Hello,

I’m an artist, film curator and writer from Dubai. My interests lie in cinema, cities, visual culture and archives. 

As a self-taught artist, I work primarily in analogue photography and lately with moving image. My practice delves into themes of collective memory and pop culture in the Gulf region, the notion of heritage, the depiction of Dubai in the media, and state-run marketing and PR. In a place that is fast growing and perpetuating an image of newness, my work is an ongoing documentation of my surroundings through photography, research, and collecting.
Since 2004, my work has been exhibited in the UAE and internationally, and in 2021 I had my first solo exhibition. My work is in the collections of UAE Unlimited and Sharjah Art Foundation. My art portfolio can be viewed here.

As a film curator, I am interested in sharing with audiences a diverse and expansive understanding of cinema that goes beyond the commercial arthouse and mainstream films, and in shedding more light on cinema from the Gulf region and classics of Arab cinema. As a lifelong cinephile, watching films help me to make sense of the world, and my film programmes aim to open up discussions to allow me and audiences to think together publicly. I am also interested in working with cultural institutions in the UAE to become more engaged with cinema and act as alternative spaces to show films.
Since 2017, I’ve curated film screenings for local institutions including National Pavilion UAE, NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Sharjah Art Foundation, The Africa Institute, Alliance Française Dubai, and Jameel Arts Centre.
I run The Culturist Film Club, which started online in 2020 and since 2022 I have been hosting in-person screenings and discussions at various venues. 
In 2017 I was part of the selection committee for the UAE submission to the Foreign Language Film Award category at the Academy Awards, organised by the now defunct Dubai International Film Festival. In 2020 I became a jury member for The Critics Awards at the Arab Cinema Center. Most recently, I was included in Screendaily’s Future Leaders 2024: Film Festival Programmers and Curators to Watch.  
You can see my film curation portfolio here.

As a writer, I’ve contributed to local publications and I’m currently the Moving Image Editor for Tribe magazine, a non-profit publication and platform that focuses on photography and moving image from the Arab World. I am also the founder of The Culturist, a blog I launched in 2009. I started it to share and keep a record of cultural events and happenings in Dubai and across the UAE. I worry about collective cultural forgetfulness here in the UAE, which happens frequently, one of the symptoms of living in a city that perpetuates an image of newness. Like my photography, the blog is a way for me to remember. Links to some of my writings can be found here.

In 2015 I co-founded the Tea with Culture podcast which I run with Wael Hattar. It features discussions and interviews about the visual arts and cinema. 

For news and upcoming events, please join my mailing list.
If you’d like to collaborate or just say hello, please contact me here.