Ahmed Mater is a Saudi artist and physician. His mediums are photography, calligraphy, painting, installation, performance and video. His work, which explores history, the narratives and aesthetics of Islamic culture, and addresses consumerism and transformation taking place in the region and its effects on geopolitics, has attracted an international audience. In 2003, he cofounded "Edge of Arabia", an independent arts initiative dedicated to promoting the appreciation of contemporary Arab art and culture, with a focus on Saudi Arabia.
Life and career
Ahmed Mater was born in 1979 in Tabuk in the north west of Saudi Arabia on the Jordanian border. He is the first child of Mater Ahmed Al-Ziad, a sergeant in the Saudi Arabian Army, and Fatimah Hassan Abdullah Aseeri, a calligrapher and painter of traditional Aseeri houses. Ahmed has two brothers, Bandar and Mohamed, and four sisters, Aicha, Jawaher, Jamila and Reem. In the 1990s Mater was given a studio space in Abha at the al-Meftaha artists' village. He splits his time between the Saudi Arabian cities of Abha, Jeddah and Makkah. Mater's wife, Arwa Alneami, is also an artist. Together they run pharan.studio – a salon, artists' studios and "cultural mining project" in Jeddah.
Work
Mater's work has been exhibited internationally and acquired by major international museums. Illuminations, acquired by The British Museum, is a series that combines explicit notes from his medical education with images of the Kaaba and a mosque, distributed as a collage around blue and black x-ray images. The work seems to ask the viewer if humanity is more than just the structure of the body. In 2006, Mater mounted an installation titled The Yellow Cow products, a work that address ecological challenges of modern urbanized society. According to the artist, "The cow with the yellow color was used as an expression of religious heritage." His Desert of Pharan series features photographs and films gathered over five-years, documenting the changes taking place in Islam's holiest city. Mater considers the unprecedented redevelopment of the Masjid Al-Haram, including a multibillion-dollar complex of luxury hotels, malls and apartments. Magnetism is a black cuboid magnet surrounded by iron filings to represent Hajj, Muslim's annual pilgrimage which includes the circumambulation of the Kaaba.
2006 Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum Press 2009 ADACH Platform for Visual Arts in Venice, Catherine David 2009 New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Thames & Hudson 2010 Art of the Middle East: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World and Iran, Merrell Publishing 2010 Ahmed Mater, Booth Clibborn Editions 2012Edge of Arabia, Contemporary Art from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Booth-Clibborn Editions 2012 Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, British Museum Press 2016 Desert of Pharan: Unofficial Histories Behind the Mass Expansion of Mecca, Lars Müller Publishing
