Home|Artists|Muhannad Shono
Muhannad Shono
Saudi Arabia Noor Riyadh

Muhannad Shono

Muhannad Shono is a self-taught artist based in Riyadh, where he was born in 1977. His characteristic visual vocabulary appears in works ranging from intimate drawings to large-scale sculptures and robotic technologically-driven installations. His projects are catalyzed and structured by narrative, creating and contesting collective and historical realities that often find their origins in his personal memories. 

Many of his works circle around the idea of the ‘line’, which Shono develops both as a horizontality present in his major installations and as a conceptual framework in which the idea of development – whether of a nation’s modernization or an artist’s own practice – is a central metaphor. The line also refers back to his ongoing, though lesser exhibited, practice in drawing and graphic storytelling. 

The representative for Saudi Arabia at the 2022 Venice Biennale, Shono’s all-black aesthetic has become a recognizable emblem of the new generation of Saudi artists, with other major commissions for the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Riyadh (2021), Desert X Al Ula (2020), I Love You Urgently, and 21,39, Jeddah Arts (2019).


RELATED
ARTWORKS
& EVENTS
WP_Query Object
(
    [query] => Array
        (
            [post_type] => cpt_artworks
            [post_status] => publish
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => 623
                            [compare] => LIKE
                        )

                )

        )

    [query_vars] => Array
        (
            [post_type] => cpt_artworks
            [post_status] => publish
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => 623
                            [compare] => LIKE
                        )

                )

            [error] => 
            [m] => 
            [p] => 0
            [post_parent] => 
            [subpost] => 
            [subpost_id] => 
            [attachment] => 
            [attachment_id] => 0
            [name] => 
            [pagename] => 
            [page_id] => 0
            [second] => 
            [minute] => 
            [hour] => 
            [day] => 0
            [monthnum] => 0
            [year] => 0
            [w] => 0
            [category_name] => 
            [tag] => 
            [cat] => 
            [tag_id] => 
            [author] => 
            [author_name] => 
            [feed] => 
            [tb] => 
            [paged] => 0
            [meta_key] => 
            [meta_value] => 
            [preview] => 
            [s] => 
            [sentence] => 
            [title] => 
            [fields] => 
            [menu_order] => 
            [embed] => 
            [category__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [category__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [category__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_name__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_parent__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_parent__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [author__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [author__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [ignore_sticky_posts] => 
            [suppress_filters] => 
            [cache_results] => 1
            [update_post_term_cache] => 1
            [update_menu_item_cache] => 
            [lazy_load_term_meta] => 1
            [update_post_meta_cache] => 1
            [posts_per_page] => 11
            [nopaging] => 
            [comments_per_page] => 50
            [no_found_rows] => 
            [order] => DESC
        )

    [tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                )

            [relation] => AND
            [table_aliases:protected] => Array
                (
                )

            [queried_terms] => Array
                (
                )

            [primary_table] => wp_posts
            [primary_id_column] => ID
        )

    [meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => 623
                            [compare] => LIKE
                        )

                    [relation] => OR
                )

            [relation] => AND
            [meta_table] => wp_postmeta
            [meta_id_column] => post_id
            [primary_table] => wp_posts
            [primary_id_column] => ID
            [table_aliases:protected] => Array
                (
                    [0] => wp_postmeta
                )

            [clauses:protected] => Array
                (
                    [wp_postmeta] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => 623
                            [compare] => LIKE
                            [compare_key] => =
                            [alias] => wp_postmeta
                            [cast] => CHAR
                        )

                )

            [has_or_relation:protected] => 
        )

    [date_query] => 
    [request] => 
					SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS  wp_posts.ID
					FROM wp_posts  INNER JOIN wp_postmeta ON ( wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id ) JOIN wp_icl_translations wpml_translations
							ON wp_posts.ID = wpml_translations.element_id
								AND wpml_translations.element_type = CONCAT('post_', wp_posts.post_type) 
					WHERE 1=1  AND ( 
  ( wp_postmeta.meta_key = 'artworks_artist' AND wp_postmeta.meta_value LIKE '{57ec0cafba9d2567c52498a3eb0965fdadda7de95c5d7dc4c52f37717c9d1128}623{57ec0cafba9d2567c52498a3eb0965fdadda7de95c5d7dc4c52f37717c9d1128}' )
) AND wp_posts.post_type = 'cpt_artworks' AND ((wp_posts.post_status = 'publish')) AND ( ( ( wpml_translations.language_code = 'en' OR (
					wpml_translations.language_code = 'en'
					AND wp_posts.post_type IN ( 'qrcode' )
					AND ( ( 
			( SELECT COUNT(element_id)
			  FROM wp_icl_translations
			  WHERE trid = wpml_translations.trid
			  AND language_code = 'en'
			) = 0
			 ) OR ( 
			( SELECT COUNT(element_id)
				FROM wp_icl_translations t2
				JOIN wp_posts p ON p.id = t2.element_id
				WHERE t2.trid = wpml_translations.trid
				AND t2.language_code = 'en'
                AND (
                    p.post_status = 'publish' OR p.post_status = 'private' OR 
                    ( p.post_type='attachment' AND p.post_status = 'inherit' )
                )
			) = 0 ) ) 
				) ) AND wp_posts.post_type  IN ('post','page','attachment','wp_block','wp_template','wp_template_part','wp_navigation','cpt_programs','cpt_artworks','cpt_artists','cpt_events','qrcode','cpt_trails','cpt_curators','cpt_podcast','opencall','surveys' )  ) OR wp_posts.post_type  NOT  IN ('post','page','attachment','wp_block','wp_template','wp_template_part','wp_navigation','cpt_programs','cpt_artworks','cpt_artists','cpt_events','qrcode','cpt_trails','cpt_curators','cpt_podcast','opencall','surveys' )  )
					GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
					ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
					LIMIT 0, 11
				
