Name: Maria Mustafa

Place of Birth: India

Title of the work: Phantom of Sharjah

- Collaborator: Daniel Cardozo

Media: Digital / 3D

Describe your practice:

My practice fuses the digital and physical realms, taking from one and the other to solve issues in the design world and beyond.

WWW: What was your experience of Art education?

I was always encouraged to be creative from an early age, guided by my mother.

Throughout school, the role of art comprised mostly of crafting and painting for aesthetic purposes;

Even as a subject in secondary school, the conceptual depth was usually limited to extreme emotions and acute observations, while the mediums limited to paint and paper. University opened the doors to deeper exploration, both textually and intellectually, yet the confines still exist with the need for commercial appeal.

EBI: What should Art education be?

A process of informing and refining expression.

What is it like to be a young artist in this region

I think we are still in the early stages of defining our creative agency as a region.

We are fortunate to be a meeting point for people from different cultures, influencing our artistic lens.

It’s exciting to see our community grow and play a part in shaping not only the way in which we

engage with art but more importantly the way this region is portrayed in art.

Name: Andrew Riad

Place of Birth: Cairo, Egypt

Title of the work: أسرق الأزرق [ I steal Blue ]

Media: Photography

Website: https://www.instagram.com/thecolonizedproject

Describe your practice:

Andrew Riad is a senior at New York University Abu Dhabi finishing a Bachelor's degree in Literature & Creative Writing and Legal Studies. As a Coptic Nubian Egyptian, Andrew's work is continuously and unequivocally centered around and rooted in the [de] and [anti] colonial. Despite his discipline and educational background in poetry, Andrew also turns to other mediums of art such as installations, photography, and videography generally. Through these mediums, Andrew attempts to reconcile colonial reverberations and presents, in an attempt to [re]imagine and [re]claim through the subaltern. Through an intimate and vulnerable creative process, Andrew is interested in the process of the creation of art, and through that, the later dissemination of and discourse around art as a vessel for not only representation and education, but also of healing. Andrew is interested in what can be inferred or understood that which does not present itself. How can we understand identity dimensionally, be able to digest it, breathe it, grow roots with it? His primary medium is in photography which includes the distortion and manipulation of the photo. Andrew works with text and images in an attempt to rewrite life and history, to create and demand space.

WWW: What was your experience of Art education?

During High School, I was brought up in the theatre. In university, I began my life as a poet. In both these disciplines, I found that my identity and those that sounded like me, looked like me, or held within them their own truths and realities were always accessorial to a more monolithic (re: white and Western) core curriculum.

EBI: What should Art education be?

Art is rooted in life and has, therefore, a life of its own that allows for it to understand its own vernacular of culture, of identity, and of being. I believe that art education and dissemination should invoke this understanding of what is art, and therefore, how art is disseminated or educated, taught or learned.

What is it like to be a young artist in this region?

The UAE offers an unparalleled approach to decolonial art and in that, a decolonial approach to our understanding of, curation of, and creation of art. In this liminal space in which we invoke the past and recollect it to create a future, I feel as though being a young artist in the region utilizes a sense of urgency in being and creating: to engrave my name into its present and history so that I am able to rewrite my own history and my people's history. Despite the over-emphasis on the -isms that negate or ostracize a lived experience, and pushing to the side the over institutionalization of art that packages it as product and not as creation, the region has the youth of its land and of its people––both locals and migrants––that have cultivated a home here and that are instilled with a greater sense of creativity and life.

Name: Veer Mangnani

Place of Birth: Dubai

Title of the work: ++ Phantasies ++

Media: Mixed Media

Describe your practice:

Attempting to put my brain on paper.

What was your experience of Art education?

Self taught artist for 10 years.

Studied Art as an iGCSE subject for 2 years.

Studied Art as an AS-Level subject for 1 year.

Currently studying in BA Fine Art in the Czech Republic.

EBI: What should Art education be?

A balance of control. The artist should be allowed to explore their own techniques and influences with freedom. However, there should be a strict theoretical aspect to follow, with teachers who can offer helpful critique and advice.

