Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | January 2022

ARTISTS IN FOCUS
Ayah
Dhafer
- Exclusive to Magzoid
Ayah Dhafer is an Emirati
artist based in Abu
Dhabi. She is renowned
for creating visual art
and paintings. Her alma
mater complements her career;
Dhafer studied Visual Arts at the
College of Arts and Design, Zayed
University. Upon completing her
studies, Dhafer introduced the Lest
We Forget (LWF) initiative together
with her professor and colleagues.
LWF is supported by and a part
of The Salama bint Hamdan Al
Nahyan foundation, Abu Dhabi.
Dhafer’s work is
nostalgic of the Emirati
culture and the olden
days. The artworks are
carefully created using
specific colors and materials
that do justice to the stories and
emotions that she wants to convey
through her pieces. Recently, she
has started using certain colors in
her artworks that portray particular
human characteristics, giving her
work an air of realism. Dhafer uses
wood as her primary medium.
She prefers painting on wooden
surfaces because, to her, wood is
a material that is physically hard
yet soft; a characteristic she finds
common among the people of
the stories she paints. Moreover,
to Dhafer, wood signifies her as
a person and her
The LWF
initiative was formed
with the purpose of
archiving the Emirati culture
and heritage. Working with LWF
gave Dhafer access to the deep,
rich history of her homeland
and serves as an
country.
The LWF
initiative was
formed with
the purpose
of archiving
the Emirati
culture and
heritage.
Working with
LWF gave Dhafer
access to the
deep, rich history
of her homeland and serves as an
inspiration behind her artworks.
According to her, she translates
nostalgic stories of the past of the
Emirati people into visual art.
inspiration behind
her artworks.
- feature@magzoid.com
36
January 2022
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