    [posts] => Array
        (
            [0] => WP_Post Object
                (
                    [ID] => 2515
                    [post_author] => 7
                    [post_date] => 2022-11-01 10:20:10
                    [post_date_gmt] => 2022-11-01 07:20:10
                    [post_content] => 
                    [post_title] => I see you brightest in the dark
                    [post_excerpt] => 
                    [post_status] => publish
                    [comment_status] => closed
                    [ping_status] => closed
                    [post_password] => 
                    [post_name] => i-see-you-brightest-in-the-dark-2022
                    [to_ping] => 
                    [pinged] => 
                    [post_modified] => 2023-09-18 13:58:50
                    [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-09-18 10:58:50
                    [post_content_filtered] => 
                    [post_parent] => 0
                    [guid] => https://riyadhart.sa/?post_type=cpt_artworks&p=2515
                    [menu_order] => 0
                    [post_type] => cpt_artworks
                    [post_mime_type] => 
                    [comment_count] => 0
                    [filter] => raw
                )

            [1] => WP_Post Object
                (
                    [ID] => 1646
                    [post_author] => 14
                    [post_date] => 2022-09-29 21:15:02
                    [post_date_gmt] => 2022-09-29 18:15:02
                    [post_content] => 
                    [post_title] => The Mind Ship Exodus
                    [post_excerpt] => 
                    [post_status] => publish
                    [comment_status] => closed
                    [ping_status] => closed
                    [post_password] => 
                    [post_name] => the-mind-ship-exodus-2021
                    [to_ping] => 
                    [pinged] => 
                    [post_modified] => 2023-09-19 13:24:45
                    [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-09-19 10:24:45
                    [post_content_filtered] => 
                    [post_parent] => 0
                    [guid] => https://demo.wabi.it/riyadhart/?post_type=cpt_artworks&p=1646
                    [menu_order] => 0
                    [post_type] => cpt_artworks
                    [post_mime_type] => 
                    [comment_count] => 0
                    [filter] => raw
                )

        )

    [post_count] => 2
    [current_post] => -1
    [in_the_loop] => 
    [post] => WP_Post Object
        (
            [ID] => 2515
            [post_author] => 7
            [post_date] => 2022-11-01 10:20:10
            [post_date_gmt] => 2022-11-01 07:20:10
            [post_content] => 
            [post_title] => I see you brightest in the dark
            [post_excerpt] => 
            [post_status] => publish
            [comment_status] => closed
            [ping_status] => closed
            [post_password] => 
            [post_name] => i-see-you-brightest-in-the-dark-2022
            [to_ping] => 
            [pinged] => 
            [post_modified] => 2023-09-18 13:58:50
            [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-09-18 10:58:50
            [post_content_filtered] => 
            [post_parent] => 0
            [guid] => https://riyadhart.sa/?post_type=cpt_artworks&p=2515
            [menu_order] => 0
            [post_type] => cpt_artworks
            [post_mime_type] => 
            [comment_count] => 0
            [filter] => raw
        )

    [comment_count] => 0
    [current_comment] => -1
    [found_posts] => 2
    [max_num_pages] => 1
    [max_num_comment_pages] => 0
    [is_single] => 
    [is_preview] => 
    [is_page] => 
    [is_archive] => 
    [is_date] => 
    [is_year] => 
    [is_month] => 
    [is_day] => 
    [is_time] => 
    [is_author] => 
    [is_category] => 
    [is_tag] => 
    [is_tax] => 
    [is_search] => 
    [is_feed] => 
    [is_comment_feed] => 
    [is_trackback] => 
    [is_home] => 1
    [is_privacy_policy] => 
    [is_404] => 
    [is_embed] => 
    [is_paged] => 
    [is_admin] => 
    [is_attachment] => 
    [is_singular] => 
    [is_robots] => 
    [is_favicon] => 
    [is_posts_page] => 
    [is_post_type_archive] => 
    [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => c58d75d3de75b185dff0c442ac994eba
    [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => 
    [thumbnails_cached] => 
    [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => 
    [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => 
    [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => query_vars_hash
            [1] => query_vars_changed
        )

    [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => init_query_flags
            [1] => parse_tax_query
        )

)

GET IN TOUCH