A few days ago, I attended the opening of Manal Al Dowayan's " and we had no shared dreams" show at the Cuadro Fine Art gallery in Dubai. I loved the work particularly photographs with LED lighting where Manal explores the feeling of isolation in shared spaces by using the urban setting of the city as a backdrop.

This show is a series of large-scale black and white photographs layered with materials and techniques inspired by urban art. The exhibit is at Cuadro Fine Art Gallery in Dubai and will run until December 4, 2010.

Manal Al-Dowayan was born and raised in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and works out of her hometown Dhahran. Over the course of her education, she partook in a range of courses in differing art institutions in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Bahrain and London. In 2009 she was a resident artist at the Delfina Foundation in London and attended the Clore Leadership program.

Al Dowayan has participated in numerous exhibitions including the British Council’s Common Ground project in 2006 and Nawafith: the Saudi-Italian artist exchange (2007/09). Manal has also exhibited regionally and internationally, in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Bahrain, the UK, USA, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Al Dowayan also exhibited her work  during the 2009 Venice Biennale show “Edge of Arabia” and had a solo exhibit in Bastakia during the Dubai Art Fair.

Her artworks art part of the permanent collections of the British Museum, The Jordanian National Museum of Fine Art,  The Abdullatif Jamil Foundation, and The Delfina Foundation

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