Alla Abdunabi (b. 2001, Freiburg) is a visual artist working in sculpture and installation.
Her practice explores the material afterlives of objects through a mode of storytelling that merges the auto-ethnographical, historical, and fictional. Positioned at the intersection of material culture and the natural world, she examines how nature is mobilised to construct political and social narratives. This often begins as a tactile engagement with an object, which evolves, inevitably, into a negotiation with its narrative construction. Naturally, her position within the Libyan diaspora, and her movements between the global North and South, inform this inquiry, mirroring the shifting trajectories of the objects and histories she engages.
She has presented solo exhibitions: Are your memories of me enough for you?, 421, Abu Dhabi (2025), and In the stomach of earth, Abu Dhabi Art Fair (2025), curated by Issam Kourbaj. Her recent group exhibitions and public presentations include All the Lands from Sunrise to Sunset, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2026); Blue Gold, Isola Space, Dubai (2026), curated by Jad Karam; Made With Your Magic, Dream City Festival, L’art Tunisie, Tunisia (2025), curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh; The imaginary museum, Rizq Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi (2025); Bygones, NYUAD Project Space, Abu Dhabi (2025), curated by Anita Shishani; and Composite, Art Jameel Youth Takeover, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2023). Abdunabi has participated in the Firestation Arts Intensive Study Programme, Doha (2025–2026), the Beyond Emerging Artists programme (2025), the Cultural Foundation Residency, Abu Dhabi (2025), the Artistic Development Program, 421 Arts Campus, Abu Dhabi (2024–2025), and the Alserkal Arts Foundation Guest Residency, Dubai (2023).
email: allaabdunabi@gmail.com
Solo Exhibitions
2025In the stomach of earth, Abudhabi Art Fair, Curated by Issam Kourbaj
Are your memories of me enough for you?, 421, Abu Dhabi
Group Exhibitions & Public Presentations
2026Made With Your Magic, Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, Curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh (forthcoming)
Arts Intensive Study programme show, The Firestation, Doha, Qatar, Curated by Wael Shawky, (forthcoming)
Made With Your Magic, Beirut Art Centre, Beirut, Curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh
All the Lands from Sunrise to Sunset, Green Art Gallery, Dubai
Blue Gold, Isola Space, Dubai, Curated by Jad Karam
2025
Made With Your Magic, Dream City Festival, L’art Tunisie, Tunisia, Curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh
The imaginary museum, Rizq Art Gallery, Abudhabi
Bygones, NYUAD Project Space, Abudhabi, Curated by Anita Shishani
2024
Porous passage, Public display, Bayt Al Mamzar, Dubai
2023
Unwritten, Unspoken & Told, Dubai Calligraphy Biennale, Foundry, Dubai, Curated by Maktoum Al Maktoum
Porous passage, Public display, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai
Composite, Art Jameel Youth Takeover, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
2022
Six Degrees: exit show, Dubai Design District, Dubai
Residencies & Programmes
2025Firestation Arts Intensive Study Programme, Doha
Beyond Emerging Artists, Abudhabi Art
Cultural Foundation Residency, Abudhabi
2024
Artistic Development Program, 421 Arts Campus, Abudhabi
2023
Alserkal Arts Foundation Guest Residency, Dubai
Talks
2026‘Subtle sites of power’, Green Art Gallery, Alserkal Arts Foundation
‘Building a Life as an Artist’, NYU Abudhabi
2025
Abudhabi Art ‘Beyond Emerging Artists’, Abudhabi
2023
‘Navigating the Art World: Theres No Such Thing’, Tabari Art space x ICD Brookefield place, Dubai
Teaching
2026‘How to Tell a Story: Travelling Images, Iconography and Historical Fiction’, Sharjah Art Foundation
A two-day theory and practice-based seminar at Sharjah Art Foundation examining historical fiction, image migration and storytelling through case studies including New Kingdom Egypt, Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas, 18th-century it narratives. The seminar applied these frameworks through practical approaches to image analysis and narrative construction.
Selected Press
‘Suni’a Bisihrika’: Eight Maqāms, Many Histories, and a Region in Flux, Exhibition review and Interview, Al Rawiya‘Suni’a Bisihrika’ Exhibition Review, Megaphone News
Q+A magazine issue 02 Interview by Mandi Keighran
What Happens When an Island, an Oasis, and an Old Airport Become Art Exhibitions? by Keshav Anand for Something Curated
Abu Dhabi Art 2025 Stakes Out Its Vision Ahead of Frieze’s Takeover, by Elisa Carollo for the Observer
Dream City 2025, “Made With Your Magic” by Melissa Gronlund, E-flux Exhibition review
11 Libyan Creatives Everyone Should Follow Right Now by Architectural Digest ME
The Maghreb Issue, Canvas Magazine, Issue 117
Art Africa Magazine, Issue 25, Exhibition Review and interview by Brendon Bell-Roberts
Symbolic exploitation of the Barbary lion and music against injustice by the National
Are your memories of me enough for you review by Rawaa Talass for Canvas
Alla Abdunabi: Solo Show Transformed How I Engage With My Work by Asharq Al Awsat