Maha Al-Mallouh, a Saudi visual artist, was born in Jeddah in 1959. She holds a BA in English from King Saud University in Riyadh and a degree in Design and Photography from De Anza College in California, USA. She has had international and local exhibitions since 1976, including one-man exhibitions such as The Way to Heaven (Heaven) - America 2018, and other artists such as (Icon-Ideal) in Vienna 2017, and (Amoum) in Memphis America - October 2017.
its beginnings
The artist Mallouh began her artistic career that has been going on for three decades with collage, which contained symbols and motifs from the local Najd culture, expressing her view of life in the Kingdom and the spiritual connection of the historical regions in Najd and Hijaz with three factors: religion and heritage, colorful decorations and ancient architecture in light of coexistence with Modern skyscrapers.
Her style of art
Mallouh moved from collage to photography. This is thanks to her attraction to the merging of the two mediums together and the layered superimposition of images and clippings, and developed due to her obsession with the relationship between light and shadow. She built a special darkening room to be able to control the two most important factors in fine art printing: quality and content. As a result of the artist Mallouh's experiments in merging collage with photography, a new obsession and transitional stage emerged in her work, which is photography.
Her works in museums - Louvre Abu Dhabi
Mallouh currently lives and works between Riyadh, London and Vienna, drawing her inspiration from the historical region of Najd with its strong religious and cultural heritage, architecture and Najd textiles. An expression of her view of life in the Kingdom and the spiritual connection of the historical regions in Najd and Hijaz with three factors: religion and heritage, colorful decorations and ancient architecture in light of coexistence with modern skyscrapers, and she participated in a distinctive artwork for her at the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi in late 2017. The only Gulf artist to display one of her works in the museum. Al-Malouh's work of art is from the category of pendants, which are pots used to cook goat meat organized and shaped in a distinctive artistic way, the only work of a Gulf artist in this museum.
of her achievements
The artist, Maha Mallouh, contributed to discovering the challenges of modernity that penetrated strongly into the Kingdom through experience and moving through the various means and resources available to convey her ideas and response to the changing environment in her homeland and the various factors that impose change, and she won the Sayidaty Award for Creativity and Excellence.
