Desert x AlUla 2026: art, landscape and imagination in dialogue

From January 16th to February 28th, 2026, Desert x AlUla returns to AlUla, Saudi Arabia, for its fourth edition, unfolding across one of the world’s most dramatic desert landscapes. Presented as a key highlight of the AlUla Arts Festival, the open-air exhibition once again transforms the ancient region into a living gallery, where contemporary art enters into direct conversation with nature, history, and time. Conceived as a journey rather than a single site, Desert x AlUla brings site-specific art installations into the heart of canyons, valleys, and open plains shaped by millennia.

Desert x AlUla: an open-air exhibition rooted in place

Curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, with artistic direction by Raneem Farsi and Neville Wakefield, the 2026 edition brings together Saudi and international artists from across generations. Each invited artist is commissioned to create a work that responds directly to AlUla’s terrain and cultural memory, reinforcing the exhibition’s long-standing commitment to art that is inseparable from its environment.

Rather than imposing artworks onto the landscape, Desert X AlUla encourages them to emerge from it, reflecting AlUla’s historical role as a crossroads for exchange, migration and imagination.

‘Space Without Measure’: the 2026 theme

The curatorial theme for Desert X AlUla 2026, Space Without Measure, is inspired by the poetic writings of Kahlil Gibran. His reflections on boundlessness, perception, and the human spirit resonate deeply with AlUla’s seemingly infinite horizons. Through this lens, the exhibition proposes space not as something to be defined or controlled, but as an open field for reflection, imagination, and connection.

Across the exhibition, artworks invite visitors to wander rather than observe from a distance. The desert becomes both setting and collaborator, encouraging moments of stillness, orientation, and shared experience within a landscape layered with history and possibility.

A growing legacy in the desert

Since its inaugural edition in 2020, Desert X AlUla has commissioned more than fifty artworks, many of which have entered the Arts AlUla Public Art Collection, becoming part of the region’s evolving cultural fabric. The exhibition has also paved the way for Wadi AlFann, the future Valley of the Arts set to open from 2028, positioning AlUla as a global destination for monumental land art.

With its fourth edition, Desert X AlUla continues to shape a distinct vision of contemporary art—one that is expansive, place-responsive, and deeply attuned to the desert’s timeless presence.