Sophia Al-Maria

Sophia Al-Maria (b. 1983) is a Qatari American artist, writer, and filmmaker living and working in London. Though her work spans many disciplines, it is united by a preoccupation with the power of storytelling and myth, in particular imagining revisionist histories and alternative futures. Her practice is fuelled by the combination of critical rigor with an affective charge in explorations of language, imperialism, and counter-histories — a deep investigation and dramatization of the sociopolitical, economic, and environmental present. Al-Maria has presented solo exhibitions at La Biennale di Venezia 2022, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar; Tate Britain, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among other institutions. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the New Museum, New York; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, amongst others. She has been writer in residence at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. She is the author of three books, Sad Sack (Book Works, London, 2019), Virgin with a Memory (Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester, 2014), and The Girl Who Fell to Earth (Harper Perennial, New York, 2012). Al-Maria’s upcoming exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, brings together for the first time her recent films Beast Type Song (2019), Tender Point Ruin (2021), and Tiger Strike Red (2022).These works address the violence of colonialism and imperialism across individual and generational timelines, as well as the persistence of the creative spirit amid the ruins wrought by these historical forces.