NAHLA TABBAA is an interdisciplinary  artist whose practice explores tensions between the urban and the organic, the beautiful and the grotesque. Sensitive to the self-organising agency of materials, she adventures into the world of immateriality and the intangible through experiments in alchemy and combining elements from the organic and inorganic. Her methods are intentionally slow-paced, meditative and labour-intensive and permeate strands of her everyday life to heal and harmonise her otherwise fast-paced life. As an act of resistance, she leans into alternative constructs of time and ancient practices as a way to summon magic in the mundane everyday. She sees our present state as a catastrophic dystopian world that can no longer be dismantled with human hands, but rather, she is seeking wisdom in the more-than-human world. Through working with invasive and indigenous plants, plant medicine, hiking, animal care and reading into regional mythology and folklore, her work moves towards a place where she can propose a new system of radical care and the sacred.

Her mediums are sculpture, drawing, alchemy, research and the culinary arts. 

She earned her BFA in  Sculpture (Central Saint Martin’s College, 2009) and Curatorial Practice (Bath School of Art and Design, 2012), she recently completed a culinary and farming diploma at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork, Ireland (2023). She is an alumna of Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship (2021), Campus Art Dubai (2020) and a 2024 artist- in-residence at MMAG. Her multidisciplinary works and publications have been presented at Doha Design Biennial (2024), Colomboscope (2024), Alserkal Arts Foundation (2023),  421 (2022), Art Dubai (2021) and the Jameel Arts Centre (2022). She has founded and curated social pedagogical projects including Orraisse (2024-present), Rewilding The Kitchen (2021- present), The Alchemy of Dyeing (2020-2023) and Daftar Asfar (2017-2022). 

In  the culinary world she has led performance dinners and explorations at 421 with Moza al Matrooshi,  Al Serkal Avenue, Art Dubai with Augustine Paredes, Art Dubai with Fernando Garcia Dory, Myocum  and Amman Design Week, and has curated Sufra with Frying Pan  Adventures and Rewilding the Kitchen with Al Serkal Online. She has published recipes which have featured in EastEast Magazine, The Confused Arab, Deep Fried and Attempting Abla Nazira. 

Nahla is currently based between Amman and Dubai.

EDUCATION

2024
Landscape Cooking, The Gramounce and Boisbuchet, Potiers, France

2023
12-Week Certificate, Ballymaloe Cookery School, Cork, Ireland

2022
Art, Territories, and Agroecology, INLAND Academy, Online

2021
Writing Beyond the Environment, Emergence Magazine, Online
Stitch Action, Richard Mcevitis, Online

2020
Write: Art, BICAR, Online

2012
Master of Arts (M.A.) – Curatorial Practice, Bath Spa University, UK

2009
Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A. Hons) – Sculpture, Central Saint Martin’s, University of the Arts London, UK

2006
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design – Design for Performance, Central Saint Martin’s, University of the Arts London, UK

CURATORIAL PROJECTS

2023
Rewilding the Kitchen, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai, UAE

2022
Rewilding the Kitchen, Alserkal Online, Dubai, UAE

2021
Rewilding the Kitchen, Alserkal Online, Dubai, UAE
Time, Synchronicity and the Divine, Jamaatna, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE

2020
Forsa School, Sharjah Art Foundation and Naqd Critic, Sharjah, UAE
Jamaatna, Warehouse 421 and Naqd Critic, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The Alchemy of Dyeing, Dubai, UAE

2018
Sufra, Frying Pan Adventures, Dubai, UAE
Mapping Shapsogh, Amman Design Week, Amman, Jordan

2017
Mapping Shapsogh, Amman Design Week, Amman, Jordan
Daftar Asfar, Sharjah, UAE

RESIDENCIES & COMMISSIONS

2024
Artist in Residence Programme, MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan
As Above, So Below, Design Doha Biennial, Doha, Qatar

2023
Rewilding the Kitchen, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai, UAE

2022
On Foraging, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE

2021
Shamsa, Park Projects, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
SEAF Fellowship, Sheikha Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Crafting Natural Dyes: The Alchemy of Dyeing, Irthi Crafts Council, Dibba Al Hosn, UAE

2020
Fleeting Stains, Jameel Arts Centre Research and Practice Programme, Dubai, UAE

2019
Plant, Animal, Mineral, Campus Art Dubai 8.0, Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE
Visual Arts Fund, Daftar Asfar, AFAC, Beirut, Lebanon

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024
Lives Orbit in Mourning, MMAG, 
Amman, Jordan

Way of the Forest, Colomboscope and 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Way of the Forest, Colomboscope, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Arab Design Now, Design Doha Biennial, Doha, Qatar

2023
Shades of the Earth, with Farah Nasrawi, Alserkal Initiatives and Delfina Foundation

2022
While The Coffee Grounds Settle: Stories from Women in the UAE, Fathom Gallery, Washington DC, USA
Slice of Life, Gulf Photo Plus, Dubai, UAE
On Foraging, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The Senses: Breathe between Excess and Deficiency, Myungju Art Center, Gangwon-do, South Korea

2021
Plants, Animals, Minerals, Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE

CULINARY PERFORMANCES

2024
The Humble Leaf As Vessel and Cushion, with Orraisse, SAVAC, Online
Majles - Lubomyr Melnyk, with Ali Hamdan and Orraisse, Amman, Jordan
Charred, with Ila Sawt and Orraisse, Amman, Jordan
Majles - Plantasia, with Ali Hamdan and Orraisse, Amman, Jordan
Spring Iftar, with Orraisse, MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan
Feast From The Migrant Body, with Augustine Paredes, Pernod Ricard, Art Salon, Art Dubai, UAE

2023
Shades of the Earth, Alserkal Initiatives and Delfina Foundation
The Follower, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai, UAE

2022
The Dinner in the Mountains, with Moza Al Matrooshi, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Paradise 4 Ever, with Augustine Paredes, Gulf Photo Plus, Dubai, UAE
The Artist is an Author is an Artist?, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE
Ghabka, Kashta, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Ramadan, Myocum, Dubai, UAE
Shamsa, Shifting Earth Symposium, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
Sandflow Potion, INLAND Academy, Art Dubai, UAE

2021
Plated Summers, Myocum, Dubai, UAE
Iftar, Alserkal Online, Dubai, UAE

2020
DJ Toastie ft. Grilled Cheesus, Soiled, Abu Dhabi, UAE

PUBLICATIONS, ARTICLES, & ZINES

2023
A Collective Digestion, INLAND Academy, Food Culture Days, Vevy, Switzerland

2022
Shamsa, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
Ghabka Zine, Kashta Supperclub, Abu Dhabi, UAE

2021
Plated Summers, Myocum, Dubai, UAE
A Recipe for the Homesick: Labneh and Kishkeh Balls, East East Magazine, Online
Make Shafoot Then Read About Yemen, East East Magazine, Online
Barri, Joori Wa Loomi, Mastic Fizz, Rewilding the Kitchen, Alserkal Online

2020
Addass Stories, The Confused Arab, Online


WORKSHOPS

2024
Mujeb Excursions: Walk, Harvest, Feast!, Mujeb Farms, Amman, Jordan
Eat, Ground, Resist, Living, Salt, Jordan
Alchemy in the Urban, Colomboscope, Colombo, Sri Lanka

2023
A Menu of Your Life, Rewilding the Kitchen, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai, UAE
Project Planning for Artists, Etaar Fanni, Online
Cooking Colour at Ballymaloe, Ballymaloe Cookery School, Cork, Ireland

2022
How To Sit Under a Tree, Warehouse 421, UAE
The Dinner in the Mountains, Moza Al Matrooshi, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, UAE

2021
The Alchemy of Dyeing, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, UAE
About Time, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE
Drain, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE