abdelghani alnahawi

abdelghani alnahawi is an artist living in the UAE. His work often begins with walking, biking, noticing—gathering fragments and listening to how found objects and urban residue shift, mark, or resist their surroundings. From these encounters, installations take shape, growing attentive to overlooked textures. Lately, he has been revisiting these gestures and collaborators through performance studies, asking how movement, pause, and spatial experience might themselves be ways of making. Teaching remains central to his practice: he cultivates learning spaces where listening is making.

Over the past decade, abdelghani has intervened in both gallery and public spaces and has led critiques, workshops, and studio courses. His teaching has spanned sculpture studios at RISD, middle-school classrooms in Central Falls, and community programmes in Abu Dhabi, where he develops approaches that blend material exploration, gesture, and collective attention. Through these experiences, he continues to investigate how making, learning, and listening intersect across different audiences and contexts.

ANA ESCOBAR SAAVEDRA

Ana Escobar Saavedra has a cross-disciplinary practice working on the frontiers of art and craft. Born and bred in Colombia, after living and working 16 years in Italy and France, she has been established in the UAE since 2020. With a background in textiles, and metal-smithing, her practice explores the emotional and material relationship between people and objects, addressing universal themes such as existence, identity, migration, and the rituals surrounding life and death.

She holds an MA in visual arts, specialized in Object, Jewellery and Material Culture, in a joint program between MASieraad Amsterdam and PXL-MAD school of arts in Hasselt, Belgium. Ana has exhibited in the UAE in Sharjah Art Museum, Alserkal Avenue, Foundry, ICD Brookfield space, Tashkeel, Bayt Al Mamzar and was recently selected for the ADP program of 421 Abu Dhabi, resulting in her first institutional solo show in May 2025.

She has also been invited to show her work in Colombia, Argentina, China, Australia, the United States, and multiple cities across Europe.

ARNOLD BARRETTO

Arnold Barretto (b. 1996, India) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans photography, printmaking, and bookmaking. His work explores themes of identity, space and desire, with a focus on that which is personal. Working primarily with analog processes, Barretto foregrounds the tactile nature of image-making and the quiet intimacy of printed matter and draws on the physicality of materials to invite slower, more contemplative engagement.

He holds a BFA in Studio Art (Photography and Graphic Design) from SUNY Plattsburgh, NY (2019). He has collaborated with artists, cultural institutions, and community initiatives, and teaches workshops in analog photography at Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai, UAE since 2022. In 2023, he was part of the tenth cohort of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF), AD. His work has been included in group exhibitions in the United States and the UAE.

FATIMA UZDENOVA

AI-generated portrait from personal reference images.

Fatima Uzdenova (born in Karachay-Cherkess Republic, USSR) is an antidisciplinary artist whose practice ranges but is not limited to sculpture, performance, writing, sound and walkatives. She is interested in two overlapping ideas: ‘garden’ as a space of conquest, a spiritual terrain, a source of nourishment(s), and ‘fictive’ as a methodology of art production. She lives and works in Sharjah.

Fatima holds an MA Sculpture degree from the Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom. She is an alumna of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF), in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, United States of America. Uzdenova is a recipient of the inaugural Al Burda Endowment from the Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCY), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

NADA ALMOSA

Nada Almosa (b. 1999) is an Abu Dhabi-based artist and creative writer. Her practice navigates memory, identity-making, and play through mixed media, photography, and creative writing. Her works draw inspiration from her Palestinian heritage as well as the desire to preserve memory and chronicle stories of diaspora. She is a graduate of Literature & Creative Writing from New York University Abu Dhabi (2021). Nada has participated in the VICE residency by Exit 11 Performing Arts Company (2022), a mentorship program with Nujoom Al Ghanem (2023), and the Spectrum: Photographers in Residence program at Manarat Al Saadiyat (2024). She has published works in Corniche, Mizna, Strange Horizons, Sekka Magazine, and Postscript Magazine.

NAGHAM HAMMOUSH

Nagham Hammoush is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in printmaking not only as a medium, but as a conceptual and embodied language. She received her BA in Fine Arts (Printmaking) from the University of Damascus in 2013, and later completed an MA in Art in Context at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) in 2022. Her work focuses on the development of participatory and interactive artistic projects, with a strong emphasis on art mediation and education. She explores themes such as gender, identity, belonging, and feminism.

Hammoush’s artistic practice connects printmaking with other contemporary art forms such as performance and installation. She explores repetition and reproduction as conceptual tools that mirror the cycles of memory, bodily rhythm, and lived experience. For her, printmaking becomes a symbolic and ritualistic act that opens space for both personal and collective reflection.

