Salmah Al Mansoori

We are proud to present Who I Become at Maraya Art Centre, curated by @cimazzam , marking a significant moment in the practice of @visualsalmah From the outset, her work has carried a striking clarity, defined by focus, direction, and a deep commitment to material and process. Moving fluidly across drawing, papermaking, assemblage, and installation, her practice unfolds as an ongoing investigation into memory, place, and time. Working with handmade papers derived from palm and alfalfa fibers, alongside spices and found materials, Salmah constructs works that act as carriers of both personal and collective histories. These elements do not simply support the work, they shape its rhythm, texture, and meaning. Across the exhibition, memory is not fixed but allowed to remain fluid, layered, and in constant transformation. From early explorations of personal archives to more spatial and sculptural works where absence itself becomes material, her practice continues to expand while remaining deeply rooted in place. Who I Become brings these threads together into an open dialogue, reflecting a practice that embraces becoming as a continuous condition. There is a quiet insistence in her work, a commitment to preserving what might otherwise be overlooked, and to reactivating it through acts of making. We are proud to have supported Salmah’s journey and to witness this important chapter in her evolving practice. Firetti Contemporary

The Weight of Absence Installation by Salmah Almansoori Palm handmade paper casts The survival systems that shaped Ghayathi enabled a small desert settlement to take root, transforming nomadic movement into an enduring presence. For my people, survival was never optional; it was a way of life, sustained by ingenuity and labor-intensive practices. My work reflects that labor and the act of preserving it. I work with paper, but I also push its boundaries. By expanding papermaking into a sculptural language, my work explores the limits of surface-making, both as physical material and as metaphor. The aspiration is not to verify the past, but to hold space for it: to reconnect with our origins and honor the resilience that carried us forward. In doing so, the work invites us to imagine futures rooted in memory, material, and survival. Dual-site Installation The installation expands into the city of Al Ain, where sculptures are embedded within the Al Ain oasis landscape. In this setting, memory evolves from something personal to something shared, inviting viewers to engage with fragments as though excavated from a living archaeology. Influenced by their surroundings, the works continue to shift and transform over time. Visitors are encouraged to journey beyond Manarat Al Saadiyat, experiencing both sites as interconnected spaces shaped by memory, resilience, and a possible future. Acknowledgements @abudhabiart , Afra Al Mutairi, @celineazem , @dyalanusseibeh , Fakhera Obaid Almansoori, @firetti.contemporary , Hadef Obaid Almansoori, @idasophia_artist , @issamkourbaj , Lukas Lehmann, Mara Firetti, Maria Fatima Buensalido, Mariam Al Darmaki, May Yu Maw, Musallam Obaid Almansoori, Naam Creations, Pat Lemos, @stackandstaging , @studiountitled_ , The Ministry of Culture.

Details of Weight of Absence Palm fiber paper casts

We are pleased to present Of the Palm by Salmah Almansoori at the Ministry of Culture Majlis during Make it in the Emirates. Using laser engraving on handmade palm paper, the series explores memory, material transformation, and the relationship between landscape, labour, and identity through layered surfaces and archival gestures. Special thanks to Walter Williams for his support and collaboration in making this presentation possible.

On view at Maraya Art Centre as part of “Who I Become” curated by @cimazzam Salmah Almansoori “I Was a Forgotten Moment”, 2024–2026 Acrylic on canvas Variable dimensions In this series, Salmah Almansoori brings overlooked objects back into focus, transforming fragments of everyday life into layered visual narratives. Through walking, observing, and collecting, she captures traces of spaces once inhabited, where small elements quietly hold memory. Through painting, these forgotten moments are reawakened. Color becomes a tool for re-seeing, preserving what might otherwise disappear into the background. #SalmahAlmansoori #WhoIBecome #MarayaArtCentre #ContemporaryArt #uaescene

Artwork highlight | “Of the Palm”, 2025-2026, On view at Maraya Art Centre as part of “Who I Become”, curated by Cima Azzam In this series, Salmah Almansoori explores the palm as a shifting material, unfolding through cycles, fragments, and transformation. Working with handmade palm paper and laser engraving, the works bring together digital precision and organic irregularity, where fibers carry memory and marks become traces of what once was. Each piece reflects a continuous cycle of becoming, where material holds history beyond its original form. #SalmahAlmansoori #WhoIBecome #MarayaArtCentre #ContemporaryArt #UAEArtists

Artwork highlight | “Tracing What Remains, 2025” On view at Maraya Art Centre as part of @visualsalmah solo exhibition “Who I Become” “Tracing What Remains, 2025” Watercolor on handmade palm paper 120 × 230 cm In this series, Salmah Almansoori explores the layered cultural and ecological memory of Ghayathi. Handmade from locally sourced alfalfa and pond fibers, the paper becomes both material and method, an act of documenting a landscape once shaped by water systems. These fibers, gathered and transformed, function as an archive of place, holding within them traces of a city that has largely remained undocumented. Through mark-making, Salmah works in close dialogue with the material, allowing the fibers to guide rhythm, texture, and form. Rather than imposing an image, the surface determines the outcome, where layers are built, disrupted, and reformed over time. What emerges is not a literal depiction, but a sensory translation of place. Each work holds within it histories of survival, transformation, and ecological presence, becoming a living document rooted in tradition, shaped by modernity, and resisting cultural erasure through the act of making.

