Emirati artist Shamsa Al Omaira is staging her first solo exhibition since 2012 in Abu Dhabi. Titled “Hard like Tears; Soft like Glass,” the show marks the culmination of a yearlong mentorship with UAE-based curator and art critic Nadine Khalil, through Iris Projects. The mentorship supported the development of Omaira’s practice and her experimentation with new mediums, including woodwork, stitching and installation.
A multidisciplinary artist and designer, Omaira often frames her work as a form of personal confessions, conceptually exploring diverse emotional and psychological states.
“Hard like Tears; Soft like Glass” reveals Shamsa Al Omaira’s innate ability to translate intimate, lived experience into material form,” Maryam Al Falasi, founder of Iris Projects, told Al-Monitor. “Emerging from a yearlong mentorship with Nadine Khalil, and following her recent sell-out works in our booth at Abu Dhabi Art, this exhibition marks her as one of the most compelling emerging female artists working in Abu Dhabi today.”
The works on display explore themes including family, childhood, generational divides and the duality of language. Largely conceptual in style and grounded in local personal and collective culture, many of the pieces draw directly on the artist’s lived experiences. Omaira, the second-youngest in a family of 10, grew up in what she describes as an intensive family life, an upbringing that shaped her understanding of how to articulate in a clear and original voice.
