Manal Al Dowayan

In 2024, Manal AlDowayan represented Saudi Arabia at the 60th Venice Biennale.

Al Dowayan was born in 1973 in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. She attended university, graduating with a Masters in Systems Analysis and Design. She began her career working for an oil company before transitioning full-time to an artistic practice which primarily examines personal and political issues related to women's rights in the context of ultra-conservative Saudi Arabian laws that include banning women from travelling, driving, or speaking a woman's name in public. Manal Al Dowayan finished her Masters in Contemporary Art Practice in the Public Sphere at the Royal College of Art in London in 2018.

• Illustration — Manal Al Dowayan with the Soft Power show behind In 2012 Al Dowayan's installation work was featured in the Edge of Arabia show We Need to Talk in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The show highlighted the need for progressive reform in Saudi Arabia as perceived by the artists. At the time it was the largest and most radical exhibit of contemporary Saudi artists, all of whom ran the risk of political backlash for their dissident artistic expressions. Al Dowayan's work Esmi My Name featured larger than life wooden worry beads with the names of women painted on them, hung from wool rope woven by Bedouin women. Saudi Arabians believe to utter a woman's name in public is a shameful or embarrassing taboo, casting Saudi women into obscurity and removing their unique identity, which according to Al Dowayan "is deeply linked to several elements of an individual's personality and one's name is integral among these elements thus by making women's names public. Al Dowayan's work seeks to question and change women's roles and treatment in Saudi society. Among Al Dowayan's most well-known work are the multimedia installation "Shifting Sands:A Battle Song", the permanent public art installation "Now You See Me Now You Don't" and Suspended Together (2011), a series consisting of 200 white fiberglass doves suspended from the ceiling. Each dove, a traditional symbol of freedom, has reproduced on it a permission-to-travel document that all Saudi women must have in order to travel. The certificate must be issued and signed by their appointed male guardian, be it their father, brother, or husband. The certificates Al Dowayan chose to reproduce were sent to her from a variety of Saudi women. The certificates range from six months to sixty years old, documenting a history of women's restricted rights. Al Dowayan describes the piece: "In this installation of doves, I explore the concept of suspended movement. Many leading women from Saudi, wonderful scientists, educators, engineers, artists and leaders, have donated their papers to be included in this artwork. These women are breaking new ground and achieving for their society, but when it comes to travel they are still treated 'like a flock of suspended doves.'" Al Dowayan's work O'Sister (2021) was created in celebration of women in Saudi Arabia gaining full rights as citizens in 2017. The work uses text from books published in the 1990s by the Saudi religious establishment which told women how to behave in public. Al Dowayan's work has been exhibited at the British Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), New York’s Guggenheim Museum, and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar among others.