Bio
Born in 1945 – Amman, Jordan.
Lives and works between Beirut and Amman
Mona Saudi was born in Amman, Jordan in 1945. She studied sculpture at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. She lives and works in Beirut and Amman.
Saudi sculpts mainly in stone. Her forms are full of vitality, beauty and a clear sense of equilibrium. Saudi created her first sculpture in stone in 1965, named Mother/Earth. She frequently returns to ideas of fertility and growth. Always starting with basic shapes: the square, circle, cylinder, rectangle, she goes on to give them movement, a life of their own by either repeating their forms, varying their depths or heights, or cutting them across one another to create new, graceful compositions. She describes herself as a stone lover, respecting and manipulating the primary material of the earth to create her powerful and timeless works. Saudi revels in finding different forms of natural stone from the Middle East, using white marble from Carrara, pink limestone and green marble from Jordan, or black diorite from Syria, Mona creates modern, abstract forms expressing themes of life force and creation.
A monumental sculpture by Mona Saudi stands outside the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the only work permitted to grace the surrounding precinct by its architect Jean Nouvel.
Education
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France.
Selected Solo / Two-Person Exhibitions
2018 Retrospective Exhibition, Sharjah Art Museum, UAE.
2017 Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon.
2015 Poetry in Stone, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAE.
2013 Joint exhibition with daughter Dia Batal, Jacaranda Images Gallery, Amman, Jordan.
2012 Artcircle Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon.
2011 Saint John Perse Foundation, Aix-en-Provence, France.
2011 Europia Gallery, Paris, France.
2010 Jacaranda Images Gallery, Amman, Jordan.
2010 The Mosaic Rooms, AM Qattan Foundation, London, UK.
2004 Quartier des Arts, Beirut, Lebanon.
1999 Al‐Oudaya Museum, Rabat, Morocco.
1995 Retrospective, Darat Al-Funun, Amman, Jordan.
1992 Galerie 50 x 70, Beirut, Lebanon.
1985 Al-Salmiyah Gallery, Kuwait.
1984 Alif Gallery, Washington D.C., WA, USA.
1983 Alia Gallery, Amman, Jordan.
1982 Galerie Epreuve d’Artiste, Beirut, Lebanon.
1981 Galerie Elissar, Beirut, Lebanon.
1975 Galerie Contemporaine, Beirut, Lebanon.
1973 Galerie One, Beirut, Lebanon.
1971 Galerie Vercamer, Paris, France.
1963 Café de la Presse, Beirut, Lebanon.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018 Abu Dhabi Art, with Lawrie Shabibi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
2016 Abu Dhabi Art, with Lawrie Shabibi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
2015 Art Dubai Contemporary, with Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAE.
2014 Abu Dhabi Art, with Lawrie Shabibi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
2012 Le Corps Découvert, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France.
2003 International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt.
2001 Les Ateliers Arabes, UNESCO, Beirut, Lebanon.
1997 Voyage en Jordanie, Hotel de Ville, Paris, France.
1996 Rhythm and Form, Visual Reflections on Poetry, USA.
1994 Forces of Change, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., WA, USA.
1993 – 2011 Salon d’Automne, Sursok Museum, Beirut, Lebanon.
1987 Arab Contemporary Artists, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France.
1981 Arab Artists, Kunst Hus, Oslo, Norway.
1979 Palestinian Art, Oriental Museum, Moscow, Russia.
1978 International Art Exhibition for Palestine, Beirut, Lebanon.
1978 Colamarini and his Students, Musee Rodin, Paris, France.
1972 – 1973 Salon de Mai, Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, France.
Public and Private Collections
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE.
The British Museum, London, UK.
Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE.
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France.
National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., WA, USA.
Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyya, Kuwait Museum of Modern Art, Kuwait.
National Gallery of the Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan.
The Khaled Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan.
Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon.
Assila Museum, Morocco.
French Embassy, Amman, Jordan.
Arab Bank Headquarters, Amman, Jordan.
Cairo Bank Headquarters, Amman, Jordan.
Jabal Amman, Public Square, Amman, Jordan.
University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
Al Wafa Bank, Casablanca, Morocco.
International Sculpture Park, Rashana, Lebanon.
Al Hariri Art Collection, Beirut, Lebanon.
Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt.
Publications
2012 Hommage a Mahmoud Darwish.
2011 Hommage a Saint John Perse, drawings for ‘Chant pour an Equinoxe’.
2011 Petra Tablets, drawings for a poem by Adonis, Arabic & English.
2006 Forty Years in Sculpture, monograph showing works created between 1965 and 2005, Arabic, English and French.
1995 Le Bourgeonnement du Désert, sculptures and poem by Michel Butor.
1992 An Ocean of Dreams, poetry and drawings.
1972 First Vision, poetry and drawings.
1970 In Time of War: Children Testify.