Shaqayeq Arabi is an artist whose practice moves across painting, collage, wearable works, object-making and installation.
Her work draws on sensory experiences, memories and impressions gathered from everyday life. Through an intuitive process of collecting, composing and connecting fragments, she transforms these encounters into abstract forms and compositions that evoke associations with both the natural and built environments.
Working with humble, often fragile materials — paper, fabric, twigs, stones and found objects — alongside industrial elements such as wire and metal mesh, Arabi explores the shifting relationships between materiality, representation and abstraction. Her process is spontaneous and intimate, moving between intention and discovery, as materials and unexpected encounters open up new possibilities.
Fragility and impermanence are central to her visual language. Embracing the vulnerability, irregularity and changing nature of materials, her works reflect on memory, the passage of time, and the delicate relationship between humanity and its environment. Often loosely assembled, suspended or allowed to evolve, they hold a tension between adaptation and stability, permanence and decay.
Each work forms part of an ongoing process of gathering and transformation, building upon previous experiences while opening up possibilities for what comes next.
EXHIBITIONS
2026 - “Echos ”, with Fereydoun Ave, Shiva Zahed Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
2025 - “Improvisation ”, Gallery Isabelle, Dubai, UAE
2025 - “Reconstructed Landscape”, Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE
2023 - “Migrating Garden”, NADA house, New York, USA
2023 - “The Delicate Things That Girls Do”, Signs & Symbols, New York, USA
2022 - “The Sea Was Far Away And The Sky Further”, Farjam Foundation, Dubai, UAE
2022 - “In The Space Between Rocks”, Group show, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2020 - “And There Were Gardens”, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2020 - “Dancing on Stilts”, Signs & Symbols, New York, USA
2018 - “Fragments, notes & lines” with Fereydoun Ave & Ali Razavi, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2017 - “Elsewhere”, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2017 - “Roots” with Fereydoun Ave, Dastan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2016 - “Visual Dialogues” with Fereydoun Ave, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2016 - “Image of the Self”, Group show, Aaran Projects, Tehran, Iran
2015 - “Cy Twombly and the Line Calligraphic”, Group show, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2015 - “SUSPENDED”, Aaran Projects, Tehran, Iran
2015 - “Bits and Pieces: Collages and Assemblages” with Fereydoun Ave, Shirin Gallery, New York, USA
2015 - “Study of an Upturned Ziggurat”, Dept. of Signs & Symbols, Brooklyn, USA
2015 - “Assemblages/Tehran/Spring 2015”, Dastan’s Basement, Tehran, Iran
2014 - “Roots” with Fereydoun Ave, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2012 - “Memories within”, AB Gallery, Switzerland
2012 - “Sinking Ships” with Dariush Zandi, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2010 - “Rolled Canvas”, Aun Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2010 - “13 Artists for the New Day”, Group exhibition, Aun Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2009 - “Scraps” with Dariush Zandi, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2007 - “Kucheh Osko, Pelak 33”, Group show, Artist’s house, Tehran, Iran
2007 - “Dubai Dubai”, Group show, Total Arts at the Courtyard, Dubai, UAE
2006 - “A piece of …..”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2004 - Group exhibition, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE
1999 - “Melted Plastics”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1999 - Sculpture biennale, Tehran Contemporary Museum of Art, Tehran, Iran
1996-1998 - Painting exhibitions, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran