The Middle East has a rich and diverse contemporary art scene, with many talented artists contributing to the region’s cultural landscape. Here are 50 contemporary artists from the Middle East and North Africa:
1. Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabia, b. 1987) Known for her abstract sculptures that blend traditional Islamic geometries with contemporary practice. Example: Icosahedron within a Dodecahedron (2016), sold for $35,280 at Christie’s Online.
Where the Dwellers Lay, 2022, Sandstone and Oxidised Steel, 315 cm x 315 cm x 223 cm. Image courtesy of Lance Gerber and the Royal Commission for AlUla.
Dana Awartani (b. 1987) is a Saudi-Palestinian artist, living and working in Jeddah. Her oeuvre aspires for the revival of traditional geometry and historical modes of making through crafts and artisanal practices which are enacted in the contemporary. Traditionally trained at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, she received her Master’s after her BA and Foundation degrees at Central Saint Martins. She is currently furthering her practice and commitment to preservation of the Islamic illumination skills through the completion of an ‘Ijaza’ certificate, in order to be eligible to transmit these skills.
Standing by the Ruins of Aleppo, 2021, Clay Earth, 2277×1300 cm. Image courtesy of the Dariyah Biennale Foundation and Canvas.
Detail from Come, let me heal your wounds. Let me mend your broken bones, as we stand here mourning, 2020, Darning on medicinally dyed silk, 480 cm x 136 cm x 10 cm. Image courtesy of Thyssen-Bornemis
Her work has been part of numerous group shows at institutions around the world. She participated in the Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France (2022), the Diriyah Biennale, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2021), Rabat Biennale, Morocco (2019), Sesc_Videobrasil Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2019), the Jakarta Biennale, Indonesia (2017), the Marrakech Biennale, Morocco (2016), the Yinchuan Biennale, China (2016), and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India (2016). Her solo exhibitions include: The Silence Between Us, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE. (2018); Detroit Affinities: Dana Awartani, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit (2017); and The Hidden Qualities of Quantities, Athr, Jeddah (2015).
Installation shot of Standing by the Ruins at the Rabat Biennale 2019. Compressed earth, 450×1130 cm. Image courtesy of the Artist.
Installation shot of Octahedron Within a Cube II from The Platonic Solid Duals series, 2019, Wood, copper and brass, 121×100,2×100.2 cm. Image courtesy of Maraya Art Centre.
2. Nadia Kaabi-Linke (Tunisia, b. 1978) Explores themes of geopolitics, borders, and migration through her multimedia installations. Example: Carthage Presidence (2009), sold for $52,920 at Christie’s Online.
Nadia Kaabi-Linke | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation Creator: Kristopher McKay
Flying Carpets, 2011
Kaabi-Linke was born in Tunis in 1978, and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tunis, and later at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Recent solo exhibitions include A Matter of Resilience, Darat Al Funun, Amman, 2020; Impossible Ordinary, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, 2018-19; VersiegelteZeit [Sealed Time], Kunstmuseum, 2017-2018; Lost and Found, Experimenter, Kolkata, 2016; Walk the Line, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas; 2015; FAHRENHEIT311: Seven Legends of Machismo, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, 2015; No Frills, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, 2015; The Future Rewound and The Cabinet of Souls, The Mosaic Rooms, London; Stranded — Preso por fios, Centro de Arte Moderna da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 2014; No One Harms Me, Experimenter, Kolkata, 2013 and Black is the New White
STRETCHED PERM, 2014 52 offset prints with hair on paper 40.5×30 cm 16×11 ¾ in
ALTARPIECE, 2015 Silk paper, Wax, Chinese Ink (Encre de Chine), Acrylic (Lascaux), Varnish (Lascaux satin), Wood frame coated in 24 K gold leaf 250×450,4×6.3 cm 98 3/8×177 3/8×2 ½ in
Select group exhibitions include A Bottomless Silence, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 2020; Walking Through Walls, Gropius Bau, Berlin 2019; The Sensation of Space, The Warehouse, Dallas, 2019; How To See (What Isn’t There), Langen Foundation, Neuss, 2018; Body Ego, Dallas Museum of Art; Lahore Biennale, 2018; Inhabiting Territories, MOVIMENTA Biennale, Nice, 2017; Witness, Karachi Biennale, 2017; Borders of Visibility, 25th Slavonian Biennale, 2016; Songlines for a New Atlas, Kalmar konstmuseum, Sweden, 2016; Social Calligraphies: East ̶ West, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2016; Between Structure and Matter: Other Minimal Futures, Curated by Prajit Dutta and Murtaza Vali, Aicon Gallery, New York, 2016; But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise.
PARKVERBOT (KÖPENICK), 2017 Modified park bench from the Berlin District Kopenick Wood, cast iron, and steel 250×60×70 cm 98.4×23,6×27.5 in
JINS AL LATIF, 2018 Steel, plywood, acrylic 60×54 cm 23 5/8×21 ¼ in
3. Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim (United Arab Emirates, b. 1962) Represented the UAE at the 59th Venice Biennale with his installation.
Courtesy the artist and Sharjah Art Foundation
Ibrahim came of age as an artist in the UAE in an era in which the visual arts were not yet valued culturally or taught in university degree programs. In 1986, when he met the late artist Hassan Sharif (a founding member of the influential Emirates Fine Art Society), Ibrahim was pulled out of a secluded practice and carved out unshakable friendships and collaborations that have formed the foundation for the creative community that defines the UAE today.
ANIMAL 1 & 2, 2014 Wood, paper, clay, glue 112×163×60 cm 44 1/8×64 1/8×23 5/8 in
FRUIT BASKET, 2010 Plastic bottles, papier-mâché 35.5×66×64 cm 14×26×25 ¼ in
FRUITS, 2012 Plastic bottles, papier-mâché 130×35×35 cm 51 1/8×13 ¾×13 ¾ in Dimensions variable
GREEN APPLE TREE, 2013 TBC Plastic bottles, papier-mâché 140×50×50 cm 55 1/8×19 ¾×19 ¾ in Variable dimensions
LEMON TREE, 2013 Plastic bottles, papier-mâché 143×50×50 cm 56 ¼×19 ¾×19 ¾ in Variable dimensions
TOMATO TREE, 2013 TBC Plastic bottles, papier-mâché 180×65×67 cm 70 7/8×25 5/8×26 3/8 in Variable dimensions
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim represented the UAE at the 2022 Venice Biennale with a large-scale installation titled Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim: Between Sunrise and Sunset. The exhibition presented a new body of work created for the National Pavilion UAE, curated by Maya Allison, Executive Director of The New York University Abu Dhabi Art Gallery.
In March 2018, Elements, a survey of works spanning three decades of his practice, was presented at the Sharjah Art Foundation, curated by Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi.
Ibrahim’s recent solo exhibitions include Elevation at Abu Dhabi Art with Lawrie Shabibi (2023); The Armory Show with Lawrie Shabibi, New York (2022); Embryonic Coat, (2022), Memory Drum (2020) and The Space between the Eyelid and the Eyeball (2019) at Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, as well as a seri
UNTITLED, 2015 Paper assemblage 31×30 cm 12 ¼×11 ¾ in
