paths of the wind weave shadows bare bones of a mat by Yee I-Lann
2025-10-26 - 2025-12-04 | THE GALLERY AT VCUARTS QATAR
Photo courtesy of the artist and Silverlens (Manila/New York)

Related Events

Nov. 08, 4:00 – 5:00 PM – Exhibition Reception
Nov. 08, 5:00 – 6:30 PM – Artist Talk: Yee I-Lann will present the Keynote Address at the 2025 Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art. The event is free, but registration is required.

About the Exhibition
The Gallery at VCUarts Qatar is pleased to present, in partnership with the Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, paths of the wind weave shadows bare bones of a mat, an exhibition by artist Yee I-Lann.
In her exhibition paths of the wind weave shadows bare bones of a mat, artist Yee I-Lann challenges established grammars. The strained syntax of the exhibition’s title (borrowed from one of its featured works) stands in for the Malaysian artist’s larger project of testing conventions and applying pressure to encoded structures. The reader is pulled up by the absence of expected articles, prepositions and punctuation. These absences interrupt subject hierarchy and temporal continuity, making multiple, malleable readings available simultaneously. Nouns and adjectives double as verbs. Verbs double as nouns. For Yee, these kinds of generative disruptions are an essential part of the post-colonial effort. Rather than seeking to simply topple or invert structures of hegemonic power, Yee works to redistribute that power and agency within a democratic assembly: to revert, as she expresses it, “the beaurocrat’s desk back into the communal mat” – like the traditional tikar mats which served as the literal and symbolic seat of egalitarian tribal governance in pre-colonial Malaysia.[1]
…bare bones of a mat brings together four of Yee’s major bodies of work: TIKAR/MEJA, Picturing Power, Rasa Sayang, and Tikar Reben. TIKAR/MEJA illustrates the reversion of power structures described above: For the series, Yee collaborated with indigenous weavers from Bajau Sama Di Laut communities in Sabah, Malaysia to create brightly colored tikar mats bearing the silhouettes of western-style tables. “A table on a mat can be rolled up, ‘eaten’ by the mat, like a stone covered by paper in a game of rock paper scissors,” explains the artist. Picturing Power remixes archival photographs from Dutch-colonial Malaysia to subvert and un-fix the authority of colonial narratives, and to examine the complexity and complicity of photography’s role in the formation of Malaysian identity. For the Rasa Sayang works, Yee edited donated images of hugs, generating an alphabet from these gestures of embrace. The potency of these small acts of care is supercharged as each letterform is rendered in vibrating orange and blue. Begun in 2012, this typeface would later provide a literal body language for articulating, in poetic and cathartic terms, the emotional arc of the COVID 19 pandemic, asserting the necessity of human connection in times of alienation and division. Extending these themes, in Tikar Reben a 63 meter tikar “ribbon” becomes a figurative bridge between neighboring coastal communities. The locally-woven mat provides a cultural and economic tie, uniting peoples divided by legacies of nationalism and displacement. For Yee, engagements like these provide “a way of thinking, and rethinking, about how we use and share space – the space of community (politics), the space of storytelling, the space of cultural production and economics (art-making).”[3]
paths of the wind weave shadows bare bones of a mat is curated by Meriem Aiouna and Chase Westfall.
Special thanks to Silverlens Galleries (New York, Manila) and the Shane Akeroyd Collection.

[1] Yee I-Lann, conversation with the author, March 5, 2025.
[2] Pauline Fan, Rasa Sayang–A Sense of Loss and Love, exhibition essay (Mind Set Art Center, 2014).
[3] Yee I-Lann, “Art Basel OVR: Portals 2021,” Silverlens Galleries, June 16–19, 2021, https://www.silverlensgalleries.com/exhibitions/2021-06-16/art-basel-ovr-portals-2021.

Artist Biography
Yee I-Lann (b. 1971, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo) is an artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans photomedia, textiles, installation, filmmaking, and community collaboration. Her work explores the entanglements of colonial histories, local cosmologies, and structures of power across the Southeast Asian region and its global connectivities. In recent years, she has collaborated with Dusun and Bajau Sama Dilaut weavers in Sabah, developing a mat-based practice in which the tikar functions as medium, method, and philosophy—often centering counter-narratives and histories from below. These works explore decolonial imagination, collective making, cultural resilience, and the everyday as a site of critical engagement. Her art has been widely exhibited in museums and biennales across Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America, and is held in major international collections. Based in Kota Kinabalu, Yee has served on the boards of FINAS and Forever Sabah, and is co-founding partner of Kota-K Art Gallery. She describes herself as an “&”.

