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The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery will present Bodies that Make, Bodies that Grieve at its Project Space from October 22 to December 13. Curated by Shafeena Yusuff Ali, the exhibition brings together contemporary ceramics by eight women artists based in the UAE, with practices rooted in the Global South.
The exhibition features sculptures by Nujoom Alghanem, Mirna Bamieh, Moza Al Falasi, Malavika, Parneet Pahwa, Zahra Shafie, Laiba Sherin, and Haseena Suresh. Ali, Founder and Executive Director of the Rizq Art Initiative, an independent cultural institution dedicated to artistic exchange and the dissemination of arts and culture from the Global South, explores through this exhibition the relationship between the body, clay, and emotion.
Working at an intimate, domestic scale, the artists press, build, and break the material before firing it in the kiln. Their practices draw attention to knowledge developed through making and touch, and its longstanding place in women’s work and care. The resulting works invite audiences to consider ceramics as a means of thinking through and expressing an inner life.
Executive Director of the NYUAD Art Gallery and University Chief Curator Maya Allison said: “The Project Space was established to support exhibitions originating in the UAE, and to create a place for experimentation in exhibition-making. The exhibition proposal for Bodies that Make, Bodies that Grieve was selected by the Project Space committee as part of our annual open application process. It brings together contemporary artists whose practices use the medium of clay, typically associated with traditional crafts rather than contemporary art. Here, the artists use the intimate, tactile process of working with clay to explore the body, emotion, and lived experience today. We hope the exhibition encourages audiences to engage with ceramics not simply as objects, but as a way of thinking, feeling, and communicating.”
The Project Space is the NYUAD Art Gallery’s exhibition laboratory for UAE-based artists and curators, providing a setting for experimental approaches to making and presenting art.
Also on view at the main Art Gallery is All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, curated by Nada Shabout and extended through January 3, 2027. Bringing together artworks and archival materials, the exhibition explores the Group’s development and its continuing influence on generations of Iraqi artists.
Exhibition and Public Programming Listings
Title: Bodies that Make, Bodies that Grieve
Dates: October 22-December 13
Admission: Free
Gallery hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 12–8 PM
Exhibition page: Click here for more details
Venue: Project Space, NYU Abu Dhabi
Exhibition: All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group
Dates: Until January 3, 2027
Admission: Free
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 12-8 PM
Exhibition page: Click here for more details
