Hadara published Laura Egerton's feature A Portal to the Past on 28 April 2026, on Almaha Jaralla's use of archival images and the chair as a motif.
Jaralla tells Egerton that the idea grew from Seham, her 2023 solo at Tabari, when a visitor asked where the legs of the chairs were in a floor based majlis setting. That question sent her back to family archives and to the meeting of custom and imported furniture. Photographs in the piece are credited as courtesy of the gallery. The date line follows the page timestamp of 28 April 2026 (early on 29 April in Asia/Dubai).
Seham ran at Tabari from 4 May to 1 September 2023.
Egerton follows that enquiry into paintings of women with chairs, and into the idea of a horizontal supporting surface as a meeting of custom and modernity. Jaralla was then studying for a Master of Fine Arts at NYU Abu Dhabi, and speaking from her Abu Dhabi studio.
Tabari represents Almaha Jaralla.
