Dana Awartani – ArtReview Podcast

26 February 2026

‘How can I decolonise my own education and everything I learned in artmaking? How can I erase this Western superiority over Eastern culture and develop my own language based on my traditions and culture?’’

In the inaugural episode of the ArtReview Podcast, artist Dana Awartani speaks to ArtReview editor-in-chief Mark Rappolt about craft, cultural destruction in the Middle East and representing Saudi Arabia at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The ArtReview Podcast is a platform where artists, thinkers and cultural figures are invited to choose three works as lenses through which to examine their practice and explore critical issues impacting the contemporary art world.

Dana Awartani is a Saudi-Palestinian artist living between New York and Jeddah whose practice addresses themes of colonial violence, the preservation of craft and the destruction of cultural heritage. She works in mediums including painting, installation, video and mosaic, and is known for incorporating traditional Islamic arts and crafts techniques into her practice. Her exhibition Standing by the Ruins recently showed at Towner gallery in Eastbourne, UK, following a run at the Arnolfini in Bristol. Come May, Awartani will represent Saudi Arabia at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Listen in full here.

Image: Photography by Anastasia Tikhonova, 2025. Image courtesy of the Ministry of Culture