Riyadh: Art in Riyadh is no longer confined to galleries and museums; artworks have become part of the capital's everyday landscape, encountered by passers-by at train stations, public squares, and workplaces.
According to Saudi Press Agency, at Qasr Al-Hokm metro station, Saudi artist Zaman Jassim's "When the Moon is Full" comes into view, while a sculpture by Alexander Calder stands amid the modern architecture of the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD). Nearby is Robert Indiana's "LOVE," while a pedestrian bridge on King Abdulaziz Road transforms at night into a light installation by Italian artist Angelo Bonello.
These artworks represent diverse generations, artistic schools, and creative practices, employing a wide range of materials and mediums, including light, steel, sound, words, and everyday objects. Yet they converge within a single artistic space spread across the capital, bringing art into streets, squares, train stations, workplaces, and the various facets of everyday life.
This integration is part of the Riyadh Art program, launched in March 2019 with the aim of transforming the capital into an open-air art gallery. The program involves creating artworks and artistic landmarks by Saudi and international artists and displaying them across the city's public spaces, including residential neighborhoods, gardens, parks, squares, transport stations, bridges, city entrances, and other public destinations.
The program's permanent art collection comprises 75 artworks distributed across diverse urban settings, featuring works by Saudi and international artists from different generations and artistic movements. The collection connects each artwork with the place that hosts it, giving it a presence that extends beyond the confines of traditional exhibition halls.
This diversity reveals one of the most prominent features of public art in Riyadh, where its value lies not only in the artistic merit of the works or the names of their creators, but in their relationship with the places that host them and the way the public interacts with them as part of everyday life.
Riyadh Art's permanent collection brings together leading names from the Saudi art scene alongside prominent international artists, forming a network of public art that adds new visual and cultural dimensions to the city's streets, squares, transport hubs, and cultural and economic districts.
This initiative also complements other Riyadh Art programs, including "Noor Riyadh" and the "Tuwaiq Sculpture" symposium, which brings together artists from around the world to create sculptural works and helps transform stone extracted in Saudi Arabia into permanent public artworks.
The development of public art in the capital reflects the broader transformation Riyadh is undergoing under Saudi Vision 2030, which emphasizes enhancing quality of life, developing the cultural and creative sectors, and consolidating Riyadh's position as a global destination for arts and culture.