This lark sips at every pond: women as artist and muse is an exhibition curated by Sarah Daher, hosted at maisan15 opening February 3rd 2021. The exhibition will continue through March 28th and features the work of 6 female artists which will be exhibited in the space.

A variety of mediums including painting, photography, poetry, music, and video will be on show. Additionally the exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring commissioned writing by two additional women. The work on show addresses the theme of the muse, responding to the historical trajectory of females as fountains of inspiration. The exhibition asks crucially: what does the muse become when it is diffracted through the eye of a female artist? Where can inspiration dwell? And how can it be tapped?

The artists represented in the show are: Aliyah AlAwadhi, Mashael Alsaie, Juletta, Marta Lamovsek, Cristalina Parra, and Amina Yahia.

Aliyah Al Awadhi is a recent graduate of Zayed University and a member of the current SEAF cohort; she most often works in the medium of painting but has recently begun to experiment with a number of other mediums including glitch video. Two of her paintings and one of her videos will be exhibited.

Mashael Alsaie is a photographer and video artist based between Bahrain and the UAE. A graduate of UC Berkeley and NYU she is also a member of the current SEAF cohort. Her work addresses narratives of Arab womanhood, mythology, and GCC culture; she will be exhibiting three photographic prints.

Juletta is a New York based singer and songwriter, a student of the Clive Davis Institute of Music her recent project takes material from interviews she conducted with women across New York City as source material for an album. She curates a playlist of her music and her inspirations for the maisan15 exhibition.

Marta Lamovsek is a Dubai-based multimedia artist and a graduate of Central St. Martins in London. Best-known for her portraits in which she depicts muses of hers in extravagant attire she will be showing three prints of which one is a collage photograph.

Cristalina Parra is a Chilean poet and writer who works bilingually. For This lark sips at every pond she writes a commissioned menu poem musing on the food served at maisan15 and shows two additional poems that explore what it means for two Emirati cities to be her muses.

Amina Yahia is an Egyptian visual artist based in Abu Dhabi. Her recent work focuses on what it is to be a woman in contemporary Egypt; she exhibits a diptych of paintings.

For full artist bios please inquire at email address below.

Maisan15 is a café/gallery/library/garden run by artist Rami Farook. Their ongoing exhibition program gives curatorial opportunities to early career curators to show work predominantly locally based.

Sarah Daher is a curator and writer currently based between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, originally from Lebanon. She is a graduate of NYU Abu Dhabi where she studied a double major in Theater and Economics and is imminently a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London where she is pursuing a masters degree in Curating Contemporary Art. She is currently working towards an exhibition in May in collaboration with Gasworks in London. Sarah currently works as a researcher for Temporary Art Platform in Beirut. Some of her previous work includes curating an exhibition from Dr. Zaki Nusseibeh’s art collection held at Manarat Al Saadiyat, research and teaching assistance positions for professors Salwa Mikdadi and Debra Levine, and work at the Live Art Development Agency in London.

For more information about the exhibition, the artists on show, or for access to a digital copy of the exhibition publication please email: sarah.daher@network.rca.ac.uk

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