What is it like to be a young artist in this region?

It’s tough. Unless you’re “in the know”, opportunities will be snatched away from you. It’s easy to move towards things you feel like many people will relate to, but finding your own voice in this region is a necessity. Do you, as corny as that sounds.

Name:Alla Abdunabi

Place of Birth: Germany, Freiburg

Title of Artwork: Women of Libya

Media: Infograph, Interactive installation

Website: https://allaabdunabi.com/

Describe your practice:

Alla Abdunabi is a multicultural artist whose passion for design is not limited to one medium. Through her experience living in the East and West, she aims to bridge the gap and highlight multicultural lifestyles while remaining true to her traditional Arabic roots. Her latest work redefines pre-established narratives of history and culture through visual storytelling; her practice results in short films, interactive installations, and visual design.

Alla's films and installations have been exhibited at galleries and festivals such as P21 Gallery 'Pop Art from North Africa' (U.K.), The International Woman Filmmakers Festival (Turkey), Women Film Fair Middle-East (U.A.E), and more. She also participated in curating local exhibitions in collaboration with the AUS College of Architecture, Art and Design, such as Irthi Craft Council: 'More than Meets the Eye,' and Dubai Design Week: 'Towards Huroof Central.'

WWW: What was your experience of Art education:

My experience of Art education started at a young age in the U.K. The emphasis placed on helping me nurture and develop my creative skills was necessary and a reason for my success as an artist today. Additionally, my experience in the U.A.E. helped me understand cultural relevances and the importance of identity and heritage within my work.

EBI: What should art education be:

Art education should encompass and be representative of many cultures and perspectives. Students of this field create artwork guided by their own experiences of culture and identity. Art should translate the human experience into a form that people of all cultures and languages can understand.

What is it like being a young artist in the region: As an artist in the U.A.E., I find that cultural work is celebrated and used as a tool to understand and learn about different customs and traditions in the region.

Place of Birth: Pakistan

Title of the work: HerStory

Media: Digital Painting

Website: https://www.instagram.com/khansaaa01/?hl=en

Describe your practice:

My art practice is a culmination of my personal and intellectual experiences as a feminist artist and researcher. Navigating through patriarchal domestic spaces, and becoming a subject of socio cultural politics as a subject matter is yet to be explored. The scholastic and artistic discourse regarding female bodies more often than not reduces itself down to the biological findings, but my research focuses on the sociological aspects that go beyond the corporeal. Observing the women around me, especially my mother as a case study, I go back to my experiences of living in a patriarchal society. Forming a journey from living unaware of the forces that take away from my agency to identify and demystify them.

What was your experience of Art Education?

WWW: My experience of Art Education started at a very early age as I was interested in the traditional style of art ever since childhood. Painting and drawing was something I did out of passion. In my late teens, I started my journey of what we call “Art Education” as I studied Visual Communication Design at the Beaconhouse National University, Lhr, Pakistan. As an artist and as a student ­- I began to question what it was that essentially made us who we are and Art Education brought me to a point where deconstructing the reality of what was being fed to us became a habit.

EBI: What should Art Education be?

Art is moving beyond what we know and finding new dimensions around the realities of how we perceive things. Art Education should first be taught as a means to question the ideas and structures that form our learning to the point where societal, cultural and traditional barriers are broken down and an artistic vernacular is created.

What is it like to be a young artist in the region?

As a South Asian woman, UAE has given me the space to express my artistic ideas in a way that I can connect with a global audience. Being a kernel of creative expression and diversity, UAE offers a space to unravel.

Place of Birth: UAE

Title of Work: Bloob font - خط بلوب

Media: Arabic Type Design

Describe your practice:

Saba Sayfaiee is a multidisciplinary designer from the United Arab Emirates. Her main interests lie in editorial design, typography, and branding. She examines and explores different cultural, social, and philosophical topics through different mediums. In 2021, she graduated with a B.S. in Visual Communication from the American University of Sharjah.