Through her multidisciplinary and socially engaged practice, Hammoush builds spaces of connection where print, performance, and participation intersect to question how we remember, move, and belong.

HANA EL-SAGINI

Hana El-Sagini works with different mediums to reflect on her personal journey and surroundings, exploring themes of memory, trauma and loss through glorifying everyday stories, spaces and objects.

After a 12-year stellar corporate career, El-Sagini became a full-time artist in 2015. Materiality and scale are important aspects she uses to create dialogues of opposites and tension within the work. The space where the work exists and the bodies surrounding the work are elements she engages with, aiming to add a question of significance in relationship to the human body, to add another layer to the work and to leave a memory for the spectator beyond listening and seeing.

She attended the Metafora Academy of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, and then in 2022, she completed her Masters in Fine Art at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Basel, Switzerland. In 2018, she won The Dean Collection Award, and in 2022 she was selected to be part of “Campus Art Dubai x Public Art” group; the same year, 421 Art Campus in Abu Dhabi selected her for the Artistic Development Program, where she held her solo show “Counting Fingers”. El-Sagini held several solo shows between Cairo and the UAE, in addition to group exhibitions across the Middle East and Europe. The artist has an installation acquired for the Fenix Museum in Rotterdam’s permanent collection. El-Sagini currently teaches at Zayed University, Dubai, where she lives and works.

LAMA ALTAKRURI

Lama Altakruri is a visual artist who explores the psychological states evoked by globalized spaces of professional hospitality (e.g., hotels, cafes, etc.) within neoliberal contexts. Through a wide range of media, she investigates the sense of familiarity in such spaces due to the homogenization processes of global capitalism, and the evoked paradoxical feelings of anxiety, comfort, loneliness, dissociation, and detachment. Additionally, she examines the significance of these spaces as a tool to reinforce a socio-economic status within a global middle class.

Altakruri holds an MFA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University, USA (2017), and a BA in Contemporary Visual Art from the International Art Academy, Palestine (2015). She participated in artist residencies at Alserkal Avenue Residency in Dubai, UAE (2018); Gästeatelier Krone in Aarau, Switzerland (2020); and the Intimacy in the Apocalyptic Phase Residency at Dar Jacir in Bethlehem, Palestine (2022).

Her work has been exhibited in various venues worldwide, including Forum Schlossplatz, Switzerland; TAC, Eindhoven, Netherlands; Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE; and the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, USA.

RICHI BHATIA

Richi Bhatia received her M.F.A. in Painting from M. S University, Vadodara (2015) and a P.G. Diploma in Curatorial Studies from Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2018).

Bhatia’s artistic practice is a multidisciplinary exploration of both body and medium, spanning drawing, performance, object making, assemblages, and food interventions. She enjoys the process of walking and creating by hand, often engaging in long, labour-intensive work, as well as delving into text, research, and the collection of knowledge in various formats. Her work addresses the social fabric we inhabit as humans, using the body as a pressure indicator—an ever-sensing tool that responds to memory, food, technology, and the environment.

Bhatia recently presented Felling Flesh, a lecture performance at New York University Abu Dhabi for The Body Archive class with May Al-Dabbagh’s (2024) and participated in Sustaina India’s inaugural exhibition Ears to the Ground, Heart to the Horizon at Bikaner House, New Delhi (2024). She also took part in Spatial Poem No. 5 at Japan Society Gallery, New York (2023) and curated Suno, an exhibition featuring 22 artists from the Global South and its diaspora at 1X1 Art Gallery, Dubai (2023). Bhatia has held residencies and participated in programs at the Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai (2023), Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation, Leh, India (2022), and Harvard University’s South Asia Institute (2020), among others. She is also involved in Separations Geography, an ongoing project by Daak Vaak (India) and Mandarjazail (Pakistan).

AYA AFANEH

Aya Afaneh (b. 1999) is an artist, with an interdisciplinary visual practice spanning performance, printmaking, sculpture, and writing. Her practice is dedicated to creating living, breathing ecologies in her work. She investigates what it means to be in an animate relationship with the living world, as a reciprocal participant rather than an observer. Aya learns from the trees, the soils, the seas, the ants, and all that live beneath, above, around and inside. Her research relates to the matriarchal, generational tools for reconciliation and connection, with the body sitting at the core of these knowledge systems. Aya’s work is a space for processing, reflecting, and pausing.

