ARWA ALNEAMI

Arwa Al Neami was born in1985 Khamis Mushait, a modern city in Asir province in Saudi Arabia. Originally, Arwa is from the mountain village of Rijal Almaa, she grew up at the King Khalid Military Airbase, where her father was serving as a Dean. In 2000, she joined Al-Meftaha, the heritage arts aillage in Abha, the first art center of its kind in southern area in Saudi Arabia. Having won Saudi's prestigious Southern Region Arts Award, under the patronage of HRH Prince Khaled Al-Faisal in 2005, Arwa struggled for acceptance and inclusion in the regional contemporary arts scene because of her position - at that time - as a Saudi woman who is coming from conservative background.

Her project “A Piece of paradaise” took her to a completely different place, where Arwa became the first ever woman who was allowed to photograph inside the Prophet’s Mosque in Al Madinah Al Monawarah - the second holiest site in Islam after the Grand Mosque.

Arwa moved to Jeddah and began presenting social artworks and finding a place for herself at local art community. She participated with her exhibition and program “Live Demo” within the activities that caused a stir and change in Saudi art community within Jeddah Art Week in 2017.

For more than five years, Arwa has been working on an artistic series entitled "Never Never Land", a project that she launched globally, which monitored an important historical era in the change and development of Saudi Arabia's future and vision, that inspired many exhibitiors around the world.