November 24: Films That Move You – The Art of Creating Stories with Impact
2025-11-24 13:00 - 15:00 (Asia/Qatar) | Atrium, VCUarts Qatar
Masterclass in the framework of the EU Delegation Short Film Festival

This masterclass explores how film can be a catalyst for empathy, awareness, and social change, with a special focus on inclusive storytelling and the role of women in the industry.
In “Films That Move You,” filmmakers Jamillah van der Hulst and Conrad Alleblas of JaJa Film Productions guide participants through the creative and practical journey of making socially impactful films.
The session includes:

An introduction to their work and the role of women within their company, and their filmmaking approach
The creative process: script development, shaping storylines, working with sound and visuals
The production process: planning, budgeting, pitching, and distribution
Two compelling case studies
Concludes with a Q&A session, inviting engagement and reflection

Sign up for the masterclass here.

Speaker bios
Jamillah van der Hulst
Graduated in marketing from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Jamillah began her career in communications for international NGOs. In 2012, she founded JaJa Film Productions and transitioned into filmmaking, later discovering a passion for directing. Her first full-length documentary, Fighting for Life (2018), won the Peace and Sport Documentary Prize at the SPORTEL Awards in Monaco. Jamillah’s work focuses on inspiring stories of individuals striving to make a meaningful impact.
Conrad Alleblas
Before co-founding JaJa Film Productions in 2012, Conrad built a career in elite sports (speed skating and cycling) and later transitioned into sports and interim management. As a producer and cameraman, he combines strong organisational and fundraising skills with a powerful visual style. He is involved in all stages of production and aims to deliver meaningful, impactful storytelling.

Contemporary Art from Qatar: The Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani Collection
2026-01-25 - 2026-03-07 | Atrium, VCUarts Qatar
This journey has not merely been about accumulating works but rather about experiencing and understanding the dynamic pulse of Qatari culture through its creative expressions.
– H.E. Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani

VCUarts Qatar is proud to host the official book launch of Contemporary Art from Qatar: The Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani Collection (Skira Arte, 2026) as part of Art Basel Qatar’s program.
Spanning three decades of collecting, the book traces the evolution of Qatari art from traditional motifs rooted in heritage to contemporary practices shaped by global dialogue and rapid transformation.
Accompanying the launch is VCUarts Qatar’s latest exhibition: نبض المكان | Pulse of Place: Selected Works from the Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani Collection, featuring works by 11 Qatari artists and designers—all VCUarts Qatar alumni—included in the book as key voices shaping Qatar’s contemporary visual culture.
We look forward to welcoming you as we mark the enduring legacy of H.E. Dr. Abdulla — a pioneering champion of Qatar’s creative ambitions and cultural life.

The exhibition curated by Dina Alkhateeb and Chase Westfall,
Special thanks to H.E. Sheikh Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani for sharing part of his collection and launching his book at VCUarts Qatar, Sheikh Fahad bin Jabor Al Thani, Anas Kutit and al markhiya gallery.

Exhibition
Date: Jan. 25–Mar. 7, 2026
Daily Timings: Sunday to Thursday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: The Gallery, VCUarts Qatar

