ArtDayME: Bodies that Make, Bodies that Grieve brings together works by eight women artists based in the UAE and across the Global South, exploring the relationship between the body, emotions and the art of ceramics. Curated by Shafeena Yusuff Ali, the exhibition is presented at NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery’s Project Space and examines how feelings such as grief, love, loss and personal memories can take physical form through clay.

The exhibition features works by Nujoom Alghanem, Mirna Bamieh, Moza Al Falasi, Malavika, Parneet Pahwa, Zahra Shafie, Laiba Sherin and Haseena Suresh. Through different ceramic practices, including pressing, building, breaking and firing clay, the artists explore memory, mourning and lived experiences, transforming emotions that are often difficult to articulate into tangible artistic forms.

Working primarily on an intimate, domestic scale, the artists draw attention to the physical process of making and its connection to personal and collective experiences. The exhibition also considers the historical relationship between ceramics, women's labour and practices of care, highlighting how the act of shaping clay can become a means of expressing complex emotions and engaging with experiences of grief and love.

By bringing together these eight artistic practices, Bodies that Make, Bodies that Grieve positions ceramics as more than a material or craft, presenting it as a medium through which the body, memory and emotional experience can be explored and communicated.

The exhibition is on view at NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery’s Project Space through December 13, 2026.

Video credit: NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery