The Emerging XVIII comes from a series of unique paintings by Manal AlDowayan, depicting shapes outlined on a natural linen canvas, resembling an abstract landscape. The artist uses the representation of women legs, that appear to emerge, not fully, just slightly. The human limbs here seem ready to kick out and to jump through. This body of work follows the idea of women exiting and entering a space, from the private sphere to the public sphere. Unsurprisingly, the artist’s gaze unravels the expected tensions running through the fiber of Saudi society— public vs private, traditional vs modern, community vs. world. But as the Kingdom races towards further change, AlDowayan’s artistic engagement with this new metamorphosis promises to be bolder and more incisive than ever.
Manal AlDowayan (b. 1973, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) is a Saudi artist living and working between Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, UAE. Recognized as one of the leading voices in contemporary Middle Eastern art, AlDowayan’s practice engages deeply with questions of memory, social structures, and the shifting role of women within Saudi society.
Long committed to examining the gender-biased customs that have shaped the condition of women in the Gulf,
she stands as both a sensitive and critical
witness to the cultural metamorphosis transforming the Kingdom today. Her work occupies the intersection of the personal and the political, emerging from lived experience, collective memory, and the fragile tension between visibility and erasure.