Islamic Arts Biennale Names Four Lead Curators for 2027

Four curators, four exhibitions and one very famous airport terminal.

The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has just announced the four lead curators of the third Islamic Arts Biennale, which returns to Jeddah on 1 November 2027. It is a line-up that brings together the museum, the academy and the auction room, and it tells us a good deal about where one of our region's most ambitious exhibitions is heading.

The four are Nada Raza, director of the Alserkal Arts Foundation in Dubai; William Robinson, former head of the Islamic Art department at Christie's; Alain Fouad George, I. M. Pei Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Oxford and director of the Lusail Institute in Doha; and Idries Trevathan, formerly chief curator at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran. According to Arab News, each lead curator will present an exhibition exploring intangible heritage, resilience and community.

For anyone less familiar with it, the Islamic Arts Biennale describes itself as the first biennale in the world dedicated exclusively to the arts of Islamic civilisations, past and present. It is organised by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, which was established by the Saudi Ministry of Culture in 2020 and which alternates the event with the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale in Riyadh. The inaugural edition opened in Jeddah in 2023. The second, And All That Is In Between, ran from 25 January to 25 May 2025 under artistic directors Julian Raby, Amin Jaffer and Abdul Rahman Azzam, with Muhannad Shono as contemporary art curator. It filled five exhibition halls and outdoor spaces covering 100,000 square metres with more than 500 historical objects and contemporary artworks, including more than 30 new commissions.

The 2027 edition will once again take over the Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport, and will run from 1 November 2027 to 1 March 2028. As before, historical treasures will sit alongside newly commissioned contemporary work, and the outdoor area will showcase the winning design from the second edition of the AlMusalla Prize, the foundation's international architecture competition that reimagines spaces of prayer.

"The curatorial team's breadth of experience demonstrates the richness and contemporary relevance of Islamic arts," said Aya Al-Bakree, CEO of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, in a statement reported by Canvas. In the same announcement, Rakan Altouq, Vice Chairman of the foundation's Board of Trustees, went further, describing the arts of Islamic civilisation as "not a closed chapter to be admired from a distance", but as a living field that is "still evolving, still creating meaning."

What's more, the biennale is increasingly designed to live beyond its opening months. Its AlMadar (The Orbit) initiative is a year-round platform built on four pillars: an exhibition that anchors each edition, a digital research and storytelling repository, a programme of symposia, workshops and talks, and a network of institutions sharing knowledge. For 2027, the foundation says AlMadar will include a digitised archival platform and expanded programmes internationally.

That shift is already visible in Riyadh. From this month, the foundation is running up to eight public events a month at JAX District, outside the biennale calendar. "For the first time, our public programs extend beyond the biennale calendar," Sybel Vazquez, the foundation's Director of Public Programs, told Arab News. The third PaperBack Art Book Fair follows at JAX from 5 to 7 November 2026.

So, what can we take away from this line-up? Interestingly, the team spans Dubai, Doha, Dhahran, Oxford and the salerooms of London, which feels like a deliberate statement that the study of Islamic art is no longer something done about our region from elsewhere, but something done with and from it. Robinson's market eye, Raza's contemporary practice, George's scholarship and Trevathan's Saudi institutional experience should make for four very different exhibitions under one roof. Perhaps most significantly, choosing curators who have built and led institutions in Dubai, Doha and Dhahran signals real confidence in the curatorial talent the MENA region has nurtured over the past two decades.

We're eager to see what the four of them do with that vast terminal.

The third Islamic Arts Biennale will take place at the Western Hajj Terminal, King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, from 1 November 2027 to 1 March 2028.

References

Arab News, "Islamic Arts Biennale announces lead curators for 2027", https://www.arabnews.com/art-culture/islamic-arts-biennale-announces-lead-curators-for-2027-3002117

Canvas, "Lead Curators Announced for Islamic Arts Biennale 2027", https://canvasonline.com/lead-curators-announced-for-islamic-arts-biennale-2027/

ART AFRICA Magazine, "The Diriyah Biennale Foundation Expands the Horizon of the Islamic Arts Biennale 2027", https://artafricamagazine.org/the-diriyah-biennale-foundation-expands-the-horizon-of-the-islamic-arts-biennale-2027/

What's On Saudi Arabia, "The Islamic Arts Biennale 2027 dates have just been announced", https://whatsonsaudiarabia.com/2026/02/the-islamic-arts-biennale-2027-dates/

Diriyah Biennale Foundation, "Islamic Arts Biennale 2025", https://biennale.org.sa/en/biennales/islamic-arts-biennale/islamic-arts-biennale-2025

Biennial Foundation, "Diriyah Biennale", https://biennialfoundation.org/biennials/diriyah-biennale/

Arab News, "Diriyah Biennale Foundation brings extensive programming from September", https://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/diriyah-biennale-foundation-brings-extensive-programming-from-september-3001080

What's On Saudi Arabia, "The Paperback Art Book Fair 2026 is headed back to Riyadh this November", https://whatsonsaudiarabia.com/2026/06/paperback-art-book-fair-2026/