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
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, 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"