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Alia Zaal’s solo exhibition, In Plain Sight, consists of paintings on canvas, paper, and ceramic tiles that depict intimate fragments and extracts of landscapes beloved by the artist. Highlighting details of familiar plants, trees, and flora from the scrublands of Khawaneej, a suburb in Dubai, and the mangroves and mudflats of Abu Dhabi’s coastline, the works present a mediation on site-specificity and lived experience rather than romantic scenes of territory. Zaal’s paintings depart from traditional landscape portraiture, which is usually marked by elements such as a sweeping horizon line, a majestic sky, or a tree or shrub rendered in its entirety. Works such as Ghaf Memory in Biarritz (2026) and Al Shelaylah Light (2026) foreground and approximate a subjective, enigmatic reading of the landscape.
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Beyond Time, 2023
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The works evoke a parallel understanding of the landscape as narrated and conceived in historic Arab oral traditions, especially of the ‘naseeb’. In these narrative styles, the ‘naseeb’, is a prelude of the qasida, the poem, and usually zooms on an isolated fragment from a landscape which is familiar and connected to the poet, such as an overgrown bush or a blackened hearthstone. Focusing intensely on this fragment and tiny detail, the poet begins to describe a universe of memories and textures. Serving as the contemplative vessel, the ‘naseeb’ is the familiar, coordinate object from which the poet initiates their rahil, the adventurous journey across the landscapes of the Gulf and Peninsula region. In this exhibition, audiences encounter the paintings as a constellation of ‘naseebs’, signposting the artist’s ongoing practice and absorption of their immediate spaces.
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Through his Eyes, 2026
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Photo credit: Anna Shtraus -
Photo credit: Anna Shtraus
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