Maitha Abdalla
"What sound do lonely forests make? 1", 2023
Oil on paper
Unique
21 5/8 x 16 1/8 in (55 x 41 cm)
Courtesy of Tabari Artspace

Selected by Hoor Al Qasimi

Emirati multi-disciplinary artist, Maitha Abdalla (b. 1989)’s, practice combines film, photography, sculpture, painting, drawing and performance. 

Abdalla harnesses the performative and constructed character of the theatre to tackle themes that range from folklore and mythology to gender, social conditioning and psychology. For the artist, the theatre is a space where she might confront and destabilize that which she has encountered in her social world, her imaginations, memories and fantasies at an objective distance. The artist’s fantastical scenes shift between abstraction and representation and are charged with drama and melancholy. Abdalla’s art forms an ongoing investigation into the self. She constructs characters that embody a distinct vector of her persona often constrained within tight domestic spaces that expose their vulnerability. 
 
For Abdalla, her process is a continuation of the performance. She employs a bodily approach to painting, often applying dense layers of oil and acrylic paint with her fingertips and tracing around her own figure with gestural smears of charcoal.