The Diriyah Biennale Foundation announced the appointment of the expanded curatorial team for the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, which will open on January 30, 2026.
The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026 is led by Artistic Directors Nora Razian, Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes at Art Jameel in Dubai and Jeddah; and Sabih Ahmed, a curator, cultural theorist, and educator serving as Projects Advisor at the Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai. They are joined by a team of international curators, consisting of Maan Abu Taleb, May Makki, Kabelo Malatsie, and Lantian Xie. The Milan-based architect Sammy Zarka has been appointed as Associate Architect and Exhibition Designer to collaborate closely with the curatorial team.
Portrait Nora Razian (courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
Portrait Sabih Ahmed (courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
Bringing together expertise that spans contemporary art, critical theory, music, architecture, and performance, the team reflects the Biennale’s commitment to introducing new curatorial perspectives and strengthening connections in Saudi Arabia, across the Gulf region, and beyond. Collectively, the artistic directors and curators bring experience from leading institutions including Art Jameel; Asia Art Archive; Kunsthalle Bern; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Ma3azef, as well as contributions to landmark exhibitions such as the Sharjah Biennial, the Shanghai Biennale, the Venice Biennale, the Yokohama Triennale, and the Dhaka Art Summit.
The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale will once again be held in the JAX District, a creative quarter with industrial heritage in the historic town of Diriyah, near Riyadh. The 15-hectare site hosts artists’ studios, exhibition venues, and the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale. For its third edition, the Biennale will extend into the JAX District, activating newly opened spaces and weaving Biennale events throughout.
Aya Al-Bakree, CEO of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, said: “This curatorial team brings together a wide range of voices shaped by different disciplines, ranging from music and performance to literature and architecture. Their experience demonstrates the evolving role of contemporary art as a space of exchange, and I hope to see that this will open new pathways for artists and audiences in Saudi Arabia.”
Featuring work by artists from Saudi Arabia and around the world, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale explores the role of contemporary art in a country that is undergoing rapid social change. Building on the success of two previous editions (Feeling the Stones, curated by Philip Tinari in 2022, and After Rain, curated by Ute Meta Bauer in 2024), which together welcomed over 340,000 visitors, this edition will continue to foster dialogue between local and international artists, curators, and art enthusiasts.
THE CURATORIAL TEAM
Portrait Maan Abu Talib (courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
Maan Abu Taleb is the co-founder and editorial director of the online music magazine Ma3azef. He is the author of novels, plays, and essays. His debut novel, All the Battles (2016), was released in Arabic to critical and popular acclaim and was translated into English by Robin Moger (2017). His essay “A God Is All Over Me,” about Jerusalem, language, and defeat, appeared in the online edition of The White Review (2018). He wrote and directed a stage reading of The Congress, a play about the 1932 Cairo Congress of Arab Music, which was performed at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2022. Abu Taleb holds a master’s degree in philosophy and contemporary critical theory from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University, London.
Portrait May Makki (courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation) (1)
May Makki is a curator and writer. Between 2022 and 2025, she was part of the curatorial team of the Department of Media and Performance at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she focused on realizing new commissions and presentations of live and time-based art. Prior to that, she held curatorial and research positions at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University and MoMA PS1 in New York and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha. She was the 2024–25 Curatorial AIRspace resident at Abrons Arts Center, New York, where she organized Screen Memories, a group exhibition considering the experience of Arabic mass media for a generation of artists growing up in the early 2000s. Her writing has been published in Art in America, Screen Slate, H-AMCA, and elsewhere. Makki holds a master of arts degree from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Chicago.
Portrait Kabelo Malatsie (courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
Kabelo Malatsie is a curator and organizer living in Cape Town. She was director of Kunsthalle Bern between 2022 and 2024. Her ongoing curatorial research explores the exhibitionary mode as a set of unlikely starting points that place incongruous practices together, to instigate other ways of making and reading the world we inhabit. As an organizer she is preoccupied with the notion of autonomy and the underground. She was director of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (2018–19) and an associate in the curatorial team at Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town and Johannesburg (2011–16). She co-curated the exhibition Deliberation on Discursive Justice for the Yokohama Triennale 2020, curated by Raqs Media Collective, participated in the show In the Open or in Stealth at MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2018), and curated solo exhibitions for artists including Nicholas Hlobo, Moshekwa Langa, and Sabelo Mlangeni. Malatsie holds a master’s degree in art history from the University of Witwatersrand.
Portrait Lantian Xie (courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
Lantian Xie makes images, objects, things, things that happen, formulations, moves, swerves, books, exhibitions, working groups, jazz bands, motorcycles, and parties. Previous projects have appeared at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), 11th Shanghai Biennial (2016), 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2016), Sharjah Biennial 14 (2019), Yokohama Triennale 2020, 4th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art (2022), Dhaka Art Summit, Para Site in Hong Kong, MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Centre Pompidou. Xie currently works as curatorial de-integerizer at Kunsthalle Dubai.
Portrait Sammy Zarka (courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
Sammy Zarka is an architect and exhibition designer whose practice engages with the ephemeral nature of built environments and their socio-spatial narratives. His work explores how spatial design can reflect personal and collective histories, especially in contexts shaped by displacement. He studied in Belgium and Italy and holds a master’s degree in Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design. He is an adjunct lecturer at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) in Milan, where he teaches exhibition design and scenography. He is a founding member of the Young Syrian Urbanists community, a platform dedicated to reimagining urban futures through interdisciplinary dialog. He collaborated with international institutions such as Fondazione Prada and was part of Italo Rota’s team designing the Musei Civici of Reggio Emilia and other museums in Italy. He joins the curatorial team of the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale as Associate Architect.
