Abdulnasser Gharem- Art of Survival

To understand any society look first to the outsiders...This monograph will tell the story of one of Saudi Arabia's most talked about contemporary artists. Abdulnasser Gharem stands apart in so many ways. He is a soldier and an artist. He is widely regarded as a pioneer in the region for his firebrand intellectual courage and innovative use of materials. Even though his work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, he does not produce art for the sake of basking in its reflected glory but the possibility of bringing about change - actual cultural change. But what really sets him apart is his story. The tale of the last eight years in Gharem's life is not the familiar plod of evolving artistic practice, safe within the hermetic confines of a studio. It couldn't be more different. The story of this man takes us to the very heart of what it is to stand against the tide, to innovate, to do so fearlessly, and precisely what happens when a trickster figure positions himself both at the heart of society and at the margins. If there is just one thing we can say about a book on Abdulnasser Gharem, it is that this is not destined to sit on a coffee-table. The publication of this book coincides with his first major exhibition outside the Middle East in London in October 2011 during the Frieze Art Fair.