Often referred to as the “Father of Conceptualism in Saudi Arabia,” Faisal Samra was born in Bahrain in 1956 he is a Saudi national. He graduated from École national supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied art in Amman, Jordan. He works in video and photography, and his installation pieces are often interactive. Prior to becoming a full-time artist, Samra worked as a stage designer for Saudi television and as fine arts and graphics consultant for the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris; he has carried out research on Islamic design and artisan works throughout Morocco.
Samra’s work has been presented in numerous exhibitions since 1974 throughout Saudi Arabia, the U.K., France, Bahrain, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Jordan, including the recent solo shows Majazz [Metaphor] (2013), Ayyam Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Shanty (2012), HD Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco; and Resistance (2011), Traffic, Dubai, U.A.E. Samra’s work has also appeared in group shows, including Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (2006), British Museum, London; Languages of the Desert: Contemporary Arab Art from the Gulf States, at Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany, in 2005, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, in 2006, and Abu Dhabi Cultural Centre, U.A.E., in 2007; as well as Traversées, artParis 08, Grand Palais, traveling to DARB 1718, Cairo, and Gallery Bab Rouah/Bab El Kebir, Rabat, Morocco, in 2009. His work is in the collections of the British Museum, London; Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City; Egyptian Modern Art Museum, Cairo; and the private collections of Enrico Navarra, Paris; Saeb Eigner, London; Sheika Paula Al Sabah, Kuwait; and others. A monograph, An Image of Faisal Samra, edited by Roxana Azimi and Gilles De Bure, was published by Skirta Editore, Milan in 2012.
