Alymamah Rashed Kuwaiti, b. 1994
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Biography
Alymamah Rashed is a Kuwaiti visual artist who explores topics of identity and the natural environment through the story of her body, fluctuating between perspectives of the east and west. Her work negotiates her female subjectivity in relation to regional folklore, the banal objects she encounters everyday, and her local botanical finds.
Alymamah 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 several exhibitions in New York City including at 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.
Alymamah’s work has been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Farfetch, The Visionary Project, and in 7 Days: Expanded Edition by AC Books. In parallel with her artistic practice, Alymamah has been invited to collaborate with international luxury brands including Dior and Piaget.EDUCATION
2017-2019, Parsons School of Design, MFA Fine Arts
2012-2016, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
BFA Fine Arts (Painting)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS2026, ‘My Circular Spirit Resides in Your Land/ (تسكن روحي المتقلبة في أرضكِ)’, Hunna Art Gallery, Paris, France
2025, I Found You Above My Skin Under My Earth, Hunna Art Gallery, Kuwait
2025, Mirrors from the Sidewalk, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
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
European Literature Night, Czech Center New York
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
2026, Same Air, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2026, Habitat.Hortus Consulus, 3L Gallery, Moscow, Russia2026, In SITU: Art, Research, and Practice on Failaka Island, Fikar X CAP Gallery, Kuwait
2026, I Dreamt We Dreamt of Eden, Hayaty Diaries X Hunna Art, Kuwait
2025, Fertile Dreams, Tabari Artspace, UAE
2025, The Power of Intention (Just as a Talisman), Villa Cramer, Brera District, Milan, Italy2024, Boundless/Binding at Subliminal Projects, curated by Emerge East in Los Angeles, US
2023, Elles - هن ,Hunna, Paris, France
I Won’t Break: A Reflection on Gender Violence, curated by Bebe Leone
Rome, Italy2021, Group Exhibition, Hunna Art, Dubai, UAE
2019, Zinc-Finger Like Folds, Group Exhibition, Curated by Rae Lavande Pellerin and Paloma Rosenzweig Castillo, New York, US
2015, Abstract, Group Exhibition at Parsol Projects, New York, US
ART FAIRS
2026, ARCO, Madrid, Spain, with Baro Galeria
2025, Abu Dhabi Art, UAE, with Hunna Art
2025, Art Paris, France, with Hunna Art
Art Dubai, UAE, with Tabari Artspace and Piaget
2024, Abu Dhabi Art, UAE2024, Art Paris, France
Artsy Foundations Fair
Art Dubai, UAE
2023, Abu Dhabi Art, UAE
Mena Art Fair, BelgiumHONOURS AND AWARDS
2017-2019, Scholarship, Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education
2016-2017, Professional Development Initiative Program Fellow, sponsored by the National US - 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 Dean's List
2012-2016, Merit Scholarship, Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2026, Alymamah Rashed: The Spirit Multiplies for You and I to Meet Again, Skira
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
2025, The Stories We Carry: Alymamah Rashed for Dior Lady Art #10, Dior
2025, Kuwaiti artist Alymamah Rashed reimagines Lady Dior, Arab News
2025, Kuwaiti Artist Alymamah Rashed Brings an Iconic Piaget Timepiece to Life at Art Dubai 2025, Architectural Digest
2025, Artist Alymamah Rashed On Partnering With Piaget For Art Dubai, Harper's Bazaar
2025, Exclusive: Kuwaiti Artist Alymamah Rashed Reimagines the Lady Dior Bag, Vogue
2024, A Poem by Fady Joudah, The Baffler, Echo 76
2024, A Body is A Holder of One's Stories: Alymamah Rashed, Sandy Times
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 Podcast2021, 10 Must-See Shows from Middle Eastern Galleries You Can View, Gallery Girl Meets Alymamah Rashed, Gallery Girl
2020, Visual Artist Alymamah Rashed Explores The Third Body, Harper's Bazaar Arabia
2019, The Beyond Mag Issue 2, Tsquare Magazine Issue #23
