Dana Awartani

Where The Dwellers Lay

Ranging from painting and sculpture to performance and multimedia installation, Awartani’s work is imbued with the forms, techniques, concepts, and spatial constructs that define Arab culture with contemporary awareness. She trained at Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London, where she earned a master’s degree. Her work often revolves around the highly codified and symbolically laden language of geometry. The timeless relevance of forms and the wisdom embedded in traditional crafts are harnessed to tackle issues of gender, healing, cultural destruction, and sustainability in a constant effort to straddle continuity and innovation, aesthetic experimentation, and social relevance.  

Awartani lives and works in Jeddah. Her solo exhibition venues include Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (2018); the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2017); and Athr Gallery, Jeddah (2015). Her work is in the collections of the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, Jameel Arts Centre, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, the British Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum, among others.