AFRA AL DHAHERI
b. 1988, United Arab EmiratesAfra Al Dhaheri’s work is rooted in her experiences growing up in Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE – a place of recent and rapid change. Working across various mediums including mixed media, sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, photography, and printmaking, she draws out notions of time and adaptation, rigor and fragility.
With each experiment, there is a new phase, each new phenomenon or actualisation plucked from her unique vocabulary of references – repetition acts as a method for prolonging time as much as a tool through which to truly experience or realize each stage of a work.
Born in 1988 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Afra Al Dhaheri obtained her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island in 2017. She had her residencies from The Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship, in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design (2014); Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives, Cornwall, UK (2019); Viafarini, Milan (2022); and The Watermill Center, NY (2023). She was among the finalists for the Richard Mille Art Prize 2022.
Al Dhaheri is the Creator and Artistic lead for the project Collective Exhaustion (2024), with the inaugural production supported by the National Grant for Culture and Creativity at the Ministry of Culture and Youth of the United Arab Emirates.
Public commissioned works include: Union of Artists, commissioned by Dubai Culture in collaboration with Art Dubai (with artists Khalid Albanna, Shaikha Al Mazrou, Asma Belhamar and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim) (2024); and Pillow Fort Playground, Public Art Programme, Expo 2020, Dubai, UAE (2021).
Solo exhibitions include: National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC (forthcoming); Restless Circle, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2025); Give Your Weight To The Ground, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2023); Split Ends, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2021) and Inevitable Ephemera, T + H Gallery, Boston, MA (2016).
Recent biennale and museum exhibitions include: In Interludes and Transitions, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Saudi Arabia (2026); Whispers on the Horizon, Taipei Biennial 2025, Taiwan (2025); A Time Between Ashes and Roses, Aichi Triennale 2025, Japan (2025); Public Matter, Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2024); Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial, NYUAD Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi (2024); Icon. Iconic., Art Here 2022 x Richard Mille Art Prize, Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE (2022); Tadaroj (Gradation), Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, Sharjah, UAE (2021); Between the Sky and the Earth: Contemporary Art from the UAE, Middle East Institute, Washington, DC (2021); Under Construction, Misk Art Institute, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2021); Hair Mapping Body; Body Mapping Land, ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai, UAE (2021); Beyond: Emerging Artists, Cromwell Place, London, UK (2021); Beyond: Emerging Artist, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2020); From Within, Riyadh, KSA (2019); Barcelona to Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2018); and Emirati Expressions, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2011 and 2015) amongst others.
Based in Abu Dhabi, Al Dhaheri also works as an Assistant Professor at Zayed University - Abu Dhabi.
Courtesy Green Art Gallery
Works at Green Art Gallery
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