Cultural Foundation, a cultural centre under the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), has opens Shaikha Al Mazrou: Two Horizons to the public. Running until 18 July 2027, the exhibition brings together significant works and new commissions by Emirati artist and sculptor Shaikha Al Mazrou across Cultural Foundation’s atrium and inner galleries.
Renowned for material experimentation, Al Mazrou works across industrial mediums including steel, marble, glass, resin and copper. Situated within the language of Minimalism, her practice explores the extent to which rigid materials can perform softness: metal seems pliable, heavy forms appear suspended and solid structures suggest states of yielding.
Organised in four chapters, the exhibition unfolds as a spatial composition rather than a chronological survey. Alignments emerge and recede as visitors move among the works, and the horizon becomes a recurring point of reference – at once a means of orientation and a boundary that remains beyond reach.
The first chapter, Two Horizons, set in the atrium, expands the artist’s longstanding investigations into the horizon and its reinterpretation. At its centre is Beyond All Measures (2023), a diptych of cast brass with an oxidised patina. A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance (2025), a floor-based work in black jade marble previously presented at the Aichi Triennale, evokes the surface of water in motion. Displaced Coordinates (2026) juxtaposes a spherical form with a grid, while Fragmented Horizons (2026), a new commission of oxidised steel poles, traces an artificial horizon through the architecture.
Archive of Impermanence explores transformation, seriality and the preservation of gesture across steel, paper, ceramic and brass. Untitled (White Square) (2021) takes a folded sheet of paper as its model, while For All the Things Remained Unsaid (2020) comprises 200 unique sheets of handmade blue paper. A Still Life of an Ever-changing Crop Field (2022), first featured at Louvre Abu Dhabi as part of Art Here 2022, uses handmade glazed ceramic forms to create an embodied archive of modern agriculture.
Sky, Ocean, and Everything in Between foregrounds historical research and debuts a series of works in marble, including The Fold Conceals (2026), which resembles stacked folded canvases, and The Weight of a Gesture (2026), which takes the shape of a bent rope. Water Was Never Blue (2026) reimagines Horace-Bénédict de Saussure’s 1789 cyanometer, while In Search of Meaning Through Color (2026) gives sculptural form to Philipp Otto Runge’s 1810 colour sphere. In Despite the Weather (2020), Sky and Ocean and Everything in Between (2020) and To Create Meaning in Perception (2020), blue suggests the unstable boundary between sky and sea.
The final chapter, In Geometry of a Fold, presents the folded, wet-coated steel works closely associated with Al Mazrou’s practice, which appear almost like paper or fabric origami. These include the large red Architectonics of a Fold (2025) and the soft, light green In Geometry of a Fold, the chapter’s namesake. Originating in hand-folded paper models, the works invite a reading through a feminist sculptural methodology, in which softness and strength, fragility and resilience coexist within the same form.
Curated by Reem Fadda, Director Culture Programming, DCT Abu Dhabi, the exhibition is co-curated with Noor AlMehairbi, Curator, Cultural Foundation, and Paz Monge, Head of Exhibitions, Cultural Foundation, with Assistant Curator Afra Saif Almazrouei. Considered among the most dynamic artists of her generation in the UAE, Al Mazrou is an Assistant Professor of Arts Practice at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her work has been presented at the Aichi Triennale, Japan (2025), Manar Abu Dhabi (2025), Desert X AlUla (2022) and ICON. ICONIC. at Louvre Abu Dhabi (2022).
The exhibition underscores DCT Abu Dhabi’s ongoing commitment to protect, preserve and promote the emirate’s cultural heritage, fostering creativity and innovation across the cultural and creative landscape. Through a major presentation of an Emirati artist’s practice, the exhibition reinforces Abu Dhabi's position as a cultural capital, cultivating an appreciation for art and culture across all ages and backgrounds.