The Arabic typeface is called Bloob to reflect the roundness and thickness of the font. The dots are the exact same size as the counters, making the user bounce back and forth between the negative and positive space. Bloob typeface has a thick baseline with contrasting thinner verticals making it the perfect display font.

Bloob is derived from an initial lettering composition of a Kufi variation I designed in the Experimental Arabic Typography class at AUS (2021) taught by Hala Al Ani and Riem Ibrahim.

WWW: What was your experience of Art education?

Getting a degree in Visual Communication was an incredible source of knowledge, skills, and a wonderful experience. Not only did I learn a lot through lectures and studio classes, but through being surrounded by and interacting with likeminded people. My professors were very supportive, inside and outside of the classroom, and always went that extra mile to push us to experiment, take risks, and do our best. I think the first year of design school is crucial; it helped build my foundation. Being in a studio setting, giving and receiving feedback from others, really helped me to think critically as well as to take criticism. Unfortunately, the covid pandemic affected studio access and facilities, but nevertheless, pushed me to take inventive measures to keep developing my work.

EBI:What should Art education be?

I think Art education should be collaborative, versatile, critical, and experimental. Studying graphic design, I think it’s important to learn about and experiment with different mediums and not limit oneself to purely the digital. I studied in the UAE and throughout my degree, I took both art and design history classes. However, one thing that is crucial and was lacking in these classes was specifically Arabic art history. We briefly learned about Islamic architecture and manuscripts but that was about it. We could’ve learned so much more about Arab artists, designers, Arabic typography, Arabic poster design, etc. I think it is very important to learn about your history in relation to your field. At my school, only recently, did we get an Arabic Experimental Typography class, which I commend and was long overdue. There are technical differences between Arabic and English typography that cannot be understood and applied if only one is taught.

What is it like to be a young artist in this region:

The art scene is very fresh, young, and interconnected, especially in the UAE. One great aspect is that it is more collaborative than hyper-competitive as of now. Meaning, as a young artist or designer, it is easier to pursue and get more opportunities, whether it is applying for a grant, an open call, or freelancing projects. It is something to take advantage of because that may not always be the case. With that being said, the art and design scene has only very recently been getting more global and regional attention and importance, as it has been especially challenging to get support from outside our more localised communities. However, again, that is changing and I’m excited to see how things progress.

Name: Nathaniel Enriquez

Place of Birth: Angeles City, Philippines

Title of the work: “Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye”

IG: @nathanielenriquez_

Website: nathaniel-enriquez.format.com

Describe your practice:

Nathaniel Enriquez is a multidisciplinary artist that focuses on photography and contemporary imagery. He frequently recites his curiosities, portrayals of strange scenarios, fears, and fascinations in his practice.

Finding context through the act of making, and a process of experimentation with different mediums that inform one another. Be it from the medium of photography, painting, and ink illustrations.

WWW: What was your experience with Art education?

I studied Art GCSE in high school, and am now doing the last few months of my bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Arts. If things go as planned, I want to do a master’s degree in Fine Arts.

EBI: What should Art education be?

Art Education should be open. Open for everyone, open for consumption, open for dissection. Art Education should not be repressive. If a student latches on to an idea, it is the teacher’s duty to make that idea work, not for it to be shut down. Art Education is important because art celebrates life.

What is it like to be a young artist in this region?

Being a young artist in this region is amusing and disheartening at the same time. It feels somewhat surreal to feel the growth of the region go hand in hand with the growth of your own practice. Plenty of times that feeling of an underdeveloped environment can either go from “I’d love to contribute to the growing scene” all the way to “I’m uninspired” or “A place like this isn’t for me”. What’s keeping me afloat is the sheer curiosity on how young artists in this region will answer the same question in the future.

Name: Aya Afaneh

Place of Birth: USA

Title of the work: convolution

Media: lino print, 2021

Website: ayaafaneh.com

Describe your practice:

My practice is a space for processing, reflecting, and healing. healing. The core of my work lies in the meditative intersection of creative spaces and spiritual practice, centering the senses; both physical (sight, touch, smell, scent, and taste) and soul-based (intuition, peace, foresight, trust, empathy). This approach centers my work around the question: how does losing myself in a spiritual artistic space inspire intuitive, feminine work?