Artist Bios
AISHA AL-SOWAIDI
B. 1983
Aisha Al-Sowaidi is a multidisciplinary designer based in Doha, Qatar, whose work reflects the intersection of tradition and modernity in Qatar’s evolving landscape. Drawing inspiration from cultural shifts, her designs fuse past experiences with contemporary aesthetics, creating objects that evoke nostalgia and familiarity. She earned her bachelor’s in graphic design and her master’s in design studies from VCUarts Qatar. Her work invites viewers to reflect on the connection between personal spaces and the changing world around them.
AMEENA AL-BUAINAIN
B. 1996
Ameena Al-Buainain is a Qatari artist based in Doha, known for painting and printmaking. Her work has been featured at Alhosh Gallery and The Gallery at VCUarts Qatar in 2020. Al-Buainain holds a bachelor’s degree in painting and printmaking (minor in art history) from VCUarts Qatar. Her practice reflects her commitment to exploring and expanding her artistic voice.
BOUTHAYNA AL-MUFTAH
B. 1987
Bouthayna Al-Muftah, a Qatari multidisciplinary artist, navigates painting, printmaking, and documentation. Her evolving practice has created immersive installations and dynamic performance pieces anchored in Qatar’s cultural heritage. Al-Muftah received her bachelor’s degree from VCUarts Qatar in 2009. She has designed the official FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 poster and exhibited internationally, including M7, Palais de Tokyo, and Cosmoscow.
FATMA AL-REMAIHI
B. 1986
Fatma Al-Remaihi is a Qatari artist working in sketchbooking, drawing, and painting. She holds a master’s in studio art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016) and a bachelor’s in graphic design from VCUarts Qatar (2010). Her work explores identity, agency, and the multiple roles she navigates in life.
FATIMA MOHAMMED
B. 1993
Fatima Mohammed is a contemporary Qatari artist working in mixed media, printmaking, and installation art. She graduated from VCUarts Qatar with a bachelor’s in painting and printmaking with a minor in art history (2016). Mohammed has participated in residencies at Fire Station Doha and ISCP New York, with exhibitions locally and internationally.
GHADA AL-KHATER
B. 1989
Ghada Al-Khater is a Qatari multidisciplinary artist whose work blends art, politics, and social issues through cartoons, illustrations, and sculptures. She has exhibited at Ajyal Film Festival, Doha Fire Station, QM Gallery – Al Riwaq, Art 29, and internationally. She was an artist in residence at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2018), and received the Artist of the Year Award at the 2018 Grazia Editors’ Choice Awards.
MANAR AL-MUFTAH
B. 1985
Manar Al-Muftah is a Qatari visual artist and graphic designer whose work explores identity, memory, and Qatar’s cultural landscape. She earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from VCUarts Qatar (2007). Her work incorporates Arabic calligraphy through printmaking, collage, and mixed media, with exhibitions locally and internationally.
MARYAM AL-HOMAID
B. 1988
Maryam Al-Homaid is a Qatari interdisciplinary artist and Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Department at VCUarts Qatar. She holds a bachelor’s in graphic design and a master’s in design studies from VCUarts Qatar. Her work examines Qatar’s social and economic transformation and has been exhibited internationally, merging digital design with handcrafted textiles.
RODA AL THANI
B. 1991
Roda Al Thani is a visual artist based in Doha, Qatar, and a producer at Qatar Museums, leading the animated series Hazawy. She is a graphic design graduate from VCUarts Qatar and holds a master’s in visual narrative from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her work engages audiences locally and globally.
SHOUQ AL-MANA
B. 1996
Shouq Al-Mana is a contemporary Qatari artist who holds a bachelor’s degree in painting and printmaking from VCUarts Qatar. Her work spans painting, sculpture, and installation, exploring culture, unity, and identity. She has represented Qatar internationally with Generation Amazing Foundation projects, public sculptures, sustainability campaigns, and conferences.
AMNA AL-DARWISH
Amna Al-Darwish is a Fine Art graduate from VCUarts Qatar, specializing in Interior Design. She explores painting and contemporary art through various mediums, capturing her personal connections to her surroundings, and aims to inspire appreciation for the world.

ARTWEEK 2026: Community as Practice
2026-02-01 - 2026-02-03 | VCUARTS QATAR, VCUarts Qatar,Al Luqta Street,Education City, Doha, Qatar, 8095, Qatar
VCUarts Qatar presents the second edition of ARTWEEK 2026: Community as Practice, hosted by the Painting and Printmaking (PAPR) Department on campus in Doha.
Rooted in collaboration, care, and openness, ARTWEEK 2026 brings together students, artists, educators, and cultural practitioners to explore how communities form through artistic practice, and how learning unfolds within and beyond the studio.
Across three days, the program features workshops, lecture-performances, panel discussions, open studios, and informal gatherings. Emphasizing the studio as both a site of making and exchange, ARTWEEK foregrounds shared experience, dialogue, and collective rhythms of working together as central to contemporary art education.
Building on collaborations between VCUarts Qatar and VCUarts Richmond, and conversations sparked by Living to Learn: Art & Education for the Common Good, ARTWEEK 2026 positions Qatar as a key site for rethinking the future of art education, pedagogy, and community-driven practice, with particular attention to regional networks and alternative spaces emerging from the Gulf.
Speakers & Guest Artists
Sara Niroobakhsh · Mohammed Somji · Keng Sen Ong · Rose Lejeune · Habeeb Abu Futtaim · Naiza Khan · Sarah Rifkey · Walid Sadek · Aissa Deebi · Zeina Al Arida · Rola Khayyat · Noah Simblist · Dean Amir Berbić

