Maitha Abdalla

B.1989

Emirati multi-disciplinary artist, Maitha Abdalla’s, practice combines film, photography, sculpture, painting, drawing and performance.

Abdalla harnesses the performative and constructed character of the theatre to tackle themes that range from folklore and mythology to gender, social conditioning and psychology. For the artist, the theatre is a space where she might confront and destabilize that which she has encountered in her social world, her imaginations, memories and fantasies at an objective distance. The artist’s fantastical scenes shift between abstraction and representation and are charged with drama and melancholy. Abdalla’s art forms an ongoing investigation into the self. She constructs characters that embody a distinct vector of her persona often constrained within tight domestic spaces that expose their vulnerability.

For Abdalla, her process is a continuation of the performance. She employs a bodily approach to painting, often applying dense layers of oil and acrylic paint with her fingertips and tracing around her own figure with gestural smears of charcoal.

EDUCATION
2015, Zayed University, Bachelor of Visual Arts, Abu Dhabi, UAE

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022, INT. The Body - Sunrise, Cromwell Place, London
2021, Scars by Daylight, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2019, Hollowed, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023, Evaporating Suns, KBH. G Foundation, Basel, Switzerland

2022, Beyond Emerging Artists, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, Italy

2021, Scars by Daylight, exhibited as part of Beyond: Emerging Artists with Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Cromwell Place, London,UK

2020, Boudoir, Video performance, group exhibition, Abu Dhabi Art, UAE

2020, Boudoir, Video performance, group exhibition, PIworks Gallery, London, England

2019, Cuadro Gallery group exhibition Dubai International Financial district, Dubai, UAE

2019, Co-Curated Bait Juma Group Exhibition, BAIT15 Abu Dhabi, UAE

2019, BAIT15 Art Dubai UAE NOW, Dubai, UAE