Abdulnasser Gharem (Saudi Arabian, b.1973) is an innovative, pioneering artist whose work challenges the artistic conventions in Saudi Arabia. Gharem, who is also a lieutenant-colonel in the Saudi army, graduated from the King Abdulaziz Academy in 1992 before attending The Leader Institute in Riyadh. He studied at the influential Al-Meftaha Arts Village in Abha in 2003, which resulted in an influential group exhibition, Shattah.

In 2003, Gharem, along with fellow Al-Meftaha Arts Village graduates Ahmed Mater (Saudi Arabian, b.1979) and Stephen Stapleton, co-founded Edge of Arabia, an initiative aimed at expanding knowledge of and support for contemporary Middle Eastern art and culture to a global audience. Edge of Arabia has sponsored numerous exhibitions, education programs, and publications, and opened a permanent exhibition space in Battersea, London in early 2013.

Gharem made history when his work Messenger/Messenger (2010), a large wood and copper installation symbolizing the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, sold for over US$800,000 at Christie’s Dubai in 2011. This record auction price, over eight times the high estimate, was the highest paid price at auction for work by a living Arab artist. Gharem generously donated the proceeds of this sale to foster art education in Saudi Arabia.

Gharem has exhibited in Europe, the Gulf Coast, and in the United States, including at the Victoria and Albert and British Museums, Martin Gropius-Bau, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Palazzo Grassi (Francois Pinault Foundation), and at the Venice, Sharjah, and Berlin Biennales. His first monograph Abdulnasser Gharem: Art of Survival was published in October 2011. Gharem currently lives and works in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.