Noura Ali-Ramahi is a self-taught artist of Lebanese origin who has made the United Arab Emirates her creative home. Her first encounter with art began in the early 1990s, as a high school student in Dubai, where she explored the delicate arts of pencil and charcoal drawing as well as silk painting. Even then, her hands seemed to capture glimpses of unseen worlds, hinting at the imaginative depth that would come to define her work. During her university years in Beirut, she was drawn to the lively hand-crafted clay pottery markets, discovering a new canvas in clay and applying her acrylic paints to transform these humble vessels into expressive works of art. By the late 1990s, this exploration evolved into a practice on paper and canvas, where her voice as an abstract expressionist began to flourish.
Human figures frequently emerge from her abstract compositions, haunting and ephemeral, reflecting memory, emotion, and the fragile condition of humanity. She has ventured into daring experiments on metal, which she perforates with 9mm bullets fired by her own hand, transforming each piece into a dialogue of confrontation, survival, and transcendence. These works embody both vulnerability and strength, resonating with a powerful sense of presence.
Her first exhibition, A Picture and A Thousand Words, held in January 2016 at The Space in TWOFOUR54, marked the arrival of her voice in the contemporary art scene. Most of the works were sold, with proceeds donated to a charity organization in Abu Dhabi. Six months later, her second exhibition achieved near-total sales, the funds directed to support refugees through the UNHCR, reinforcing her vision of art as a bridge between beauty and compassion.
In 2017, she participated in World Art Dubai, asserting her presence on a wider stage. By October 2018, she unveiled her first solo gallery exhibition, RHAPSODY, at N2N Gallery in Abu Dhabi, a testament to her evolving vision and experimental spirit. In 2019, she embarked on the creation of large-scale collages using mixed media, incorporating paper, plastic bags, and other materials. Inspired by nature and infused with nostalgia for simpler days before the digital revolution, this series, SAUDADE, evokes longing, memory, and the transient beauty of life.
In 2020, she contributed to a group exhibition, PLASTIC, at Tashkeel Studio in Dubai, and designed a mosaic sculpture for a charity project at Dubai Design District in collaboration with Fantini Mosaici UAE. Each endeavor reflects her ongoing dialogue with her environment and her desire to intertwine art with social and cultural meaning, giving voice to both material and memory.
A mother of four, Noura Ali-Ramahi lives and works in Abu Dhabi, balancing her family life with the ever-expanding universe of her creativity. Her work has entered private and corporate collections across the UAE and internationally, bearing witness to a practice that transforms observation into poetry, memory into color, and lived experience into forms of enduring beauty. Each painting, collage, and sculpture whispers a story of resilience, imagination, and the quiet wonder of seeing the world anew.
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