Nouf Alhimiary is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and researcher whose work returns to the body as a site of memory, absence and transformation. Working and collaborating through installation, sound, photographs, virtual reality, inherited objects, ritual, hair, sound and text, she explores themes ranging from feminine embodiment, speculative memory, techno-poetics and affect. She is currently completing a PhD in Culture at University College London, and she was a visiting researcher at Yale University, affiliated with both the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) department.
Alhimiary’s research investigates how digital fabulation is used as an approach to restructuring feminine embodiment, and how it is remembered and memoried across time and space, through narratives of silliness and danger. Through a convergence of decolonial literary methods, digital memory studies, feminist theory and anthropology, her research thesis aims to foreground new approaches to digital embodiment, proposing new ways of engaging with mnemonic narratives.
Alhimiary has exhibited and published her writing internationally, including Goldsmith’s Women’s Library, Sharjah Islamic Art Museum, Venice Biennale, British Museum, Utah MOCA among others.
For a complete portfolio of work please contact: info@noufling.com
Education
Yale
Visiting PhD Researcher in Center for Collaborative Art and Media (CCAM)
2021-2022
University College London
PhD in Culture, Communication & Media
2020-2024
London School of Economics and Political Science
MSc in Gender Studies
2018-2019
Effat University
BA in English
2011-2015
Commissions and Workshops
2025
London, UK
Interactive Conversation curated by RCA Curation students, with Nouf Alhimiary and Jonathan Watkins
at Geothe Institute Library
2025
Dubai, UAE
Untold Women Narratives
at Marie Claire Arabia
2024
London, UK
Between Sleep and Sleeplessness: A Creative Methods Workshop
at Haramacy
2023
Tuscany, Italy
Studio Visits
at Villa Lena
2021
New Haven, CT
Junior Seminar on Virtual Ethnographies
at Yale
2020
London
Participatory Discussions on Mental Health and Identity Politics
at SOAS
2020
London
Arab Women Artists Now
at RichMix
2019
London
The Salon of Disobedience x Algorithmic Intimacies
at the Mosaic Rooms
2016
Dubai
‘Desire to Not Exist’ mural, Fully Booked Book Fair
Alserkal Avenue, Dubai Art Week
2013
Jeddah
Typographical Image Making Workshop
at Mostly Visible, Jeddah Art Week
Selected Exhibitions, Screenings and Performances
2023-
‘Parallel’- Ministry of Culture, VR Exhibition in various locations in Saudi Arabia.
‘Selections from the Diversity Collection Program, Bates museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, USA.
-2019-
‘Arab-British Womxn Film Screening’, Habibi Collective, Catfrod Mews, London.
‘The Salon of Disobedience’, Mosaic Rooms, London.
‘Becoming an Archive’, Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths University, London.
‘Haramacy Festival’, the Albany Theatre London, London.
-2017-
‘Cities of Conviction’, UtahMOCA, USA.
‘Radical Love, Female Lust’, Women of the World Festival, Ireland.
‘Radical Love, Female Lust’, Crypt Gallery London.
-2016-
‘Fully Booked Book Fair’, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.
‘Phantom Punch’, Bates College Museum of Art, USA.
-2015-
‘Invisible Lines’, Islamic Human Rights Commission Gallery, London.
‘The Internet’, OOMK, Issue Four, Link.
-2014-
‘Islamic Art Festival’, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah.
‘Fotofest Biennial’, The Meeting Place, Houston, TX.
‘Rhizoma: Generation in Waiting’, Venice Biennial, Italy.
-2013-
‘Mostly Visible’, Jeddah Art Week, Saudi Arabia.
-2012-
‘Hajj: A Journey to The Heart of Islam’, British Museum’s Addis Gallery, London.
Residencies
2023 Villa Lena Residency, Tuscany, Italy.
2023 Sigg Art Residency, Athens, Greece.
2021 RU Residency, New York, New York, USA.
2020 AlBalad Residency, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
2019 Haramacy residency, Albany Theatre, London, UK
2016 Bates Museum of Art Visiting Artist, Anthropology Department, Maine, USA.
2012 Off Screen Expedition, Crossway Foundation x Edge of Arabia, UK.
Collections
Villa Lena Foundation Collection.
Women’s Art Library, Goldsmith’s University.
Bates Museum of Art.
Talks / Panels / Conferences
NYU & the Sorbonne (Culture Made in Arabia)• April 2021
SOAS • March 2020
Arab Women Artist’s Now • March 2020
Catford Mews • September 2019
LSE Gender, Sexuality and Globilization Conference • May 2019
The Albany Theatre • April 2019
MED Dialogues in Rome • November 2017
Bates University in Lewiston • November 2016
Fellowships and Awards
2021 Yale-UCL Collaborative scholarship
2020 MOC Cultural Scholarship Prgoram
2018 Misk Fellowship
2018 SBMF Scholarship
2017 Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs x ISPI, MED Young Leaders
2014 Crossway Foundation Grant to Fotofest
2012 Most Creative Youth
2010 Effat University Merit Scholarship
Publications
2021 [essay] Raw Journals, ‘Performing girl, undisciplined’.
2020 [essay] Haramacy Anthology: A collection of Essays, ‘My Love is Vast, but So is My Difference’.
2019 [essay] Galdem Magazine, ‘Can we stop shaming each other for being fake online and accept that social media is performative?’.
Press
2025 [interview] Marie Claire Arabia, ‘Untold Women Stories with Nouf Alhimiary’.
2024 [Interview] Juliette Magazine, ‘Studio visit diaries #1 (feat Villa Lena): Nouf Alhimiary in conversation with Federico Montagna‘.
2023 [Interniew] Harpers Bazaar, ‘Womb Power: Meet The Arab Artists Exploring Motherhood And Femininity Through Their Oeuvre‘.
2022 [Interview] Grazia Magazine, ‘Artists from Saudi Arabia’.
2019 [news] Mosaic Rooms, ‘The Salon of Disobedience: Algorithmic Intimacies Hervisions with Nouf Alhimiary‘.
2017 [news] AQNB, ‘Spiritual parallels connecting Saudi Arabia + Utah in Cities of Conviction at UMOCA‘.
2017 [profile] Mid East Art, ‘Nouf Alhimiary: Interview’.
2016 [news] AramcoWorld, ‘Ambassadors of Art‘.
2016 [profile] Bates Museum of Art, ‘An Introduction to a Cultural Phantom Punch with Artist Nouf Alhimiary‘.
2016 [news] HuffPost Art and Culture, ‘Artist Turns A Daily Fashion Log Into Feminist Activism‘.
2015 [profile] The Floating Magazine, ‘Nouf Alhimiary’.
2014 [news] Alarabiya, ‘Arabs in America: Saudi artists launch U.S. tour‘.