Education
2018 MFA Painting, Rhode Island School of Design / RI, USA
2014 BA Architecture, American University of Sharjah / Sharjah, UAE
Employment
2023. Manager - Bayt AlMamzar / Dubai, UAE
2018 Workshop - Observational Drawing and Painting - Warehouse 421 / Abu Dhabi, UAE
2016 - 2018 Teaching Assistant - Rhode Island School of Design / RI, USA
Solo
2016 Work - Tashkeel (Al Fahidi) / Dubai, UAE
2023 Introduction - Bayt AlMamzar / Dubai, UAE
Group
2023 Evaporating Suns - Dirwaza x KBH.G - Basel, Switzerland
2018 RISD MFA Thesis Show - Convention Center / RI, USA
2017 RISD Painting MFA Group Show - Morgan Lehman / NY, USA
2017 RISD Painting MFA Group Show - Sol Koffler Gallery / RI, USA
2017 'Bayn' - UAE Unlimited, Warehouse 421 / Abu Dhabi, UAE
2016 Group show - Satellite, Al Serkal Avenue / Dubai, UAE
2015 Warehouse 421 - SEAF, Mina Zayed / Abu Dhabi, UAE
2015 SIKKA Art Fair, Al Fahidi Neighborhood / Dubai, UAE
2014 22 WTKYB, Gallery of Light, DUCTAC / Dubai, UAE
2014 The Big Picture, Pro Art Gallery / Dubai, UAE
2013 SMYAA First Place Collection, Art Dubai / Dubai, UAE
2012 SMYAA Shortlist Exhibition, Dubai Ladies Club / Dubai, UAE
Fellowship
2015 Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF) / Abu Dhabi, UAE
Awards
2012 Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award (SMYAA), 1st Place - Fine Arts / Dubai, UAE
Bio
Saif Mhaisen’s practice is a life commitment, and it begins in his studio. Within a garden-facing room sheltered behind tall yard walls Saif pursues his work: tending to his community by inviting friends into his private space for extended conversation.
For Saif a relationship is a conversation that finds its meaning over time. Hours shared in the studio take on a different pace from the world outside: these conversations, at once mundane and profound, facilitate and necessitate careful attention. Saif’s precise and naturalistic work grows out of this attention, leaving us with portraits that are striking without being sensational.
His compositions communicate an ethic that is private in nature: taking its form as the slow, intimate, and consistent building of relationships.