Ammar Al Attar UAE, b. 1981

Ammar Al Attar is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans across a wide range of media, including performance, video, sculpture, installation, printmaking and painting. He holds a MBI from the University of Wollongong (2007-2008) and a BA from the Higher Colleges of Technology - Dubai Men’s College (1999-2003).

Al Attar’s work functions as both an archive and a methodical research process, documenting and translating increasingly elusive aspects of local culture. Rituals, performances, mundane everyday tasks, architecture, site-specific installations and salvaged objects - often in a state of decay or abandonment - become the subject matter of his photography, giving them permanence and a new context.

Al Attar’s performative pieces interrogate the relationships between objects, human action, and space, exploring the various permutations that can arise between them. Through his body, Al Attar traces the conditions of his movements and environment, embedding his physicality into his work. These ephemeral gestures are preserved through photography and film, blurring the boundaries between art and the mundane moments of everyday life.

A distinctive aspect of his practice is his obsessive focus on repetition and consistency. The recurring patterns and imagery, across multiple media and scales, reflect his desire to perfect the representation of a concept or image. His mark-making—often resembling a binary code of circles and lines—carries dual significance. The circle symbolizes repetition and the cyclical nature of life, while the line represents personal and societal boundaries. On a deeper level, however, his work comments on the dehumanizing effects of contemporary surveillance and control. In a world where individuals are reduced to ones and zeros, they are tracked, commodified, and stripped of agency.

Al Attar has exhibited internationally, with notable solo exhibitions including Out of Range at 421, Abu Dhabi (2022); Dubai Cinemas at the Al Marmoum Film Festival (2022); Deformation at Cuadro Art Gallery, Dubai (2017); Plaza Cinema, a commission by Al Serkal Avenue, Dubai (2017); Salah at Cuadro Art Gallery, Dubai (2015); and Sibeel Water at Cuadro Art Gallery, Dubai (2013), among others. His early exhibitions include Prayer Rooms at Athr Gallery, Jeddah (2013), and Prayer Rooms at Al Riwaq Art Gallery, Bahrain (2013).

Recent group shows include The Circle Was A Point at Barjeel Foundation, Sharjah (2024); Time and Identity at Dubai Culture (2023); and The Shot at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi (2022). He was also part of the UAE Pavilion at Expo 2020 in the exhibition On Foraging (2021-2022) and Place I Call Home (2019-2020), a touring exhibition across the GCC and the UK. Other key group exhibitions include Art Abu Dhabi Commission at Qasr Al Muaigai, Al Ain (2018); Place and Unity in Abu Dhabi (2016); and Sharjah Biennial (2013), among many others.

He has formerly been commissioned by Mercedes Benz, COP28, the UAE Pavilion at Expo 2020 and the Dubai International Film Festival. He initiated the Reverse Moments research project (2015-present) and has been featured in several publications, including Art Index 1.0 (2015) and #UAEINCHROME (2019). Al Attar also served as the photo editor for Building Sharjah (2022).

He received the first prize for installations at the Emirates Fine Arts Society Annual Exhibition (2014) and is the finalist of the Emirates Photography Exhibition (2014). He has participated in artist residencies, including with Art Dubai 2013.

His works have been acquired by significant international collections including: Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF), Abu Dhabi; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; British Museum, London; Citibank, Dubai; Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi; Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah; Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi; Museum of the Future, Dubai; Qasr Al Watan, Abu Dhabi; Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), Sharjah; USA Department of State, Jeddah; Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Yinchuan and Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi.

Ammar Al Attar lives and works in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.