Ala Younis is a globally acknowledged artist whose expanded apply contains curating, analysis, and publishing. Previous of a Temporal Universe marks her first institutional survey in West Asia. By means of her a number of, long-iterating our bodies of labor, Younis challenges audiences to piece collectively new understandings from traces of historical past behind the scenes of the world stage.
“I weave between the personal and the collective in my storytelling. Working within a university museum context makes possible many added layers of exchange with others who study, teach, and learn around the questions that drive my investigation.”— Ala Younis
Knowledgeable by her coaching in structure and visible cultures, Younis’s tasks middle the bodily developments and narrative intersections of the Arab geographies wherein she grew up, regularly drawing from a variety of formal and casual archives. Her archival installations, textiles, murals, mosaics, and drawings make delicate, startling connections amongst political, social, city, and fashionable imaginaries.
Ala Younis, “Climate Conditions 2” (2025), mosaic panel on steel body, 100 x 80 cm
The exhibition debuts 4 main new commissions alongside iterations of landmark tasks for which she is finest recognized, together with Plan for Larger Baghdad (2015), Nefertiti (2008), and Tin Troopers (2010-11). Collectively, these works hint conceptual and formal throughlines in her oeuvre, from the instruments and abilities she developed as she emerged within the artwork scene of Amman, Jordan, to her experiments in navigating new data as she advanced the distinctive strategies and perspective for which she is famend in the present day.
At NYU Abu Dhabi, Younis developed work in live performance with a number of scholarly frameworks. A brand new chapter in her Excessive Dam undertaking emerged out of her collaboration with a scholar of Soviet-Arab relations, NYUAD Affiliate Professor of Historical past Masha Kirasirova. Different work within the exhibition was developed with help from NYUAD’s al Mawrid Arab Heart for the Examine of Artwork, and the Arts and Humanities Analysis Boards.
In reply to the query of make a retrospective from such a scholarly and hybrid apply, Maya Allison, NYUAD’s Galleries Government Director and College Chief Curator, writes:
“I have long-admired Younis’ hybrid practice as artist-researcher-curator. Working with her animates my thinking about the future of art exhibitions in the era of global museums, and the need for this kaleidoscopic approach to new understandings of our past and future.”
Previous of a Temporal Universe is on view on the NYU Abu Dhabi Artwork Gallery by way of January 18, 2026.
To study extra, go to nyuad-artgallery.org.
Ala Younis “Breathing Carpet” (2025), machine, rug, wooden, video
Set up view of Ala Younis, ”Plan for Larger Baghdad” (2015), two- and three-dimensional prints, dimensions variable
Ala Younis, “Corniche Tunnel Art: Industrial City” (2025), steel IKEA cabinets, objects from artist’s time in Abu Dhabi
