Manal Aldowayan – Sustainability Roadmap

UreCulture is working with Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan developing our Sustainability Roadmap for some of her current projects. UreCulture has also advised Manal in relation to contractual agreements that are required as part of her studio´s projects, with a focus on public art.

Manal AlDowayan is long invested in interrogating the gender-biased customs that impact the condition of women in Saudi Arabia, AlDowayan is a sensitive yet critical witness to the cultural metamorphosis engulfing the Kingdom. Her practice regularly shifts and evolves—from the assertive black and white photographic portraits of highly skilled working women in her early I Am series (2005), to the research-driven Crash (2014) documenting media silence on fatal road accidents involving commuting women schoolteachers. Equally recognized for her work in sound, neon, and sculpture, AlDowayan is perhaps best known for the participatory installations Suspended Together (2011) and Esmi-My Name (2012), the result of workshops offering channels for thousands of women in the Kingdom to address unjust social customs.

AlDowayan’s work has been exhibited regionally and internationally in such institutions as the Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE (2016); Santander Art Gallery, Madrid (2016); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA (2015); the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada (2015); Prospect New Orleans, American Biennial, USA (2014), Gwangju Museum of Art, South Korea (2014); Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2014), the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2013), in collateral shows at the Venice Biennale (2009/11), among others. Her works can be found in the collections of the British Museum, London; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha. She participated in the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, USA (2015) and the artist-in-residence program at the Delfina Foundation, London (2009). She also received a research fellowship from New York University Abu Dhabi (2014).  She holds a Master’s Degree in Systems Analysis and Design and a MA in Contemporary Art Practice in Public Spheres from the Royal College of Art, London. Born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 1973, Al Dowayan currently lives and works between London, Dhahran and Dubai.

Artwork Credit & Copyright: Now You See Me, Now You Don’t, Manal AlDowayan, 2020. Photo courtesy of Manal AlDowayan and Desert X, photo by Lance Gerber.

Project type: Sustainability, Public Art, Cultural Management
Year:  2020 – 2024
Location: Saudi Arabia and various worldwide