Sunday, February 1, 2026
Different Modalities of Community Practice
Join us for the opening keynote of ARTWEEK 2026, Different Modalities of Community Practice, featuring theatre and artistic director, Keng Sen Ong. A lunch reception will follow the keynote address.
Please register your attendance via this link.
Keynote: 12–1:30 p.m.
Lunch reception: 1:30–2:30 p.m.
Atrium, VCUarts Qatar

Living to Learn: Art & Education for the Common Good
This panel discussion centered around Noah Simblist’s book, Living to Learn: Art & Education for the Common Good, will be moderated by Simblist and include panelists Sarah Rifkey, Walid Sadek, Dr. Aissa Deebi and Zeina Arida.
Please register your attendance via this link.
2:30–4 p.m.
Atrium, VCUarts Qatar

Monday, February 2, 2026
Studio Visits by Sara Niroobakhsh
PAPR students are invited to attend a session with Sara Niroobakhsh, a multidisciplinary artist and educator with over two decades of experience working across Canada, the U.S., Iran, and the UAE. Niroobakhsh is currently a Visiting Assistant Art Professor in the Interactive Media program at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD).
10 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
Closed event for invited PAPR students only.

Artistic Communities & Shared Practices
This panel discussion, moderated by Rola Khayyat, will be a conversation on how artists collaborate, share knowledge, support one another, and explore collective making. Panelists in this discussion include Rose Lejeune, Mohamed Somji, Habeeb Abu Futtaim and Naiza Khan.
Please register your attendance via this link.
1:30–3 p.m.
Atrium, VCUarts Qatar

Painting + Printmaking Open Studios
Explore the Department of Painting + Printmaking at our Open Studios event!
Step into our studios. Immerse yourself in our inspiring environment. Whether you’re an aspiring artist or simply curious, this is a great chance to discover the art – and heart – of our community!
Observe our students working on their creative projects. Engage with them and learn more about their artistic practices and research. Chat with our friendly faculty who will be on hand to provide information on our curriculum, projects, and future opportunities.
Please register your attendance via this link.
3:30–5:30 p.m.
PAPR Studios, VCUarts Qatar

Tuesday, February 3, 2026
When the System Fails Us: Community as Practice
Across the SWANA region, artists are increasingly questioning dominant cultural frameworks shaped by power, capital, and ideology — including Western institutional models long complicit in silencing, extraction, and erasure. In the context of the genocide in Gaza and widening repression, many artists are choosing not to wait for permission or inclusion within systems that demand neutrality in the face of violence.
This workshop looks at how artists are building otherwise: forming collectives, creating alternative spaces, sharing resources, and developing ways of practising that are rooted in community rather than institutional approval. These efforts are complex and often fragile, shaped by real challenges and limitations, but they are intentional, principled, and growing.
Drawing on examples from across the SWANA region, this workshop will be a space to think together — to share what we are seeing, what we are part of, and what feels possible. Rather than offering fixed answers, the session focuses on building shared language, confidence, and ways of working, and on imagining how artists can continue reshaping the cultural landscape by building otherwise, together.
10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Closed event for invited PAPR students only.

Art, Care, and Technical Mediation: Performing Life in Contemporary Contexts
This lecture introduces the transdisciplinary research practice of Sara Niroobakhsh, Artist and Research Scholar at New York University Abu Dhabi, working at the intersection of performance, bio-technological inquiry, and immersive systems. Developed through long-term collaboration with scientific laboratories and researchers, her work examines the body as a site of care and construction, foregrounding fragility, intimacy, and the limits of control within contemporary technological frameworks. The lecture explores how voice, sensation, and embodied processes are mediated through technology, inviting reflection on inherited assumptions about identity, origin, creation, and biological determinism.
The talk will be followed by closing remarks by PAPR Director, Dr. Aissa Deebi.
Please register your attendance via this link.
12:30–2 p.m.
Atrium, VCUarts Qatar

