Render for Wadi AlFann, Courtesy of James Turrell Studio and Royal Commission for AlUla

ALULA, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wadi AlFann presents James Turrell, an exhibition surveying the work of pioneering Light and Space artist James Turrell. The exhibition will run from 16 January until 19 April 2025 and is presented by Wadi AlFann as part of the AlUla Arts Festival 2025, taking place in the ancient oasis of AlUla in north west Saudi Arabia.

The exhibition is curated by Guest Curator Michael Govan, CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and curator of James Turrell’s major retrospective at LACMA in 2013-14. It connects Turrell’s legacy with his ambitious Wadi AlFann commission, offering visitors an unparalleled experience of Light and Space. On view are light art installations as well as renders, plans and a constellation map relating to his upcoming commission in AlUla.

As part of the exhibition, visitors can view plans for Turrell’s upcoming Wadi AlFann commission where he is creating a monumental sequence of chambers within the canyon floor which will generate a sensorial experience of space, colour, and perception. Experiencing the ‘thingness of light’ as well as elements of sky and terrain, the viewer will explore these spaces via a series of tunnels and stairs. The large-scale commission will examine the very nature of seeing and offer a profound opportunity to experience art in dialogue with nature.

The exhibition also includes four works from the Royal Commission for AlUla and private collections, which showcase the artist’s mastery of light as a medium. Turrell’s work immerses us in what he describes as ‘the wordless thought that comes from looking at a fire’, each work is a meditation on the nature of perception. This exhibition offers the rare opportunity to see one of the artist’s earliest works and one of his most recent pieces.

Highlights from the Royal Commission for AlUla’s contemporary art collection include Cross Corner projection work Alta (1968), which transforms the dim corner of a room into a luminous pyramid, the pink-violet light creates planes that appear to be solid. The exhibition also includes Jubilee, Circular Glass (2021), a circular glass screen where colours mutate hypnotically. However much the viewer stares, it is hard to recognise the colours changing, yet the work takes us imperceptibly from a dazzling crimson to an icy blue. Relating to the oculus Turrell will install in Wadi AlFann, AlUla, the disc of light seems a palpable intervention from another reality.      

Lastly, a work from his Magnatron series, evokes the artist’s childhood memories of glimpsing the flickering light of televisions through the windows of neighbouring houses, and Hologram series which reveals a luminous geometric shape floating in space, will also be featured.

Wadi AlFann, meaning ‘Valley of the Arts’, will be a global cultural destination for contemporary art, where era-defining works by artists from around the world will be permanently sited in the monumental landscape of AlUla, the extraordinary desert region of north-west Saudi Arabia. Turrell is one of the first five artists, alongside Manal AlDowayan, Agnes Denes, Michael Heizer, and Ahmed Mater. The exhibition is part of the Wadi AlFann pre-opening programme which provides context and understanding to the commissioned artists’ work and practices, offering a chance to hear from the artists behind Wadi AlFann’s monumental Land Art commissions.

This exhibition is located in two spaces in AlJadidah Arts District, the historic old town of AlUla and is part of the AlUla Arts Festival, an annual festival which forms a flagship event as part of the AlUla Moments events calendar in AlUla. The festival runs from 16 January to 22 February 2025. The festival offers visitors an immersive journey through art, design, artist residencies and workshops set against the backdrop of the ancient city.

James Turrell comments

I first visited the Wadi AlFann site in 2020. I was surprised that the sandstone formations looked very similar to those in Arizona. I was very familiar with that kind of landscape and strangely felt at home with doing work there. The work envisioned for Wadi AlFann will have two large Skyspaces and two small Skyspaces, that each address different aspects of sky. All of my Skyspaces engage the natural light of the area. The light quality in AlUla is of dry desert air with little moisture, which yields a light in the sky that is crisp and clear.

Nora Aldabal, Director of Arts and Creative Industries, Royal Commission for AlUla

As we continue to celebrate the journey toward the opening of Wadi AlFann, we are delighted to present James Turrell’s extraordinary work as part of the AlUla Arts Festival 2025. We are honoured to work with Michael Govan as Guest Curator for this introduction of the artist’s astonishing oeuvre to the Kingdom. This exhibition not only introduces our audiences to the pioneering Light and Space movement but also offers a unique preview of the monumental large-scale Land Art commission Turrell is creating for Wadi AlFann. Through projects like this, we shine a global spotlight on AlUla’s breathtaking landscape and rich cultural heritage which is inspiring profound contemporary art in dialogue with the natural world.

Michael Govan, CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

For decades, James Turrell has been considering the experience of light in the context of human perception. His revolutionary use of light in art is an unforgettable experience. LACMA, the largest art museum in the western United States, presented a defining retrospective of James Turrell in 2013-2014 and is delighted to collaborate with Wadi AlFann to bring Turrell’s masterworks to the AIUIa Arts Festival 2025.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Pelham Communications

Saskia Deliss saskia@pelhamcommunications.com

Rosie Lowit rosie@pelhamcommunications.com  

Please find the press kit here.

