Alia Zaal

Alia Zaal is a multidisciplinary artist from the UAE who explores memory, history and the changing urban and natural environment of her surroundings. Exploring the connection between vision and perception, her work often tracks the interplay between digital and analogue.


Her paintings are based on personal photographs - of interiors, landscapes and scenes extracted from her visual diary. The transformation of images from one medium to another is seen as an allegory of the perceptions and lenses through which memories pass.

 

In residency in Claude Monet's former house

In November 202, Alia Zaal inaugurated the new residence programme of the Maison Oscar-Claude (MOC) in Vétheuil, France. The MOC is dedicated to promoting the memory of Claude Monet, his contemporaries and the illustrious people of this loop of the Seine through its library, its international residences and its creative retreats.

During the first phase of her residency, the artist continued her research on the scientific and neurological aspects of eyesight in relation to art; an interest that she began to explore and study to better understand the eyesight of her father Zaal whose drawings have fascinated her since her childhood. She combines different processes of image-recording such as photography, film, and drawing with ‘plein-air painting’, in the manner of Modernist painters from Cézanne to Monet. Responding to Impressionism, Alia Zaal studies the natural landscapes of Vétheuil, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, both in their natural and artificial ecosystems. Thereby, the artist reimagines familiar sceneries of the sea, the desert, and the city lit by the sun, the moon, and street lights.

The first chapter of her residency will be presented in the 'I Saw Time Passing (I) exhibition at Foundry, Downtown Dubai, in March-April 2022. The second chapter, 'I Saw Time Passing (II)' will be presented in July 2022 in Vétheuil.

"I Saw Time Passing (I)"
“I Saw Time Passing (I)” a solo show by Alia Zaal by Hunna Art (Oceane Sailly)

Alia Zaal (b.1989) holds a BA in Fine Arts (Univ. of Sharjah) and an MA in Art History and Museum Studies (Sorbonne University).

Alia Zaal’s artwork has appeared in exhibitions across the world, from the UAE to Bangladesh, Germany, Spain, Venice, New York, Bethlehem and beyond. Her paintings have been acquired by the Embassy of the UAE in Washington DC and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and form part of private collections such as that of the Barjeel Art Foundation. In 2010, she won 2nd Prize at the Bangladesh 14th Asian Art Biennal.

In 2022, Alia Zaal participated in the "Pathways" exhibition organized by Hunna Art in collaboration with Raffles The Palm Dubai. Currently, she is having her first solo exhibition, "I Saw Time Passing (I)" at Foundry Downtown (Dubai), which will be followed by a second solo show in Spring 2023 in Vétheuil (France).

"I Saw Time Passing (I)", exhibition view

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