Maitha Abdalla Emirati , b. 1989
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Biography
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.
Maitha Abdalla’s work is held in prominent public and private collections, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Barjeel Art Foundation.EDUCATION
2015, Zayed University, Bachelor of Visual Arts, Abu Dhabi, UAESOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025, Between Metamorphosis and Reality, Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation, UAE2022, INT. The Body - Sunrise, Cromwell Place, London
2021, Scars by Daylight, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2019, Hollowed, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, UAEGROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026, Same Air, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2025, The Power of Intention (Just as a Talisman), Villa Cramer, Brera District, Milan2024, DISOBEDIENT BODIES, Without Gods, Patrons or Mysteries, Baro Gallery, Mallorca
2024, AlUla Artists Residency Presentation, Paris, France
2023, Evaporating Suns, KBH. G Foundation, Basel, Switzerland2022, Beyond Emerging Artists, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, Italy
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, UAE
2019, Co-Curated Bait Juma Group Exhibition, BAIT15 Abu Dhabi, UAE
2019, BAIT15 Art Dubai UAE NOW, Dubai, UAE
2019, Dynasty, Group exhibition, F6 Gallery, Al Serkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE
2018, The alumni show, group exhibition, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2016, Noah's Ark, Co-Curating The 34th annual exhibition, Fine Arts Society, Sharjah, UAE
2016, In Her Dreams, Fine Arts Society, The 34th annual exhibition, Sharjah, UAE
2016, We Can't See, Abu Dhabi Art, group exhibition, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2015, The Dance of Life, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2015, The Dance of Life, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
BIENNIALS
2023, SharjahTRIENNIALS
2025, Aichi
ART FAIRS
2025, Abu Dhabi Art, Abu Dhabi, UAE (Tabari Artspace)2024, Art Dubai, UAE (Tabari Artspace)
2023, Asia Now, Paris, France (Tabari Artspace)
2023, Art Dubai, UAE (Tabari Artspace)
2022, Art Dubai, UAE (Tabari Artspace)2021, Abu Dhabi Art, Beyond Emerging Artists
FELLOWSHIPS/RESIDENCIES/AWARDS
2024, Orbis Tertius, Arts AlUla x AFALULA Residency, Paris
2023-24, AlUla Artist Residency Programme, KSA
2022, Cité Internationale Des Arts Artist residency, Paris2022, An Effort, SoHo, London
2020, In Conversation, Art Dubai2020, In The Round, Abu Dhabi Art
2020, In The Studio, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
2019, ADMAF Visual Arts Residency Programme, Vaduz, Liechtenstein and Vienna, Austria
2016-2017, SEAF-Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation + Rhode Island School of Design, Abu Dhabi, Providence & New York
2015, Sheikha Manal Arts Awards, Dubai, UAE
SELECTED PRESS
2026, How Emirati Artist Maitha Abdalla Uses Animals to Explore the Human Condition, Arabian Business
2025, 8 Gulf Artists Defining the Region’s New Cultural Renaissance, Art Net
2025, 6 Emerging Arab Female Artists You Need to Know, Vogue Arabia
2024, Orbis Tertius, E-Flux2024, Alula's Residency Program at Art Basel Paris, White Wall
2024, Maitha Abdalla - The Studio is a Stage, Yung
2022, Creating an Artistic Language That FLows Between Fantasy and Reality, WOMENA
2022, Selections, Beyond: Emerging Artists At La Biennale Di Venezia2021, Cultured, Abu Dhabi's Cultural DNA Is Evolving-Emerging Artists' Work Proves It
2021, Ocula, Maitha Abdalla's Storytelling Invokes Lynch, Dzama, and Emirati Folklore
2020, Financial Times, The art-buying habits of New Yorkers revealed
2020, Financial Times, UAE Becomes an Incubator to Help the Careers of Local Emerging Artists
2018, Abu Dhabi's secret, BBC Travel
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
GuggenheimBarjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
Sharjah Cultural Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
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WorksOpen a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Maitha Abdalla
The Beguiled Space, 2021
Fine Art Paper / Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth
Edition number 3/5
76.5 x 82 x 3 cm
30 1/8 x 32 1/4 x 1 1/8 inMaitha Abdalla Emirati , b. 1989
The Beguiled Space, 2021Fine Art Paper / Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth
Edition number 2/576.5 x 82 x 3 cm
30 1/8 x 32 1/4 x 1 1/8 inCopyright The ArtistSoldProvenance
Literature
Maitha Abdalla has produced a body of work across varied mediums which interrogates the gravity and uncertainty of the in-between years of adolescence. Tradition, transformation and paradox are at the core of this work as the individual transitions from youth to adulthood; shifting in outer appearance, social status, and identity. Abdalla perceives this formative and liminal time in our life journey to be a dream-like moment where fantasy and reality conflate. Drawing from regional folktales, faith-based traditions and mythologies, animals are a recurring symbol throughout Abdalla’s practice; most commonly the pig and the rooster.
