Discover the art of Abdullah Al-Othman, the Riyadh-born conceptual artist transforming Saudi urban identity through light, language, and memory. From street signs to desert mirages, explore how his installations, books, and films reframe the city as a living archive.
— Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
It’s a sentiment that echoes throughout Al-Othman’s practice, where Riyadh is more than geography. It’s a language waiting to be read. Born in Riyadh in 1985, Abdullah Al-Othman is part of a new generation of Saudi creatives reshaping the conversation around identity, memory, and modernity. His work blends installation, poetry, light, and urban semiotics, transforming overlooked details of everyday life into deliberate cultural inquiry.
For Abdullah, the city is not just a place, it’s a language. That idea came to full expression in his critically celebrated project, “Language and the City.” First revealed as a luminous installation for Noor Riyadh, the work reassembled the typography of street signs into an emotional, linguistic portrait of the capital.
Neon and LED installation "Manifesto - The Language & The City" by Abdullah Al-Othman, reimagining Riyadh’s street signs to explore the city’s visual language and urban identity.
But he didn’t stop there.
In 2024, “Language and the City” became a book. Part visual archive, part urban reflection, published with support from the Enrichment Center, the Arab Content Support Initiative, and the Cultural Development Fund. It was the product of years of research, photography, and creative direction.
“A long journey between the corners of man and the memory of a place,” he wrote.
The book offered something rare: a way to see Riyadh not just through its architecture, but through the systems of meaning etched into its walls, poles, and signs.
The cover and spread of “Language and the City” by Abdullah Al-Othman, featuring a curated collage of Riyadh’s neon signs. A visual manifesto of the city's shifting identity.
In 2025, Abdullah's artistic journey became the subject of a short film titled “The Sender’s Voice,” directed by Alexandra Liveris. The film captures the essence of his creative world. His methods, philosophies, and the emotional weight behind his minimalistic forms.
The project was selected by the New York Lift-Off Film Festival, marking yet another milestone in his expanding global recognition.
“The movie is about my artistic experience.”
— Abdullah Al-Othman, via Instagram extending thanks to everyone involved.
His practice is built on recontextualization. In “Geography of Hope” (Desert X AlUla, 2022), he was one of just 15 international artists selected (out of hundreds of submissions) to create a site-specific piece. Working with mirrored steel, he captured the sensory essence of a desert mirage, blending scientific insight, poetic intuition, and geographical resonance into a single striking form.
Scenes from AlUla, the backdrop for Abdullah Al-Othman’s “Geography of Hope”, a site-specific installation exploring illusion, light, and desert memory.
In his latest solo exhibition, “Structural Syntax” (Iris Projects, 2025), Abdullah explored the use of tin, a material often seen as industrial or mundane, to explore fragility and form. As with much of his work, language was present. Not spoken, but constructed through shape and surface.
He’s also exhibited at major regional and international platforms, including:
Each show builds on the last, expanding the vocabulary he’s patiently constructing. A vocabulary that speaks to cities, memory, and cultural residue.
Installation views from Abdullah Al-Othman’s recent exhibitions, where neon, light, and language converge to reframe Saudi urban identity.
Alongside his exhibitions and publications, Abdullah Al-Othman holds a full-time position at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture, where he has served since 2019. Based in Riyadh, his role connects artistic practice with institutional vision, contributing to national cultural development while continuing to exhibit and publish internationally.
At the core of Abdullah's work is a desire to preserve and reinterpret. He treats urban spaces like living archives. Layers of forgotten signage, architectural choices, and language systems that hold more than practical meaning. They hold emotion, transition, contradiction.
He doesn’t present answers. He opens a loop. His work gives viewers a frame, then lets them ask the questions: What are we really looking at? What shapes our memory of a place?
Architectural installations by Abdullah Al-Othman that explore material, transformation, and memory.
Today, Abdullah Al-Othman’s name is synonymous with a certain kind of contemporary Saudi artistry: conceptual, research-driven, and emotionally resonant. He continues to influence how Saudi culture is perceived. Not by making grand statements, but by paying close attention to the details most people overlook.
His Instagram (@abdullalothman) is a window into this world: part studio journal, part cultural logbook. His website documents past works, upcoming shows, and the evolving thread of a practice built on reflection.