Ocula published this profile of Maitha Abdalla, written by Nadine Khalil and dated 4 August 2021, examining her multimedia practice across painting, performance and installation staged at Tabari Artspace in Dubai.
The piece discusses specific works including The Silence in Carnivals (2021), an oil, acrylic and pastel canvas measuring 203 by 270 centimetres depicting masked figures and hybrid beings, and Scarred by Silenced Nightmares (2021), an oil and pastel work showing figures with bloodied legs. It also describes Tomorrow is Still Another Day (2020), a smaller acrylic and pastel painting of a beaked human figure, and Dancing Stills (2020), an oil on canvas set in a forest scene overlaid with a grid pattern recalling bathroom tiles, alongside recurring motifs of pigs and roosters drawn from Islamic storytelling.
Khalil reads Abdalla's work through comparison with David Lynch and Marcel Dzama, tracing her imagery to Emirati folklore and dreams recounted by her grandmother; the artist is quoted describing the forest setting as giving 'the illusion of the dream and the feeling of being lost and free'. The profile situates Maitha Abdalla's Tabari Artspace exhibition, staged from 2 June to 6 September 2021, as an early account of the visual language she has continued to develop since.
