RIYADH: Saudi ceramic artist Awatif Al-Keneibit walks proudly into a gallery displaying her work in Riyadh, where statues and earthenware figurines witness the return of plastic arts to Saudi Arabia after decades of religious restriction.

Her exposition includes ceramic faces, some with hollow eyes, others wearing eye glasses, and figurines of Saudi Arabian women, displayed on red bricks and coloured to reflect traditional desert dresses.

“Who could have imagined that one day, this exhibition, which was in a basement, could be displayed in Olaya (downtown Riyadh)?” said Keneibit, 60, who is blazing a trail for women in the arts in Saudi Arabia’s conservative male-dominated society.

US-educated Keneibit said she resorted to creating a private gallery at the bottom of her house for friends and guests after a public exhibition was banned in 2009.

Her work is now welcomed in Riyadh’s most prestigious galleries, where other fellow Saudi artists have in the last few years also began enjoying their new-found freedoms.

Keneibit still shows some work from the prohibition period, including ceramic faces that appear strangled by metallic chains and another visage seeming to glow with Quranic verses.

“For me, it was two shocks, one before and another after. We are a generation that has gone through a lot of changes — from a total ban to a complete opening up,” she said.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2023