Afra 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...
Afra 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 explores notions of time and adaptation, rigor and fragility. She is especially fascinated by the tensions imbued in hair, often using rope as a stand-in for the raw, organic material, as seen in School Braid No. 2. In To Tame and Contain, the rigidity of concrete balances the delicate intricacies of rope, juxtaposing strength and vulnerability. Al Dhaheri has participated in numerous group and solo shows in the UAE, including Split Ends, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2021) and Inevitable Ephemera, T + H Gallery, Boston, USA (2016). Al Dhaheri earned her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017.