Diriyah Art Futures (DAF) is bringing together art and technology in CONTINUUM ’26, its latest exhibition showcasing artworks by the center’s second cohort of emerging artists and the program’s mentors.
Standing out as the first center for New Media Arts in the Middle East and North Africa, DAF continues to provide a vital platform for artists exploring new forms of creative artistic expression.
What Happens When Art Meets Artificial Intelligence?
From immersive installations and moving images to virtual and mixed reality experiences, CONTINUUM ’26 invites visitors to discover a diverse landscape of new media, including light, sound, and AI-generated projects. Together, the works further expand the exhibition’s technological and creative scope.
Developed over the course of DAF’s year-long Emerging New Media Artists Program, the works in CONTINUUM ’26 bring together 16 emerging artists and two mentors.
Curated by Irini Papadimitriou and Assistant Curator Bushra Alghamdi, the exhibition shines a spotlight on an exceptional array of questions around memory, identity, place, belonging, repetition, and interspecies relationships.
Under the mentorship of artists Louis-Philippe Demers and Rick Treweek, the artists focus on the spaces where opposites meet, exploring the boundaries between reality and artificiality, human intelligence and AI, and the organic and the synthetic.
Building Tomorrow’s Cultural Voices
Speaking at the exhibition launch, Museums Commission CEO Eng. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Hammad signaled the program’s long-term significance, labeling the Emerging New Media Artists Program as “the long-term, deliberate investment needed to shape the future of the Kingdom’s museum sector.”
He further highlighted the pivotal role of sustained support in helping emerging artists elevate their craft, underscoring that “by providing our artists with world-class facilities, mentorship, and the dedicated time to refine their craft, we are fueling innovation and sparking vital cultural conversations.” He added that CONTINUUM 26 brings “a full year of that dedication into the public eye.”
What Lies Behind the Ideas Shaping CONTINUUM ’26?
Remarkably, the special emphasis on mentorship and artistic development was vividly reflected in the exhibition’s opening program, which provided the artists with an exclusive opportunity to share the ideas shaping their work.
Noel Apitta, Njood Albwardi, Badriya Alsalem, and Harpreet Sareen joined Bushra Alghamdi for a panel conversation exploring the concepts and creative processes behind their contributions to CONTINUUM ’26.
Their conversation also delved into the exhibition’s central themes, from the growing power of artificial intelligence to questions of memory, time, and embodied perception.
In doing so, the discussions offered a glimpse into how each artist navigated the creative process and translated the questions that ultimately informed their work.
Step Inside the Creative Process
Running through November 7 at Diriyah Art Futures, CONTINUUM ’26 invites visitors to engage with its exploration of art and technology.
Interestingly, the exhibition is accompanied by a public program of workshops, talks, and other activities spanning AI, VR, digital photography, and more.
Adding a more personal dimension to the exhibition, Meet the Artists stands out as an enticing invitation to explore CONTINUUM ’26 through the perspectives of its creators.
During the opening weekend, artists will share insights into the ideas, questions, and processes that informed their works.
Creating Space for the Artists of Tomorrow
The exhibition represents an integral part of DAF’s broader push to empower new voices in New Media Art.
As the second installment in its exhibition series, CONTINUUM ’26 brings regional and international perspectives into focus, while the Emerging New Media Artists Program, developed in collaboration with Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains in France, supports emerging artists with access to professional equipment, a production budget, and multidisciplinary learning opportunities.
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