Sophia Al-Maria

Sophia Al-Maria (b.1983, Tacoma, USA) is a Qatari-American artist, writer, and filmmaker whose multidisciplinary practice—spanning drawing, sculpture, video, performance, and experimental film—harnesses the power of storytelling and myth, weaving revisionist histories centered on marginalized perspectives.

Al-Maria grew up between the United States and Qatar before moving to Egypt to study comparative literature at the American University in Cairo. She next completed a Master’s degree in aural and visual cultures at Goldsmiths, London, before returning to Qatar to work at Mathaf: the Arab Museum of Modern Art. She is currently based in London.

Her international upbringing exposed her to the effects of pollution and global warming firsthand. In response, Al-Maria turned to pop culture, Arabic poetry, and speculative fiction to weave captivating tales of apocalyptic futures, confronting her thoughts and feelings about the present climate crisis. The notion of ruins, as expressed in Pre-Islamic poetry, underpins these narratives and continues to inform her work.

Al-Maria’s fascination with the future led her to coin the concept of ‘Gulf Futurism’ along with friend and musician Fatima Al Qadiri. Referring to the possibility that, in some respects, the Gulf is already living the future as imagined by the West, Gulf Futurism exposed the devastating impacts of rapid urbanization and hyper-consumerism on everyday life in the post-oil Persian Gulf.

Al-Maria’s practice has since expanded to challenge hegemonic narratives and structures of globally shared presents. Through a combination of speculative fiction, meditation, mystical practices, and rigorous research, the artist recuperates suppressed voices and envisions alternative futures.

Al-Maria has had solo exhibitions atArt Basel Qatar, Doha, Qatar (2026) ; Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2024); Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA (2023); Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar (2022); Tate Britain, London, UK (2019); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2016), among other institutions.

Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2022); LUMA Arles, Arles, France (2021); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2019); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, USA (2018); the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2017); the New Museum, New York, USA (2015); the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; and Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK (2014); and numerous other venues.

Al-Maria has been writer in residence at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. She is the author of three books: Sad Sack (Book Works, London, 2019), Virgin with a Memory (Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester, 2014), and The Girl Who Fell to Earth (Harper Perennial, New York, 2012).

Al-Maria has received the Frieze London Artist Award in 2025 to develop Wall Based Work, a stand-up comedy set performed inside the Frieze London tent.