Rizq Art Initiative (RAi) in Abu Dhabi presents Being is Elsewhere, a two-person exhibition featuring Iranian-born artist Zahra Shafie and Palestinian-Lebanese-American artist Tala Hammoud Atrouni. Spanning paintings, sculptures, installations, and textile pieces, the exhibition explores memory and the shifting concept of home. Curated by Meena Vari (RAi’s Creative Director and Chief Curator), it will be open to the public until 30 June 2025.
Bringing together two distinct but intersecting artistic practices, the show creates a contemplative space where displacement, identity, and transformation converge. Shafie and Atrouni each offer nuanced perspectives on belonging, absence, and the ever-evolving relationship between self and place.
Zahra Shafie’s practice investigates the emotional terrain of diaspora and the boundaries of identity. Her art pieces in Being is Elsewhere evoke themes of loss, longing, and erasure. Through meticulous depictions of the human form, often entwined with organic elements like thorns, leaves, and flowers, Shafie reflects on the symbolic interplay between body and nature, suggesting a deeper inquiry into the human condition and the psychological imprint of dislocation.
Tala Hammoud Atrouni, whose work is rooted in abstraction, engages with the fragility of memory and the traces of cultural rupture. Her works, which span photography, illustration, sculpture, and installation, interrogate the boundaries between personal and collective histories. In this exhibition, she examines ideas of return, ruin, and reconstruction, emphasising textures and materials that carry both emotional weight and political resonance.
About the artists
Zahra Shafie (b. 1986, Tehran, Iran) is an interdisciplinary artist working in video, installation, painting, and text. She holds a BA in Painting from the College of Arts at Shahed University (Tehran). Her work often addresses the hierarchical construction of identity and the influence of power structures. By integrating detailed renderings of the human body with symbolic natural forms, Shafie explores emotional and psychological landscapes shaped by displacement and intuition.
Her work has been featured in many exhibitions, including Iranian Artists Relief (Mayten’s projects, Toronto, Canada, 2021); Where in Time Am I Standing? (solo) (Aaran Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, 2016); Hope Dreams Desire (Open Walls Gallery, Stattbad Wedding, Berlin, Germany, 2015); the Second Painting & Sculpture Annual Exhibition (Iranian Artists Forum, Tehran, 2013); and the First Women’s Art Festival (Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, 2007), among others.
Tala Hammoud Atrouni (b. 1977, Beirut, Lebanon) resides in Abu Dhabi. She earned her BFA from the Lebanese American University in Beirut (1998) and an MFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco (USA, 2005). Her art reflects a deep engagement with themes of memory, exile, and the material echoes of cultural displacement.
Through a tactile and conceptual approach, Atrouni constructs spatial narratives that blur the line between architecture and the human experience. Often working with materials like stone, thread, and paper, she suggests gestures of repair and remembrance within fragmented landscapes. She has showcased her works in different exhibitions and art events, including the Sikka Art & Design Festival (Dubai, 2025) and the Florence Biennale 2023 (Italy).
To get more information about Being is Elsewhere, please go to the exhibition’s official web page.
You might also be interested in visiting The Promise by Bashir Makhoul and Reverie by Reynier Llanes.
