Artistic Development Program 2024 grantees

We are pleased to announce that artists Mona Ayyash, Hana El-Sagini, and Realiity Collective have been selected for the 2024 Artistic Development Program. The capacity building program supports artists through the production of a major body of work that culminates in a solo exhibition at the 421 campus in Abu Dhabi. The artists were selected through an annual open call that invites UAE-based practitioners to propose ambitious new projects that require additional support. 

Mona Ayyash is a Dubai-based visual artist whose practice focuses on repetition, memorization, slowness, and boredom. She holds an MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her work was exhibited in NIKA Project Space in 2023, Jameel Art Centre in 2021, and Maraya Art Centre as part of the UAE Unlimited program in 2019. She took part in the Homebound Residency with 421 in 2020 and was an artist-in-residence at the Alserkal Residency for their Fall 2017 cycle.

Hana El-Sagini is a Cairo-born multidisciplinary artist based in Dubai. Notable achievements include her 2018 solo show at Zamalek Art Gallery, participation in “Something else Off Biennale,” and receiving The Dean Collection Award. She continued her artistic journey in Düsseldorf, Berlin’s Universität Der Künst, and received her MFA from Basel’s Institute Kunst. Her work was also part of the Fondation Beyeler’s 25th Anniversary exhibition. In 2023, her piece “The Big Blue Slipper” was acquired by Rotterdam’s Fenix Museum. She is currently part of the Campus Art Dubai 10.0 X Public Art group.

“Realiity” is the collective duo Saeed Almadani and Ahmad AlAttar, who intend to explore the intersection between art and technology. 

Saeed AlMadani holds a Master’s degree in printmaking from the Royal College of Art in London. His practice draws on elements of conceptual, minimalist, scientific, and abstract strategies, where he explores the relationship between identity and place, and the process of writing and non-representational art in articulating attachments and in (de)constructing identities. His work also questions how objects and performance combined allow for the construction of meaning, obsession, and a sense of place. In 2014, Saeed completed the Sheikha Salama Foundation and Rhode Island School of Design Emerging Artist Fellowship. He was the recipient of the Abraaj Innovation Scholarship Award and the Salama Emerging Artist Scholarship. 

Ahmad AlAttar completed his Bachelor in Mechatronic Systems Engineering at Simon Fraser University, Canada back in 2017, where he graduated with honors. He obtained his Masters in Electronics Engineering and Management from King’s College London in 2019. Ahmad is now pursuing a PhD in Robotics and AI Engineering at Imperial College London. His research focuses on robot motion learning and he is interested in exploring the intersection of art and technology through the creation of mechatronic systems and how they can embody human emotions and portray socio-cultural dilemmas.

The 421 Artistic Development Program is an exhibition process that emphasizes the professional and creative development of its participating artists. Conceived as a commissioning exhibition, participating artists are supported by experienced art educators and/or a senior curator from the region, along with the 421 team, through a structured educational model of production, toward a major exhibition.

This program opens opportunities to UAE-based artists with rigorous and sustained practices and allows them space to continue to experiment. It also encourages artists to think deeply about the reception of their work within a public institution, the connection, communication, and multidimensional interaction with their communities, and the ways different communities interact with their work.

The program is organized in partnership with The Institute for Emerging Art.