The festival includes a week of cultural events held in Jeddah organised by the Athr Gallery, Ayyam Gallery, Al-Madad Foundation, Dal Al-Hekma College and Edge of Arabia. Sotheby’s International Contemporary Art Specialist and Founder of Jeddah Art Week Lina Lazaar Jameel, says, “There has been a real hunger for a week of arts events in Saudi Arabia, a country which is brimming with culture and history, and therefore we are delighted to have been able to create and pioneer such a framework with ‘Jeddah Art Week’.” The highlight of the Sotheby's exhibition is a painting entitled Icons of the Nile by Egyptian artist Chant Avedissian, which creates a stencilled mosaic of Egyptian culture, conveying his admiration for grandiose Egyptian imagery and the relics of his country’s magnificent historical past. Other notable works include Mahmoud Said’s Le Porte a Marsa Matrouh, and an untitled painting by Iraqi-born artist Ahmed Alsoudani. The exhibition is at Al-Furusiya Marina & Yacht Club, Park Hyatt, in Jeddah, on 26 and 27 February. From Ahram Online