MANDY EL-SAYEGH

Early Years

Mandy El-Sayegh was born in Selangor, Malaysia, in 1985 to a Malaysian Chinese midwife mother and a Palestinian calligrapher-turned-IT-engineer father—the family moved to London when she was six. She gained her BA in fine art from the University of Westminster in 2007, followed by an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art in 2011. She then spent five years working as a carer for young adults with non-verbal autism. Speaking to the Financial Times in 2023, she said: “Because of the government cuts it became a really sad state of affairs—especially for the service users,” adding: “But [that job] also wasn’t good for me. And that was when I realised that I could only [make art].”

Mandy El-Sayegh: Artworks

Mandy El-Sayegh examines how we create and break down systems of order, whether in language, in politics or in human bodies. She collages and assembles found imagery and text with materials including clay, rubber and latex, placing objects on to hand-painted grids. She will repeat patterns and motifs, demonstrating how context influences the interpretation of information. Her source material spans newsprint, adverts, maps, her father’s calligraphy... anything she has found that interests her, or whose colours she admires.

• When Mandy El-Sayegh began creating her Net-Grid series in the early 2000s, she added a 1cm square grid as a reference to how tailors cut pattern pieces when making clothes. This evolved into the idea of a grid or mesh that holds in and sometimes obscures what’s behind it (often items from popular culture including packaging or found images).
• The 2026 series Grand Collection of World Art evolved from El-Sayegh’s research into migrant and colonial histories in Korea, during which she found a vintage art book with Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Grand Odalisque (1814) on its cover. In Totem, the odalisque’s face appears alongside collaged and serigraphed elements from newspapers and advertising rendered in vibrant colours.
• In her 2026 exhibition Jewel Tones at Ely House in London, El-Sayegh repurposed vitrines (which had previously housed work by Joseph Beuys) to create archival displays in a series called Metabolism. Metabolism (Verdigris/Merlot/Abalone) (2026) contained champagne and vodka bottles, books, thread and pearlescent shells, among other objects.

Mandy El-Sayegh: Select Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Jewel Tones, Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2026)
• Full Bleed, The Arts Club, London (2026)
• For Theresa, Space K, Seoul (2026)
• Figure, Field, Grid, The Depot, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2025)
• The Showroom Mural Commission 2025–2026, The Showroom, London (2025)
• Body Promise, Art Basel Parcours, Basel (2024)
• A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2024_
• Interiors, Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2023)
• The Amateur, Lehmann Maupin, New York City (2023)
• In Session, Tichy Ocean Foundation, Zürich (2023)
• Still, evident (notes on dreams), Lehmann Maupin, Palm Beach (2022)
• Mandy El-Sayegh: Units of Measure, UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles (2022)
• Figure One, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (2021)
• Protective Inscriptions, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul (2021)
• your words will be used against us, Harlesden High Street, London (2020)
• Mandy El-Sayegh: White Grounds, Bétonsalon, Paris (2019)
• Cite Your Sources, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2019)

Select Group Exhibitions

• The Campaign, Bangkok Art Biennale (2026)
• Everything is True—Nothing is Permitted, Brutus Space, Rotterdam (2025)
• 00:00:01, Public Gallery, London (2025)
• You Have My Attention, The Merode, Brussels (2024)
• Wild: Women Abstractionists on Nature, Metropolitan Museum of Manila (2024)
• Women Defining Women in Contemporary Art of the Middle East and Beyond, LACMA, Los Angeles (2023)
• Biennale Matter of Art, General University Hospital, Prague (2022)
• Being In the World: The Tenth Anniversary of the Long Museum, Long Museum, Shanghai (2022)
• When I Count, There Are Only You..., Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2021)
• Words at an Exhibition: an exhibition in 10 chapters and five poems, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan (2020)
• Searching the Sky for Rain, Sculpture Centre, Long Island City (2019)
• Deterioro y Poder, Instituto de Visión, Bogotá (2018)
• Lessons in Agronomy, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (2017)
• Room Services (with Oscar Murillo and Yutaka Sone), New York Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, New York City (2016)
• Responsive Eye, London Gallery West, University of Westminster, London (2011), UK
• Painting Interim Show, Royal College of Art, London (2010)

Further Reading

• Mandy El-Sayegh’s Instagram
• Artist profile page at Thaddaeus Ropac
• Artist profile page at Lehmann Maupin
• 2023 interview in the Financial Times
• Studio visit on Louisiana Channel (2026)
• 2026 interview in The Brooklyn Rail

Mandy El-Sayegh FAQs

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