Ahmed Mater

Ahmed Mater was born in, Saudi Arabia in 1979 and he studied at the King Khalid university and he received a MBBS from the Abha college of medicine in 2005. He lives and works in Abha, where he still combines his career as an artist with that of a medical doctor at the local hospital. Ahmed Mater may best be described as an illuminator of both form and ideas and a man of energy and few habits. He is from the traditional village of Rujal Al-Ma’a in the mountainous and green area of Aseer and was raised in its capital Abha, where he still combines his career as an artist with that of a medical doctor at the local hospital. Ahmed Mater work has been exhibited internationally and is in Museum and numerous public collections. He has participated at the Venice Biennale of 2009 in the Platform of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (ADACH) and in the Exhibition Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia. parallel to the Biennale ; at the Art Dubai Fair (2009) ; at the Cairo Biennale 11,The Other, Cairo, Egypt (2008) ; at the exhibition Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia, a at the Brunei Gallery of the University of London (November 2008 London) ; at the Sharjah Biennial 8, Art, Ecology & the Politics of Change, (2007, Sharjah UAE) ; at the exhibition Word into Art, Artists of the Modern Middle East, The British Museum, UK

He is founder and one of Saudi Arabia’s most celebrated young artists and most prominent member of the group known as "Edge OF Arabia Artist" (EOA). In 2008 Ahmed co-curates Edge of Arabia in the Palazzo Polignac on the Grand Canal, where he exhibits Magnetism for the first time. He has his first solo show, Illumination, at Art Space Gallery in Dubai, and is voted number 62 in the ‘Power 100’ ranking of the world’s most influential Arabs by Arabian Business magazine. in 2010 In January Ahmed gives a keynote lecture about his life and work at the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, as part of Catherine David’s Gulf Artists Program . He spends much of the first part of the year working with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the militarized border between Yemen and Saudi, treating injured soldiers from both sides of the conflict. In June he presents Evolution of Man and new works, Antenna and CCTV at Grey Borders/Grey Frontiers, the new Edge of Arabia showin Berlin,. Ahmed speaks in conversation with Greenbox Museum Founder Aarnout Helb at a symposium on Saudi Artat the Berlin Akademie der Künste, and features on the cover of several German newspapers holding his hand to his head like a gun in front of Evolutio of Man. In October he presents his first major solo show and launches this book at the Vinyl Factory Gallery in London’s Soho.Mater’s artwork is included in the permanent collections of the British Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art .
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