She is a graduate of New York University Abu Dhabi, receiving her Bachelor's degree in Art and Art History and in Theater, with a minor in Creative Writing. She is an alumna of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF, 2023), Rewilding the Kitchen (2023), Samt (2022), and Numoo (2021). Her work has been displayed at Alserkal Arts Foundation, Tashkeel, Bayt Al Mamzar, Satellite (Dubai, UAE) as well as internationally.

SARAH AHMED

Sarah Ahmed is a Networking & Security graduate, and a creative based in Abu Dhabi. She is the founder of Jaffat El Aqlam, co-founder of 7ijra Waraqa Miqas and AlReesha Studio Resident. You can find her urging every single person she ever meets to make zines, which she eventually heart-warmly adds to her collection. When she's not stressing out about meeting self-made deadlines, she experiments with different mediums of art, film photography, glitch art, sends postcards to strangers and publishes zines. Sarah enjoys storytelling and writing what she shamelessly calls children lit for grown-ups.

Sarah’s work has been featured in Jaffat El Aqlam, Kayfa Ta, Mizna, Daftar Asfar, Focal Point, Brownbook, Banat Collective, Corniche publication, Al Tashkeel magazine and Souq Bawa. She has conducted workshops in Sharjah Art Foundation, Dubai Design Week, Cultural Foundation, Miza, 421, Safha, Diriyah Biennale and impromptu workshops with strangers whenever she felt like it.

TAREK ELKASSOUF

Tarek Elkassouf is an artist based in the UAE. He explores the concept of balance after transformation. He explains how he understands the concept of the invisible, through what is not there; the empty, and its exchange with the full.

His work was commissioned and acquired by International Museums such as the Institute of the Arab World in France, Ithra and the Royal Commission for AlUla [RCU] in Saudi Arabia. He’s interested in the space between the words and in the silence in the music which is as important as the notes themselves for him. Tarek Elkassouf is consistently pushing the boundaries of what is possible within the realm of sculpture. His latest Exhibition ‘The Future is Near’ developed a unique visual language that translates complex concepts into tangible, and intangible forms.

EMAN AL HASHEMI

Eman Al Hashemi (b. Dubai, 1993) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice revolves around impossible tasks, waiting, repetition, productivity, and reimagined spaces through ceramics, prints, artist books and drawings. Inspired by the ideas surrounding mass production, value, community, consumerism, and sentimental value, the artist questions what it means for mundane everyday practices and objects to exist in a world of speed and noise. Eman holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Sharjah’s College of Fine Arts and Design and a master’s degree in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. She was also part of the 5th cohort of the Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship.

Eman's fellowship experience served as a reminder that teaching workshops in informal settings is as much an experiment for her as it is for the participants, and that teaching is a reciprocal process of learning. She began with a monoprint workshop titled “Trace, Multiply, Repeat,” which explored the intricate process of creating paper stencils for monoprints, encouraging participants to appreciate everyday objects. She then led multiple iterations of “Collaborative Coil-Built Vessels,” where participants designed a vessel through a folded drawing exercise and brought it to life using the coil-building technique. This experience allowed her to reconnect with community engagement, a vital aspect of her practice, and to refine strategies for planning, organizing, and delivering impactful learning experiences in both formal and informal settings.

MAJD ALLOUSH

Majd Alloush is an artist whose work spans multiple disciplines including printmaking, sculpture, photography, moving image, installation and performance. His creative practice challenges the notion of borders in concept, content, and medium, by exploring geopolitics, and social and environmental issues such as the ramifications of war and displacement. Alloush strategically creates work wherein multiple interpretations are possible, requiring the viewer’s own worldview to inform the meaning. His work is situated within contemporary hybrid practice, at the intersection of traditional processes and innovative methodology. Alloush holds a BFA from the University of Sharjah, Class of 2018, and has an MFA in Art and Media from New York University Abu Dhabi.

Majd's fellowship experience allowed him to enhance his skills in structuring and leading workshops. He began by focusing on color, teaching a “Color Wheel” workshop for children and a “Screen Printing: Overlaying Color” workshop for adults, both of which explored color interaction. This was followed by “Experimental Film Development with Caffenol,” which challenged participants to develop film without access to a darkroom. For his final workshop, “Imagined Landscapes,” Majd synthesized his experiences from the program, designing an activity that encouraged participants to explore color and image-making in a way similar to his own creative process. Through this journey, Majd gained confidence in integrating his practice and research with his teaching, while becoming more attuned to the nuances of working with diverse audiences.

NASSER ALZAYANI

Nasser Alzayani is an artist (b.1991, Manama, Bahrain) living and working in Abu Dhabi. Nasser’s practice expresses a research-driven documentation of time and place through text and image, as well as found and cast objects. Incorporating themes of factual and fictional archaeology, his most recent work explores alternative narratives of collective experience.

