Diana Al-Hadid Syrian, b. 1981
Diana Al-Hadid examines the historical frameworks and perspectives that continue to shape discourse on culture and materials today. With a practice spanning sculpture, wall reliefs, and works on paper, the artist weaves together enigmatic narratives that draw inspiration from both ancient and modern civilizations. Al-Hadid’s rich allegorical constructions are born from art historical religious imagery, ancient manuscripts, female archetypes, and folkloric storytelling frameworks.
Framed by a host of references from antiquity, cosmology, cartography, and architecture, Al-Hadid’s work gives form to ghostly images abstractly rendered in materials as various as steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, wood, foam, plaster, aluminum foil, and pigment. The artist’s process-based explorations innovate from commonplace industrial materials. Their formidable presence sits steady in the lineage of creation and construction that we associate with empire, complicated by an often-elegiac tone.
Diana Al-Hadid (Syrian-American, b. 1981, Aleppo) received her BFA and BA from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio in 2003, and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia in 2005. She later attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, in 2007.
Al-Hadid has exhibited internationally with recent solo exhibitions including: unbecoming, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (2025); Wild Margins, Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2024); Women, Bronze, and Dangerous Things, Kasmin, New York, NY (2023); The Tower of Infinite Problems, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany (2023); The Outside In, Planting Fields Foundation, Oyster Bay, NY (2022–23); Archive of Longings, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2022); An Exchange Between Clouds and Rocks, Galerie Isa, Mumbai, India (2021); and Ash in the Trade Winds, The Momentary, Bentonville, AR (2021).
Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including: Kinetic Traces, National Academy of Design, New York, NY (2025); NGV Triennial, NGV International, Melbourne, Australia (2023–24); This is a Rehearsal, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, IL (2023); Being Mediterranean, MO.CO. Panacée, Montpellier, France (2024); Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Riyadh, KSA (2024); WOMEN together, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece (2024); Front International: Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows, Cleveland, OH (2022); Lahore Biennale 02: Between the Sun and the Moon, Lahore, Pakistan (2020); Second Hand, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE (2019); and Glasstress 2015: GOTIKA, official collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, Italy (2015).
Al-Hadid is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the National Academician, National Academy of Design (2024); Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2022); Arts and Letters Award in Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2020); Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2011); and Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2007).
Her works are held in major public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE; and the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Al-Hadid currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.