DUBAI.- Dwelling in the Gap is Shaikha Al Mazrou’s second solo exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi. Here Al Mazrou develops the forms and language of her practice, and extends her investigations into materiality, tension and the interplay between structure and content. Her materials appear to betray their functions and their fixed properties. This space of ambiguity - between the intent of the artist and the possibilities of her materials – results in the gap that is central to her creative process.

Al Mazrou’s new sculptures are partially inspired by the properties and possibilities of folded and creased paper, transmuted into stainless steel. Inflated and folded, they resemble giant displays of origami, the shapes of which are drawn from small-scale paper prototypes created by the artist. Finished in vibrant blocks of colour, which range from her signature red, together with yellow, orange, blue and teal, the works embody characteristics that are simultaneously organic and synthetic.

Complementing these steel sculptures are Irrational Figures, a new series of ten works, laser-cut laminated wood-grained structural forms laid down on paper. The structures twist themselves together, interlocking, turning like mazes, some in eternal knots. The gap between their seeming solidity and their actual flatness, results in unresolvable tensions.

Al Mazrou’s recent works, both in steel and in wood, result from a similar action of laser-cutting and piecing shapes together, yet they also contain opposing systems of compression and expansion. Whilst Irrational Forms materialize solely from the imagination, the fabrication of the steel sculptures is made possible through reference to their small-scale paper prototypes. Through the interplay of flat and rounded surfaces, rising and descending folds, and empty spaces, Al Mazrou offers an art of mystery, becoming and re-forming.

SHAIKHA AL MAZROU (b. 1988, UAE) received her MFA in 2014 at the Chelsea College of Fine Art, University of the Arts, London where she was awarded the prestigious MFA Student Prize. Prior to that she studied at the College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah where she later was a Sculpture Lecturer. Currently she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Al Mazrou’s practice is anchored in the history of art, borrowing formally from minimalism and intellectually from conceptual art. Influenced by artists from the Modernist and Bauhaus Movements - such as Paul Klee, Carle Andre and Wassily Kandinsky - Al Mazrou uses the formal aspects of minimalism to engage with a current fascination with materiality in art. She combines and evolves ideas from contemporary artistic movements similarly preoccupied with formal and material elements, from colour theory to geometric abstraction.




Often in her works she combines mass-produced materials - such as electronic waste or construction materials - with colour and form, experimenting with these resources to create abstract geometric arrangements. Fascinated by notions of physical space, her sculptures and installations materialise as simple gestures that emphasise the representation of tension, weight and space.

Al Mazrou is the recipient of a number of public art commissions both locally and internationally - her large scale installations forming a natural and significant extension to her studio practice. In October 2022, Al Mazrou’s Red Stack (2022) - the largest single work by the artist to date – was presented at Frieze Sculpture 2022 in The English Garden, Regent's Park, London. The public art exhibition curated by Clare Lilley, ran alongside Frieze London and Frieze Masters.

Her most recent public commission When Mountains are Domesticated, 2022, is a two-part installation in resin for Al Ula International Airport’s executive terminal, commissioned by Capsule Arts on behalf of the Royal Commission of Al Ula.

Earlier in 2022 she presented a major public art installation entitled Measuring Physicality of Void for the second edition of Desert X AlUla, Saudi Arabia. Her large-scale sculpture The Plinth, 2021, was commissioned as part of the Expo 2020 Public Art Programme, curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh. In 2018 she was awarded the first Artist's Garden commission by the Jameel Arts Centre for her public piece Green House: Interior yet Exterior, Manmade yet Natural (2018). She has also been commissioned by Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF), Abu Dhabi Art, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority and The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC).

Recent solo exhibitions include Rearranging the Riddle, Maraya Art Centre Sharjah, Sharjah (2020), Expansion/Extension, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2019), Solo Projects, Abu Dhabi Art with Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2018).

She has participated in a number of group exhibitions including: ICON. ICONIC., Art Here 2022 Richard Mille Art Prize, Louvre Abu Dhabi (2022), Art Dubai, with Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2022), Blue, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2020), Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize Finalist Exhibition, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto (2020), Upsurge: Waves, Colour And Illusion, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2020), MATERIALIZE, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2019), Artissima, Dialogue section, with Lawrie Shabibi, Torino (2018), From Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: Works from the MACBA Art Collection in Dialogue with the Emirates, organised by ADMAF, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi (2018), Beyond: Emerging Artists, Abu Dhabi Art (2017), Art of Nature, Abu Dhabi Festival, Umm Al Emarat Park, Abu Dhabi (2017), Homage Without An Homage, curated by Cristiana De Marchi, Art Dubai, Julius Baer Lounge, Dubai (2017), Faculty Show, Al Rewaq Gallery, College of Fine Art, University of Sharjah, Sharjah (2017), Abu Dhabi Art, with Lawrie Shabibi, Abu Dhabi (2016), Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates, Bolivar Art Gallery, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA (2016).

Her works have been acquired by significant international collections, including The Farjam Foundation, Dubai; The Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, USA; Art Jameel Collection, Dubai; The Dubai Collection, Dubai; The Royal Commission for Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia; EXPO Dubai Collection, Dubai; Ellie Khouri Collection, Dubai; Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, Abu Dhabi; Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi.

She is a winner of the Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize (2020) and is shortlisted for the Louvre Abu Dhabi Richard Mille Art Prize. Al Mazrou currently lives and works in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.