2018, Sumou Magazine Issue 00, All The Things We Don't Feel
SPECIAL PROJECTS
2025, Dior’s 10th Lady Dior Art Project, in collaboration with Dior
2025, Your Love Moves Around My Trapeze Sun (Will You Hold Our Glistening Light?), in collaboration with Piaget
2025, Bvlgari X Alymamah Rashed, Canvas Magazine Collaboration
2025, Dastaangoi x Alymamah Rashed Candle Collabortaion
2024, La Makenerie x Alymamah Rashed Scarf Collaboration
2022, Farfetch x Alymamah Rashed Commission
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Works
Alymamah Rashed Kuwaiti, b. 1994
I Will Twist and Turn The Shape of Me to Kiss Your Waters (Hold Me Closer), 2020Watercolour on paper250 x 156.5 cm
98 3/8 x 61 5/8 inCopyright The ArtistSoldExhibitions
Visual artist Alymamah Rashed’s gestural, surrealist paintings harness self-portraiture to investigate the complexities of identity in the post-internet generation. Rashed understands herself as a multifaceted being, the various elements that comprise her persona flow out into the different realms that she emits onto her canvas: the earth-bound (the mind and the fleshed body), the spiritual (the thobe), and a combination of the two which come to form a third space. Spirituality, specifically the notion of spiritual intelligence, has been a central tenet of Rashed’s existence, yet she understands spirituality as universal; the act of prayer is engaged with across faiths and cultures. Observing the body as a capsule of movement, through the process of prayer Rashed can transcend as she witnesses her physical and spiritual worlds conflate.
Referencing late Algerian modernist pioneer Baya Mahieddine's colour-fuelled, idiosyncratic form of autobiographical portraiture, her large-scale works negotiate her female subjectivity. Rashed draws from regional folklore and the rapid social shifts that she has witnessed such as the modernisation and industrialisation of the Gulf region, she negotiates readings of Islamic philosophy and poetry, and ornamentation and the every day banal objects that she encounters. The artist is inspired by the likes of Francis Bacon, Chris Ofili and the ornamentation of Matisse. Rashed’s internal world manifests in her art through icons absorbed from myriad sources including regional typographic, Persian and Afghani visual icons, Sufi poetry, philosophy and theology responding to both Plato and Muslim scholars, such as Suhrawardi, Ghazali. Her father, an academic and humanitarian and her mother, an economist with an affinity for art, design and culture, have also come to inform the artist’s multifaceted world which she dutifully relays through her art.
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.8of 8Exhibitions-
Fertile Dreams, Group Exhibition
Tabari Artspace 1 November 2025 - 1 April 2026Fertile Dreams exists in the slippages between soil and psyche, where earthly terrain fuels the landscape of the unconscious. Fertility is not only a question of biology, but of sustenance,...Explore -
Mirrors From the Sidewalk, Alymamah Rashed Solo
Tabari Artspace 12 October - 10 November 2024I see myself mirrored on the sidewalks I see myself picking one date after another I see myself gazing at the seventh sky I see myself coming back to myself...Explore -
Alymamah Rashed Solo, Strawberry Fields
Online Exhibition 1 April 2024 - 5 June 2025Explore -
Tabari Artspace Presents Alymamah Rashed, Abu Dhabi Art 2023
22 - 26 November 2023For her presentation at Abu Dhabi Art Alymamah Rashed has produced a body of work that had evolved from research conducted during her recent residency on Failaka Island in Kuwait....Explore -
When my Heart Danced Near Your Mirage, Alymamah Rashed Solo
11 November 2022 - 5 January 2023When my Heart Danced Near Your Mirage was the solo exhibition of Kuwaiti painter, Alymamah Rashed presented at Tabari Artspace Gallery, DIFCExplore -
Alymamah Rashed Solo
22 March - 31 May 2021Tabari Artspace Gallery in Dubai presented a series of works by Kuwaiti painter, Alymamah Rashed.Explore
