Sara Al Haddad

Overview

Sara Al Haddad (b. Dubai, 1988) is an Emirati artist based in the United Arab Emirates whose practice centers on yarn and fiber, using techniques such as crocheting and stitching to craft emotionally charged, spatially responsive objects. These soft sculptures are often hung, draped, wrapped, or stretched—evoking vulnerability, intimacy, and raw introspection. Her artistic process is rooted in reflection and emotion, translating internal states into tactile forms. Through this approach, Sara explores memory, longing, and psychological landscapes, allowing her work to serve as a meditative space for both the artist and viewer.

In 2025, she participated in The Rhythm of Existence at Art Dubai and From Fragments to Coherence at Sevil Dolmaci in Dubai. Her work romanticising yesterday's was part of Biography of a Passage at 421 during Art Dubai in 2023. That same year, she was featured in Women Defining Women in Contemporary Art of the Middle East and Beyond at the Resnick Pavilion, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In 2022, her piece inhale was included in Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi. Between 2018 and 2019, her commissions—afterwards, recordings: "passing clouds" he said and filling holes: i want more—were exhibited in Gateway: Structures of Meaning | Architectures of Perception at Manarat Al Saadiyat.

Also in 2018, Sara's work appeared in Untold Stories Retold: Recent Exhibitions from the UAE's National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale at Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi. In 2017, she contributed to multiple group exhibitions, including filling holes: memories don't mean a thing in Collectivity: Objects and Associations in the UAE Art World at Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, and her commissioned works—romanticising yesterday's, inhale, i am sorry, i am overwhelming, and exhale i, ii, iii—were presented in Bayn: the In-Between, organized by UAE Unlimited at Warehouse421. Earlier that year, she participated in Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play, the UAE National Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale.

In 2016, her MFA thesis works—including love conversations pt. 4, إلى متى (until when), next time will be the best time i see you, and “look at her” “she looks as insecure as i am”—were featured in Home Remembered, the 2016 MICA Graduate Exhibition in Baltimore. She also showed in ACADEMY 2016 at CONNERSMITH in Washington, D.C., and in form-er shape | shape re-form at MICA. At Platform Gallery in Baltimore, her poetic series passing clouds and look at her was part of not really here.

Her earlier exhibitions include as you try to forget me (2015), a two-person show titled paper/weight with Melvin Thomas at Ballroom Gallery in Baltimore, and dirt/dream=rinehart at Fox 3 Gallery, MICA. In 2014, she presented for self destruction at Rine <3 in the Sheila & Richard Riggs Gallery, and participated in Thanks for Writing at 601Artspace, New York with filling holes: it was beautiful. That same year, she completed two site-specific commissions: therefore, thereafter for Art Dubai Projects, and hence during her residency at SIKKA Art Fair, House 31 in Dubai’s Al Fahidi Historic Neighborhood.

In 2013, Sara held a solo residency titled i know, i knew at the Gallery of Light, DUCTAC, Dubai, featuring works such as everything and nothing, forgiveness i and ii, and it became everything. She also presented without as a commissioned piece at SIKKA Art Fair, House 33. Earlier, in 2012, her works untitled, filling holes, and self portrait appeared in Bursting at the Seams at the Pavilion, Downtown Dubai, and simple perplexes was exhibited as both a physical and video piece. In 2011–2012, her project distractions traveled as part of New Era Introducing, a finalist show across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with a stop at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai. She also exhibited self portrait in no more (in)security at the Rotunda Gallery, American University in Dubai.

One of her earliest ongoing projects, and the commonplace serendipitous (2009–), was featured in Analogue is the New Digital as part of The Embroidered Digital Commons in Manchester, UK.

A Fulbright Scholar, Sara received her MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore in 2016, and her BFA from The American University in Dubai in 2011. Her work has resonated both regionally and internationally, marking her as a deeply introspective voice in contemporary Middle Eastern art.

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