For Abdalla, the rooster is a creature of purity that embodies forgiveness and innocence while the pig is its opposing force, understood to be sinful in Islam. In the context of her art, this duality represents the moment when one leaves childhood where they harbour no responsibility for their actions into adulthood - a place with newfound responsibility and autonomy.
Exhibitions-
Proximities at the Seoul Museum of Art
Featuring Maitha Abdallah, Almaha Jaralla and Hazem Harb 16 December 2025 - 29 March 2026Maitha Abdallah, Almaha Jaralla and Hazem Harb are participating in Proximities, a major exhibition presented by the Seoul Museum of Art in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts...Explore -
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 -
Maitha Abdalla Presents at the Aichi Triennale, Japan 2025
13 September - 30 November 2025Maitha Abdalla makes her debut at the Aichi Triennale 2025 in Japan, one of Asia’s most vital contemporary art platforms. This sixth edition, staged across Nagoya and Seto, is curated...Explore -
Maitha Abdalla Solo at Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation
Between Metamorphosis and Reality 27 February - 30 August 2025Multi-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...Explore -
Maitha Abdalla, Arts AlUla x AFALULA Residency, Paris
AlUla, Saudi Arabia and Paris, France 15 - 20 October 2024'Orbis Tertius is an exhibition bringing together 20 contemporary artists who have participated in the artists residency programme in the oasis city of AlUla in Saudi Arabia. Curated by Arnaud...Explore -
Asia Now, Paris, Dancing In A Lonely Forest
Maitha Abdalla 20 - 22 October 2023“In the middle of our walk of life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost”. - Dante, The Divine Comedy Emirati visual artist...Explore -
Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger Presents Maitha Abdalla, Basel
Evaporating Suns 12 May - 16 July 2023Evaporating Suns Contemporary Myths from the Arabian Gulf, Maitha Abdalla, Group Show, Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger, BaselExplore
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Maitha Abdalla Participates in the Sharjah Biennial 15
1 February - 1 June 2023Maitha Abdalla is an interdisciplinary artist who utilises cultural narratives rooted in notions of nostalgia, memory and folklore to question the dynamics of power often represented in parables. Taking inspiration...Explore -
Maitha Abdalla, INT. The Body - Sunrise
10 - 16 October 2022INT. The Body – Sunrise is the solo exhibition of Emirati visual artist Maitha Abdalla at Cromwell Place, London.Explore -
Tabari Artspace Presents Maitha Abdalla at Art Dubai
11 - 13 March 2022For Art Dubai Emirati multidisciplinary artist Maitha Abdalla presented a body of work that navigates internal struggles and meditations on the self. Abdalla reflected upon her personal experiences as an...Explore -
Maitha Abdalla Participates in Portrait of a Nation II, Curated by Maya El Khalil and Roxane Zand
Maitha Abdalla 21 January - 16 April 2022Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives curated by Maya El Khalil and co-curated by Roxane Zand was inaugurated by HE Sheikh Shakhbout bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of State, on 21 January.Explore -
Beyond Emerging Artists Abu Dhabi Art
Maitha Abdalla 17 - 21 November 2021Maitha Abdalla, Too Close To The Sun, 2021Explore -
Scars by Daylight London
Maitha Abdalla 2 - 15 June 2021In its first ever exhibition abroad, Abu Dhabi Art, held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Office presented commissioned works created in 2020 as part of the annual programme Beyond: Emerging Artists at Cromwell Place London 2 - 13 June.Explore -
Tabari Artspace Presents Maitha Abdalla Solo, Scars by Daylight
2 June - 13 September 2021Scars by Daylight was the solo exhibition of Emirati mixed-media artist, Maitha Abdalla. The Dubai exhibition of Maitha was presented in parallel with Abu Dhabi Art’s group show Beyond: Emerging Artists at Cromwell Place, London.Explore
Press-
8 Gulf Artists Defining the Region’s New Cultural Renaissance
Rebecca Anne Proctor, Art Net, 25 December 2025 -
Dubai market shifts towards emerging homegrown artists
As the latest Art Dubai fair opens, the city's art scene is maturing, with international collectors and curators snapping up young Emirati artistsMelissa Gronlund, The Art News Paper, 27 February 2024