Nasser’s recent group exhibitions include And The Mirrors Are Many, 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2023); The Memory In Our Bones, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2022); Re-appearing Imaginaries, Misk Art Institute, Riyadh, KSA (2022); Post Fiction: Manama, Alriwaq Art Space, Bahrain (2022); Art Here 2021, Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE (2021); So Different, So Appealing, Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2021); and Kissing Through A Curtain, MASS MoCA, North Adams, USA (2020). Nasser is a recipient of the Louvre Abu Dhabi Richard Mille Art Prize (2021). He has an MFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design (2019) and a BArch from American University of Sharjah (2015).

The fellowship allowed Nasser to reconnect with drawing, a foundational part of his practice. He led a series of drawing workshops that encouraged participants to see drawing not just as a tool for recording observations, but also for generating new ideas. He began with “Ways of Seeing,” a workshop that encouraged thoughtful observation and drawing, followed by “Artists at Play,” where participants created life-size collaborative drawings to spark unexpected results. Building on these experiences, Nasser developed “Dynamic Drawings,” which introduced alternative methods for observing and imagining, highlighting drawing as a tool for both creation and reflection. He plans to continue evolving as a teacher and mentor, exploring meaningful topics to share with his community.

ATHAR JABER

Athar Jaber was born in Rome, Italy, in 1982 to artists Afifa Aleiby and Jaber Alwan. He grew up between Rome, Florence, The Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium. Moving around several countries and cities helped reinforce a sense of belonging beyond geographical borders. This notion acted as the framework for his artistic practice, in a desire to outline a common human experience across cultures and time. Athar Jaber’s practice mainly focuses on stone sculpture, but his artistic output also includes other expressions such as performance, video, photography and text. Athar obtained his Ph.D. in the Arts at the University of Antwerp in 2021.

Having a background in teaching at the university level for 15 years, the fellowship further solidified Athar’s belief in the crucial role teaching plays within his artistic practice and underscored the importance of community engagement and the enriching impact it has on both the educator and the participants. During the fellowship, Athar led two iterations of a course titled “Introduction to Stone Carving: Carving Geometric Patterns”. These workshops, designed for absolute beginners, aimed to impart the basics of stone carving through the relatively simple technique of carving geometric patterns. One of the key learnings was the importance of patience and clear, step-by-step instruction in facilitating skill acquisition in a craft that is both intricate and physically demanding. Engaging with participants from diverse backgrounds also reinforced the significance of adaptability and the need to tailor teaching approaches to meet varied learning needs.

CHAFA GHADDAR

Chafa Ghaddar was born in Lebanon and currently lives in Dubai. She graduated from Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA), earning her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in 2007 and her Master’s in Visual Arts in 2009. While developing a career in wall painting and surface finishing, she explores the use of fresco in contemporary practices and other processes working equally with murals, painting, drawing, photography and mixed media. She was awarded the Boghossian Art Prize for painting in 2014.

During the fellowship, Chafa got to explore how teaching can become an integral part of her art practice, considering it as a parallel lab or studio where other ideas and forms of knowledge can be conveyed. Chafa’s experience started with delivering process-based workshops, “Painting with Lace and Stucco” and “Making Liquid Chalk” before developing a non-making sensory activity based on touch. The learnings and findings from these experiences eventually led to the development and delivery of five-part course titled “Fresco Unfolds”. In this course, Chafa was equipped with the right tools to structure and implement ideas around teaching Fresco in a contemporary way, linking the historic craft to other areas of knowledge existent in writing and the environment around us.

MAHSHID RAFIEI

Mahshid Rafiei works in sculpture, installation and drawing. Her practice considers the ways a process, a material and an image can become so inextricable that they ossify projections of a prejudiced imaginary. Her work has been exhibited at Unit 17, Vancouver (2023); 421, Abu Dhabi (2023); Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg (2018); and Rheum Room, Basel (2018), among other spaces. Collaborative and discursive projects have been hosted at Mercer Union, Toronto (2020); Doors Unlimited, New York (2020); Temporary Art Review, online (2016); and Knockdown Centre, New York (2013).

For Mahshid, the fellowship helped clarify how teaching or community engagement can figure within her practice and facilitated the translation of technical expertise into skill-based workshops interwoven with discursive learning moments. She conducted two iterations of a course titled “Glosses, Moulds, Casts” which centred around mould-making and casting techniques while weaving in writing exercises and peer-led conversations to encourage explorations of variations on a theme through experimentation and iteration.