Lunch Break & Music
Join us for lunch and live music by Michel Dagher (Spice Collective) during the last day of ARTWEEK 2026.
Please register your attendance via this link.
2–3:30 p.m.
Courtyard, VCUarts Qatar

Tasmeem Doha 2026: Transmit - Print Fair
2026-02-07 - 2026-02-09 | Saffron Hall, VCUarts Qatar
Tasmeem Doha 2026: Transmit is proud to announce the Print Fair, taking place at the VCUarts Qatar Campus from February 7–9, 2026, from 3-9 p.m., at the Saffron Hall.
The Print Fair will feature the following exhibitors:
40MUSTAQEL
BANANAFISH
BAO Books
Bin Atiah Studio
Cairo Art Book Fair
Goodbye Press
HWF Studio
Printer Matter
Set Margins
The WANAWAL
WARAQ
Water With Water
Wedogood
Join us for three days of celebrating independent publishing, print culture, and creative exchange!
In addition, the Fair will include workshops, talks, and performances for attendees to participate in and enjoy.
For more information, view the Tasmeem Doha website.
To view and register for events that will be held during the Print Fair, click here.

Visiting Artist: Sabine Schründer
2026-02-12 12:30 - 13:30 | Atrium, VCUarts Qatar
Through a non-narrative and subjective approach, Sabine Schründer presents selected projects from recent years, inviting audiences into an immersive space where images, texts, and audio intersect.
The talk introduces Off the Grid, Schründer’s ongoing project developed during an artistic research journey in the Arctic. Moving between visual material and spoken readings, the lecture explores processes of transformation within systems, social structures, and individual perception where meaning is approached as something that shifts and reconfigures across environments and media.
Please register to attend this talk.

Artist Bio
Sabine Schründer (b. 1973, Telgte, Germany) lives and works as a multimedia artist in Berlin. She studied photography at the Fachhochschule Bielefeld and at RMIT University in Melbourne. Her work has been exhibited internationally and has been shaped by artist residencies in India, Iceland, Portugal, Finland, and the Arctic. She teaches visual media at the Lette Verein Berlin.
Her artistic practice explores processes of transformation in systems, social structures, and individual perception. She is particularly interested in thought structures, states of consciousness, and the conditions under which meaning arises, shifts, or disappears. In her artist talk, Sabine Schründer will give insight into different bodies of work and explain her non-narrative approach. She will also address questions of absence and presence in her practice, as well as ways of visualizing psychological and emotional structures.

VCUarts Qatar at La Biennale di Venezia 2026
2026-06-01 - 2026-11-22
VCUarts Qatar is proud to present أغرب إدراك | Aghrab Idrāk: Thresholds of Perception, an official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (May 9–November 22, 2026), on view from June 1, 2026 at Palazzo Cavanis at the Zattere in Venice.
Bringing together projects from ten research labs within the Institute for Creative Research, the exhibition invites visitors to explore perception as a relational and situated way of knowing. Through environments shaped by light, sound, movement, and material presence, visitors move through a sequence of spatial thresholds where meaning emerges through experience, proximity, and dialogue.
The works offer a unique reflection of the Gulf region’s histories of exchange, mobility, and layered cultural memory, while highlighting the collective, research-driven practices that shape creative inquiry at VCUarts Qatar.
An inaugural event will take place on June 22 from 6–8 p.m.
The program will also include the symposium, Relational Ecologies: Perception, Mobility, and Collective Form, taking place June 23–24, 2026, a gathering of creative minds that extends the exhibition’s themes through conversations on how artistic research generates knowledge through connection, exchange, and collective practice.

أغرب إدراك | Aghrab Idrāk: Thresholds of Perception
Exhibition: June 1–November 22, 2026
Opening Hours:
Tuesday–Sunday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Mondays: Closed, except June 1, June 22, Sept. 7 and Nov. 16
Inaugural event: June 22, 6–8 p.m.
Location: Palazzo Cavanis at the Zattere

Relational Ecologies: Perception, Mobility, and Collective Form Symposium
June 23–24, 2026
June 23
1–4 p.m.
Biennale Sessions, Arsenale Educational Space, Venice
June 24
10 a.m.–4 p.m.
The Home of The Human Safety Net, Venice