Royal Commission for AlUla

media@rcu.gov.sa

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Wadi AlFann:

Wadi AlFann, meaning ‘Valley of the Arts’, will be a global cultural destination for contemporary art, where era-defining works by artists from around the world will be permanently sited in the monumental landscape of AlUla, the extraordinary desert region of north-west Saudi Arabia.

New, large-scale, site-specific commissions by Manal AlDowayan (b. 1973, Saudi Arabia), Agnes Denes (b. 1931, Hungary), Michael Heizer (b. 1944, USA), Ahmed Mater (b. 1979, Saudi Arabia) and James Turrell (b. 1943, USA) will be the first five works to be conceived for Wadi AlFann, a spectacular valley spanning approximately 65 square kilometres. These initial five works will mark the start of a continued programme of commissions, with more artists and activities to be announced.

Wadi AlFann will offer a profound opportunity to experience art in dialogue with nature. Learning from the desert, the artists are responding to the landscape of AlUla, taking inspiration from its dramatic topography, undulating vistas, remarkable geological structures and complex natural ecosystem. The works will be created with respect for the landscape, set against the stunning sandstone cliffs and canyons of the vast terrain.

Wadi AlFann will provide unparalleled opportunities for local communities to experience art as a source of education and enrichment. Through job creation, skills development and engagement with local creatives, Wadi AlFann will strengthen AlUla’s cultural economy, inspiring a new generation of arts professionals and enhancing quality of life for its residents.

This epic new destination will also welcome art lovers, adventurers, and globetrotters from across the world on a transformative cultural journey to a unique place of creative and geographical wonder, continuing the region’s history as a place of cross-cultural exchange.

A full press release about Wadi AlFann can be found here.

The exhibition is part of the Wadi AlFann pre-opening programme which provides context and understanding to the commissioned artists’ work and practices, offering a chance to hear from the artists behind Wadi AlFann’s monumental Land Art commissions.

About Arts AlUla:

The creation of Arts AlUla within The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) is a commitment to crafting the next chapters in a millennia of artistic creation – celebrating cultural inheritance, presenting the art of our time, and shaping a future propelled by creativity. AlUla has long been a consistent and ever-evolving hub of cultural transfer. It has been a place of passage, a crossroads for trade, and home to successive civilizations who carved, sculpted and inscribed their lives into the landscape. The work of Arts AlUla seeks to preserve this legacy: fuse the old with the new; the local with the international, keeping the arts central to the spirit of AlUla as a place of extraordinary natural and human heritage.

Arts AlUla will bring to fruition a series of new initiatives, projects and exhibitions. The artwork curation will speak to RCU’s vision for the continued development of AlUla’s contemporary art scenes: positioning the arts as a key contributor to AlUla’s character, the quality of life for its local community and the region’s economic future.

Arts AlUla focuses on transferring the talents of the Saudi nation and the local AlUla community into meaningful long-standing social and economic opportunities. This is a key part of the Journey through Time masterplan bringing together the 15 different landmark destinations for culture, heritage and creativity across AlUla.

James Turrell:

American artist James Turrell has been a leading figure of the Light and Space movement of the 1960s for over half a century as he dedicated his practice to perceptual art, investigating the materiality of light and the limits of human perception. Over his fifty-year career, his works have ranged from transforming enclosed spaces into boundless horizons of colour, to building entire pavilions that capture the luminescence of the cosmos. His most legendary work is the epic Roden Crater, set in a volcanic cone in the Arizona desert.

Turrell received his BA in mathematics and perceptual psychology at Pomona College, California, in 1965, then entered graduate school at University of California, Irvine in 1965-1966 and later enrolled in the Studio Art program at Claremont Graduate University, California, earning his MA in 1973. He has shown worldwide and his work features in public collections such as MOCA Kanazawa, Japan; Barcelona Arts Bibliotech; Ekeberparken Oslo; Houghton Hall, UK; Lenbachhaus Museum, Munich, Germany; MoCA Los Angeles, USA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK.

Michael Govan:

Michael Govan is the CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director at LACMA. Since coming to LACMA in 2006, he has overseen the transformation of the 20-acre campus with buildings by Renzo Piano and monumental artworks by Ai Weiwei, Chris Burden, Michael Heizer, Robert Irwin, Barbara Kruger, Yoshitomo Nara, and others. At LACMA, Govan has pursued his vision of contemporary artists and architects interacting with the museum’s historical collections, as evidenced by exhibition and gallery designs as well as programming in collaboration with artists and architects. Currently, the museum is in the process of building a new, state-of-the-art permanent collection building designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Peter Zumthor. Under his leadership, LACMA has acquired nearly 44,000 works, building and expanding its collection of more than 150,000 works of art from Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Pacific. 

Known as well for his curatorial work, Govan has co-curated a series of notable LACMA exhibitions, including Ed Ruscha: Now Then (2023–24); Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You (2022); Rauschenberg: The 1/4 Mile (2018); Picasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time (2016–17); James Turrell: A Retrospective (2013–14), The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA (2013); and Dan Flavin: A Retrospective (2007) that traveled to six venues in Europe and the United States.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5258c1fc-86d0-4eb6-9787-41ddacd6f28a