B. 1991, Cairo, Egypt. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Manar Abdelmaaboud is an interdisciplinary artist working across painting and mixed media to examine power, control, and agency as they play out in the body. Her figures are often distorted, elongated, or partially erased, stand-ins for the alienation and dissociation she has felt in her own daily interactions with others. A recurring question drives the work: does the body control the mind, or does the mind control the body? Each new painting becomes a space to test that question, pushing and blurring the line between the two until the boundary itself starts to feel unstable. Through this ongoing inquiry, Abdelmaaboud explores the wider terrain of the human condition, the joys and sorrows of love and loss, and the shifting, often contradictory nature of identity and belonging.
Education
2018 MFA Fine Art, Parsons, The New School, New York
2011 BA Fine Art, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
Group Shows
2025 Lost Lands, Ambrosio Gallery, New York, USA
2024 Between Hercules and a Butterfly, 62 Pier Carousel, New York, USA
2023 Ancient Futures, The Opening Gallery, New York, USA
2023 Fractured , Ambrosio Gallery, New York, USA
2022 New York Arab Festival, The Invisible Dog, New York, USA
2018 The Hybrid of Being, 25 East Gallery, New York, USA
2018 How an Artwork Should Speak, 25 East Gallery, New York, USA
2017 Politics and Lies, 25 East Gallery, New York, USA
2016 Naema’s Office is Bleeding Exhibition 2, Medrar Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
2015 Mohamed Abla Painting Competition, AUC, Cairo, Egypt
2011 470 Parallel Visions, Sharjah Gallery, AUC, Cairo, Egypt
Performances
2018 To Catch a Terrorist, Am Ufer Theater, Berlin, Germany
2018 To Catch a Terrorist, La Mama Theater, New York, USA
Lectures
2021 Art and Humor as Mediums of Protest, Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
Awards & Grants
2016 The Provost Scholarship, Parsons School of Design at The New School, New York, USA