Alymamah Rashed Kuwait, b. 1994

B.1994

 

Visual artist Alymamah Rashed's surrealist paintings investigate the discourse of her own body as a Muslima Cyborg of the post-internet generation; fluctuating between the east and the west. 

 

Rashed's notion of the Muslima Cyborg unites the fleshed body, the thobe, and a combination of the two which comes to form a third space - the one that she emits onto her canvas. Rashed engages with the cyborg not as a mechanical object but in the sense of spiritual intelligence, as a motor, or a form of technology, as opposed to artificial intelligence or programming. Referencing late Algerian modernist pioneer Baya Mahieddine's idiosyncratic form of autobiographical portraiture, her art negotiates her female subjectivity, regional folklore and the every day banal objects that Rashed encounters as well as the rapid social shifts that she has witnessed such as the rapid industrialisation of the Gulf region. 

 

Rashed received her MFA in Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design in 2019 and her BFA in Fine Arts at The School of Visual Arts in 2016. She participated in various exhibitions in New York City including the Czech Center, Parsol Projects, and The New School.

 

She is a recipient of the Masters Scholarship and the Merit Scholarship program by the Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education. She was also a fellow at the Professional Development Initiative Program sponsored by the National U.S-Arab Chamber of Commerce, Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education, Embassy of Kuwait, and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. 

 

EDUCATION

2017-2019, Parsons School of Design, MFA Fine Arts

2012-2016, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

BFA Fine Arts (Painting)

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023, Earth Can Be As Dead As It Can Be Alive, Failaka, Kuwait (Hunna Art x Dar Fikr x Mathqaf)

2021, Alymamah Rashed Solo Exhibition, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE

2020, I Have Disappeared  Into You, Virtual Solo Exhibition Gallery BAWA, Kuwait

2019, Beneath Them Was Forever, Parsons MFA Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition Curated by Kathleen Forde

2018, Convergence, Arnold  and  Sheila  Aronson  Galleries, The New School, New York, NY

2018, European Literature Night, Czech Center New York

2018, How an Artwork Should Speak, 25 East Gallery, Parsons School of Design

2015, My Mind Made You Beautiful, Solo Exhibition at Parsol Projects, New York, NY

2014, Dig, Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY

2009-2012, Al Bayan Bilingual School annual art exhibition, Hawally, Kuwait

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024, Boundless/Binding at Subliminal Projects Curated by Emerge East in Los Angeles

2023,  Elles - هن ,Hunna, Paris, France

2023, I Won’t Break: A Reflection on Gender Violence, curated by Bebe Leone
Rome, Italy

2021, Group Exhibition, Hunna Art, Dubai, UAE

2019, Zinc-Finger Like Folds, Group Exhibition, Curated by Rae Lavande Pellerin and Paloma Rosenzweig Castillo New York, NY

2015, Abstract, Group Exhibition at Parsol Projects, New York, NY

 

ART FAIRS

2024, Art Paris 

2024, Artsy Foundations Fair
2024, Art Dubai, UAE
2023. Abu Dhabi Art, UAE
2023, Mena Art Fair, Belgium

HONOURS AND AWARDS

2017-2019, Scholarship, Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education

2016-2017, Professional Development Initiative Program Fellow, sponsored by:

National U.S - Arab Chamber of Commerce

Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education Embassy of the State of Kuwait in Washington

Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences

2012-2016, Certificate of Academic Merit, Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education

2012-2016, School of Visual Arts Deans List

2012-2016, Merit Scholarship, Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS


2023, 5 Middle Eastern Artists You Need To Know, 
AD Middle East
2023, CREATIVE TALKS: THE ESSENCE OF SOUL AND SPIRIT WITH ALYMAMAH RASHED, Khamsa
2023, Alymamah Rashed – Tales of the Body, Yung
2023, IN THE STUDIO | ALYMAMAH RASHED, Tappan Collective
2023, Creative Talks, Khaleejesque x Virgin Mobile
2023, Masafa Podcast
2020, 7 Days: Expanded Edition. Holly Crawford, AC Books, California, United States

2020, "The Metaphoric Phases of my Collective Body as a Muslima Cyborg" by Alymamah Rashed, Published by Saalt Press

2019, Curatorial Brief and Catalogue for Mohamed AL Hemd's "Halal Nights" Exhibition at CAP Gallery, Kuwait

2018, "Convergence" Catalogue curated by Utsa Hazarika

2017, Air Sheets Publication by Sorry Archive

2017, Designed and illustrated book cover for Bader Al Sanousi's Publication

2015, (My Mind Made You Beautiful), Kuwait

 

SELECTED PRESS

2021, Gallery Girl, Postcast: Gallery Girl Meets Alymamah Rashed

2021, Artsy, 10 Must-See Shows from Middle Eastern Galleries You Can View

2020, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, Visual Artist Alymamah Rashed Explores The 'Third Body'

2019, Tsquare Magazine Issue #23

2019, The Beyond Mag Issue 2

2018, Sumou Magazine Issue 00 "All The Things We Don't Feel"