This stunning book presents one of Saudi Arabia’s most talked-about contemporary artists, Abdulnasser Gharem (b. 1973), who is also a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi Arabian army. Gharem is widely regarded as a pioneer in the Middle East for his firebrand intellectual courage and innovative use of materials, including rubber stamps, a collapsed bridge, and an invasive tree. His story takes readers to the very heart of what it is to stand against the tide, to innovate, and to do so fearlessly, and it reveals precisely what happens when a trickster positions himself both at the center of society and at its margins. If there is just one thing to say about a book on Abdulnasser Gharem, whose works are in the collections of LACMA and the V&A, it is that it is not destined to sit on a coffee table.