My work is not linear. It is a messy cycle of thoughts and creations that ignite one idea after another and somehow all come back together to be me. My art is a regurgitation of my soul and being, and trying to find my place in the Universe.

WWW: What was your experience of Art education?

I was lucky enough to have art be.a part of my education from early on in my life, all throughout my earlier education until my higher education. I graduated with a Bachelors of Art from New York University Abu Dhabi in May 2021, double majoring in Art and Art History and Theater, with a minor in Creative Writing. However, I found that that didn't appease me, and often looked outside of formal schooling for an art education. This was largely due to the rigidity and structure of programs that did not flow well with my own understanding of myself as an artist. I found myself making inauthentic work for the sake of my education that did little to develop or expand my practice.

EBI: What should Art education be?

Formal schooling teaches art incredibly outcome-based. You learn how to draw, paint, mold, etc and are expected to show a finished product. Sometimes you're required to submit a portfolio or your 'process', however the guidelines are often rigid and limiting.

An art education should teach process. It should allow the freedom to experiment and wander. There is more to process than simply mentioning that it exists. It should be almost entirely process-based learning, pushing students to identify their own thoughts, methods and interests from a stance of openness and flexibility. It takes time to figure out what an individual practice looks like, and even longer to realize that your practice is constantly evolving and changing. A lot of the pressure to describe your practice comes from the lack of time to actually focus on an individual practice and process. Instead focus is scattered in an art education system to appease to a group, rather than an individual.

Moreover, a lot of the art education in the region looks outwards. Students will always know the most famous European and American artists, and consider those 'the greats'. Hardly any of our education stems from the art history of our ancestors and lands. Shifting from a Western pedagogy of art education to creating our own is essential - we need to decolonize our classrooms to shed light and appreciation for the rich histories and practices that will soon be forgotten if not integrated.

What is it like to be a young artist in this region?

It can definitely be intimidating to be a young artist in the region for a plethora of reasons - limited cultural understanding of an art career, not being taken seriously, the lack of guidance in our education systems. However, as a young artist, you have so much opportunity to build and create the atmosphere you want to see. There are chances to interact with more well-established artists in a friendly and familiar way. The arts scene craves young artists to keep moving forward and evolving. Despite the scariness of entering a practice, it is so well supported if you can find and connect with the people that want to see you and your practice thrive.

Name: Ahed Alameri

Place of Birth: United Arab Emirates

Title of the work: “How Many Wars Will It Take For Flowers To Bloom?”

Media: Sculpture/Installation

Describe your practice:

My practice reflects and articulates political matters and investigates human social connections. While working primarily with text and ready-made objects, I experiment with its possibilities and address new notions. Some of my work takes inspiration from Arabic political literature and current political conflicts. my work aims to express human vulnerabilities, struggles, and thoughts through my art.

WWW: What was your experience of Art education?

Growing up, I had a poor experience with art education. It was not what our school curriculums focused on for various reasons. Art was primarily considered an extra-curricular activity, and art classes weren't taken seriously. Instead, I was introduced to the arts out of school curriculums through clubs and art institutions. And my proper art education started with my art degree in the UK.

EBI: What should Art education be?

Art education should be more accessible as I remember the struggle I've been through when I was younger trying to receive art education. Also, art education must be a priority. It should be as important as academics. It has plenty of potential, it personally did affect me and made me more creative and more open. Hence, it can significantly impact an individual and society on many different levels. The world today needs what the arts offer.

What is it like to be a young artist in this region?

It is a responsibility, and it is hard to emerge as an artist, especially with all the remaining anti-art ideologies. Yet, we have to encourage and support each other. Many still have doubts and fears about the possibility of having an actual career in the arts. Yet, more artists emerge within our region, boosting young artists with hope. And the UAE's new initiatives in promoting the arts keep me optimistic.