Sawsan Al Bahar

Sawsan Al Bahar is an artist, architect, and researcher whose work examines the intertwined qualities of time, place, and displacement as they are experienced across the Middle East. Born in Damascus in 1990 and raised in the UAE, Al Bahar’s practice reflects a longstanding preoccupation with the notion of “home” as a constructed myth, often drawing from her own life and family history to explore broader narratives of belonging and cultural memory.

She received her bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the American University of Sharjah in 2013 before continuing her studies in academic drawing at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence. Her multidisciplinary studio practice bridges drawing and site-specific installation, combining the structural rigor of architecture with the tactile intimacy of hand-rendered mark-making. Central to her recent work is an inquiry into the materiality and ephemerality of drawing, and how explorations of line, composition, form, and plasticity can act as conduits for remembering, erasure, and transformation.

Al Bahar’s work has been recognized internationally. In 2022, she was awarded the Massimiliano Galliani Prize for Drawing under 35, and in 2023 she was shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize. Her solo exhibitions include 33 Songs, 99 Words, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah (2023); Knocking on Doors, Casa Cavezzi, Montecchio Emilia (2023); and Talaliy’a, Firetti Contemporary, Dubai (2022). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, most recently Art Here, Louvre Abu Dhabi (2023); Abu Dhabi Art, Manarat Al Saadiyat (2023); Breaking Boundaries, Firetti Contemporary (2023); Wood You Rather Be Happy?, Firetti Contemporary (2023); and The Continuous Line, Firetti Contemporary in collaboration with Art Verona (2022).

Al Bahar currently lives and works in the United Arab Emirates.

"Waterdust" by Sawsan Al Bahar and Bahar Al Bahar is currently featured in the "Art Here 2023" exhibition at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The installation is placed with the 18th-century Damascene fountain, a prominent piece from the museum's collection, set beneath the museum's striking floating dome. "Waterdust" consists of handblown glass sculptures arranged around the octagonal fountain, placed on a floor made of meticulously crafted polygons of marble, limestone, and slate. These glass sculptures, vary in shades from bluish and greyish tones to a lush moss green. Their shapes range from small oblong forms to larger, rounded pieces, all with irregular surfaces that resemble water droplets shaped by the wind.