Artwork highlight | “Who I Became” On view at Maraya Art Centre as part of @visualsalmah solo exhibition “Who I Become” “Who I Became”, 2023 Photo transfer on found tiles and objects Variable dimensions In this series, Salmah Al Mansoori transforms memory into material. Drawing from fragments of her childhood home, each found object is layered through photo transfer and painting, carrying traces of lived experience. Rather than presenting memory as fixed, the works embrace its partial nature, how we remember in pieces, moments, and impressions rather than complete narratives. Through this process, identity emerges as something fluid and cumulative, shaped by places once inhabited and the emotions they continue to hold. Intimate and deeply personal, the works invite the viewer to look closer, to navigate their own relationship to memory, place, and becoming.

Witnessing the Fragments, 2026
Watercolor and spices on handmade cotton paper In this body of work, Salmah Al Mansoori approaches painting as a space of quiet reconstruction where memory, movement, and material converge. Working with watercolor and spices such as turmeric, zaatar, and chili, she builds layered surfaces that hold traces of the places she has passed through, not as fixed representations, but as shifting, sensory impressions. These works exist in between; between locations, between states of being, between what is seen and what is felt. Through accumulation and mark making, fragments of landscapes, objects, and lived experiences begin to surface and dissolve, forming compositions that are both deeply personal and universally resonant. Rather than documenting place, Al Mansoori reconstructs it through memory fluid, partial, and continuously unfolding. Each work becomes a site where material itself carries meaning, where texture becomes language, and where the act of painting transforms into a process of recognition. #SalmahAlMansoori #FirettiContemporary #ContemporaryArt #ArtDubai #EmergingArtist UAEArt MixedMedia ArtCollector GalleryLife ArtOfTheDay

A beautiful opening this past Sunday at Maraya Art Centre. Firetti Contemporary is proud to present Who I Become, a solo exhibition by Salmah Almansoori, curated by Cima Azzam. Bringing together painting, sculpture, and installation, the exhibition unfolds through acts of noticing where fragments of everyday life are transformed into vessels of memory, both personal and collective. Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate this special moment. With sincere thanks to Cima Azzam, Dr. Nina Heydemann, and the team at Shurooq, and with appreciation to H.E. Ahmed Obaid Al Qaseer for their continued support. On view until 30 July 2026. @marayaartcentre @firetti.contemporary @firetti.advisory @visualsalmah #soloexhibition #contemporanyart #worksonpaper #uaeartscene

Two exhibitions, two distinct practices, unfolding across memory, material, and transformation. “The Sky Forgets, And the Heart Remembers” by Noor Al Suwaidi and “Who I Become” by Salmah Al Mansoori, curated by Cima Azzam, opened at Maraya Art Centre in the presence of Sheikh Nahyan bin Khalifa bin Mohammed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Al Thani, H.E. Zaki Nussaiba, H.E. Shatha Al Mulla, and H.E. Ahmed Obaid Al Qaseer, CEO of Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq). معرضان، وممارستان فنّيتان متمايزتان، تتقاطعان عبر الذاكرة والمادة والتحوّل. افتُتح معرضا "تغيب من ذاكرة السماء، وتبقى في قلب لا ينسى" لنوّر السويدي و"من أكون" لسلمى المنصوري، بإشراف القيّمة قيما عزام، في مركز مرايا للفنون، بحضور الشيخ نهيان بن خليفة بن محمد بن حمدان آل نهيان، والشيخ محمد بن آل ثاني، ومعالي زكي نسيبة، وسعادة شذى الملا، وسعادة أحمد عبيد القصير، الرئيس التنفيذي لهيئة الشارقة للاستثمار والتطوير (شروق)

Maraya Art Centre invites you to the opening of “Who I Become” by Emirati artist Salmah Al Mansoori, curated by Cima Azzam. Opening next Sunday, 26 April 2026, at 11:00 am Second Floor, Maraya Art Centre يدعوكم مركز مرايا للفنون لحضور افتتاح معرض “من أكون” للفنانة الإماراتية سلمى المنصوري، بإشراف القيّمة سيما عزام. الافتتاح الأحد القادم، 26 أبريل 2026، الساعة 11:00 صباحاً الطابق الثاني، مركز مرايا للفنون