BIO - EBTISAM ABDULAZIZ

Ebtisam Abdulaziz is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. She explores issues of identity and culture through installation, performance, painting and works on paper. Combining the scientific with the arbitrary, Abdulaziz is methodical in her explorations of subconscious states and the expansiveness of daily life. She creates codes, systemic structures, graphic language, and performative gestures to force viewers to question their assumptions about rules in the natural and formulaic world. The intimate juxtapositions of these concepts center awareness on the human condition, our surrounding environment and the issues that perplex and shape us.

Ebtisam Abdulaziz (b. 1975, Sharjah, UAE) work has been exhibited at the 53rd Venice Biennale as part of the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi Pavilions, Venice, Italy; at the 7th and 10th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Dubai Next, Basel; The Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France; The Kunst Museum, Bonn, Germany; The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Benin Biennial 2012, Kora Centre, Benin; FotoFest Biennial, Art in Houston, Texas; Cara Gallery; Smack Mellon gallery in New York; NYUAD Art Gallery; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts; Tampa; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. In 2014, her work was part of the touring exhibition of Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates, which took place across several American cities and is included in international collections. Her installations, paintings, works on paper and videos are held in numerous public and private collections. Her video work, Autobiography 2007, was purchased for the Guggenheim Museum collection, Abdu Dhbai, UAE. Abdulaziz was named as one of 100 powerful Arab Women of 2013 list. She has been living between Abu Dhabi and Washington, D.C. since 2014.