyah Art Futures. Working under the mentorship of internationally acclaimed artists Anna Ridler and Karen Palmer, the participants explored new forms of creative expression through immersive installations, sound and screen-based works, virtual reality, and AI-generated art.
According to the release, the title CONTINUUM speaks to the ever-evolving nature of creative inquiry that defines the Emerging New Media Artists Programme. It reflects a space where artistic journeys converge at the crossroads of themes spanning the real and the artificial, the human and machine, the organic and synthetic. These dualities are mirrored in the artworks and curation of the exhibition, which unfolds as an interconnected landscape of technological imagination and human experience.
With conceptual themes ranging from memory, identity, and displacement to climate ecologies, ethics, and algorithmic power, the exhibition presents a powerful dialogue between personal narratives and collective futures. The works challenge audiences to consider the implications of an increasingly mediated world, and the possibilities for reflection, repair, and renewal within it.