Hanaa Malallah (1958-) is an artist, researcher and educator based in London. Born in Iraq, she studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, and later earned an MA and PhD from the University of Baghdad. In her graduate work, she developed a semiotic approach to art, receiving a doctorate in 2005 for a thesis that uses forms of logic elaborated by modern philosophy to examine the art of ancient Mesopotamia. Malallah left Iraq at the end of 2006 for an artist residency at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris; that was followed by fellowships at the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Chelsea College of Art in London. Before leaving Iraq, she taught at the Institute of Fine Arts and the University of Baghdad; in recent years she has taught at the Royal University for Women in Bahrain.
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Since the early 1990s, Malallah has tried to think through destruction as an essential part of the human condition, by treating the material she works with as found objects that she mutilates or disfigures according to what she came to conceptualize in 2007 as a ‘ruins technique’. This reflection on destruction has drawn on Malallah’s research on semiotics, and on the material culture of ancient Mesopotamia, but more recently it has shifted its focus from objects to landscapes, and it has explored the ‘virtual’ aspects of destruction: the temporality of decay, the survival of material, and the paradoxical appearance of invisibility within the visible. Her research on the virtual has led her more recently to examine the relationship between spiritualism and technology.
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Education
2008 – Post Graduate Certificate In Islamic & Modern Art: SOAS University
(Art & Archaeology Dept); Certificate in Academic English (Reading & Writing); Delivering seminar (Ruins Technique in Contemporary Iraqi Art)
2005 – PHD / Doctorate degree in the Philosophy of Painting, Baghdad University
Thesis title: Logic Order in Ancient Mesopotamian Painting
2000 – MA in Painting: Baghdad University
1988 – BA in Painting: Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad
1979 – Diploma in Graphic Art: Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad
Solo Exhibitions
2023 – Remnants at The Cube, ASC Studios, Croydon
2022 – Ruins, Rubble and Renewal, Salah Al Hithni Museum, Iraq
2022 – The 2Rs: Ruins and Rubble, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman
2022 – Co-Existent Ruins, The Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London
2021 – Rising Above The Storm On A Kite, The Park Gallery, London
2021 – She/He Has No Picture, The Park Gallery, London
2019 – From Figurative to Abstraction, The Park Gallery, London
2018 – Without Name, But, Numbers, Albareh Art Gallery, Bahrain
2017 – Drone Hits Ziggurat of UR, Al Rewaq Art Space, Bahrain
2016 – Biohazard, DOLPH projects, London
2014 – Works on Paper, The Park Gallery, London
2013 – The Park Gallery, London
2012 – Inception Gallery, Paris
2009 – Vivid Ruins, The Mosaic Rooms, Qattan Foundation, London
2006 – Albareh Art Gallery, Bahrain
2005 – Anda Gallery, Amman
2002 – Anda Gallery, Amman
1999 – Drawing, Athar Gallery, Baghdad
1998 – Schedules and Signals, Athar Gallery, Baghdad
1996 – Icons of Environment, Hiwar Art Gallery, Baghdad
1995 – Abaad Gallery, Amman
1994 – Pursuing the Trace, Atelier Nadhar, Baghdad
1993 – Baghdad: Geography People Symbols, Centre for Arts, Baghdad
1991 – Museum Visits Documents, Centre for Arts, Baghdad
Group Exhibitions
2023 – Artifacts Also Die, OI Museum, University of Chicago, USA
2023 – Surviving the Long Wars: Reckon and Reimagine, Chicago Cultural Center, USA
2022 – Ruins, Rubble and Renewal, Salah Al Hithni Museum, Iraq
2022 – Co-Existent Ruins, The Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London
2019 – Refuge and Renewal: Migration and British Art, RWA, Bristol, United Kingdom
2019 – Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, MoMA, New York
2019 – The Spirit of the Poet, Zentrum für verfolgte Künste im Kunstmuseum Solingen, Germany
2018 – Bagdad mon Amour, Institut des Cultures d'Islam, Paris
2017 – Thread of Light, P21 Gallery, London
2017 – The Role in Empowering Women, The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Jordan
2017 – Arabesque, Curated by Hanaa Malallah, The Royal University for Women, Bahrain
2017 – National Museum of Bahrain
2016 – Biohazard, Baghdad
2016 – Art in Motion, Beirut
2014 – Reflections of War, Flowers, London
2014 – A Tribute to Rafa Nasiri, Nabha Gallery, Amman
2013 – Meem Gallery, Dubai
2013 – Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait
2013 – Ten Year After: Reflections on the Invasion of Iraq, Project and exhibition, Chelsea College of Arts & Design London University, London
2012 – Iraq: How, Where, for Whom? with Kennardphillips, Qattan Foundation, The Mosaic Rooms, London
2011 – Swiss Re (Gherkin), London
2011 – Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
2011 – Art in Iraq Today (Conclusion Show), Meem Gallery, Dubai
2011 – Art in Iraq Today, Beirut Exhibition Centre, Beirut
2010 – Art in Iraq Today, Meem Gallery, Dudai
2010 – Beyond The War, LTMH Gallery, New York
2009 – The Recessionists, Somerset, England
2009 – Modernism and Iraq, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University in the City of New York
2008 – Iraqi Artist in Exile, Station Museum, USA
2008 – Iraq’s Past Speaks to the Present, British Museum
2007 – Sophisticated Ways: Distruction of an Ancient City, Ayagallery, London
2007 – Green Zone Red Zone, Gemak Den Haag, Holland
2005 – Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, UAS, Texas College
2005 – Contemporary Iraqi Exhibition, Paris
2005 – Iraqi Exhibition, East and West Foundation, Holland
2004 – Celebrating the Creativity of the Collaboration Between Iraqi Art and Literature, Frankfurt
2004 – Homage to Shakir Hassan, Orfly Art Gallery, Amman
2003 – Miniatures of Iraqi Art, Dijlah Gallery, Baghdad
2003 – The Hundredth, Hiwar Gallery, Baghdad
2003 – Before. After. Now, Deluxe Gallery, Hoxton Square, London
2003 – Women Artists from the Islamic Wold, Spain, UNESCO Paris
2003 – Tawashujat: Between Poet and Artists, The Jordan National Gallery of FineArts, Amman
2003 – Expressions of Hope: Iraqi Art, Ayagallery, London
2002 – Contemporary Iraqi Art in China
2002 – Baghdad International Festival for Contemporary Art
2002 – Conference of Creative Arab Women, Tunisia
2000 – Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art, Brunei Gallery, London
2000 – Contemporary Iraqi Art, Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris
2000 – Significance of Experimentation, Baghdad Gallery, Baghdad
2000 – Co-Exhibition, Ghassan Ghaeb and Kareem Risan, Ather Gallary, Baghdad
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Art Fairs
2021 – Intersect Palm Springs, USA
2019 – Abu Dhabi Art Fair
2019 – Beirut Art Fair
2018 – Dubai Art Fair
2017 – Beirut Art Fair
2016 – Abu Dhabi Art Fair
2015 – Abu Dhabi Art Fair
2015 – Art15, London
2015 – Sluice, London
2014 – Art14, London
2013 – Abu Dhabi Art Fair
2013 – Scope Basel Art Fair
2012 – Abu Dhabi Art Fair
2010 – Dubai Art Fair
Museum Acquisitions
Centre for Arts, Baghdad
The Royal Jordanian Museum
The British Museum
Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art
Barjeel Art Foundation
Imperial War Museum, London
Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut
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Artist's Residencies
May 2022 – al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art. NYU Abu Dhabi
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