Nouf Alhimiary is an artist and practice-led researcher whose work examines how memory, intimacy, and presence become citable under digital conditions. Working across installation, performance, participatory formats, ritual, sound, theory and writing, her practice positions citation as a conditional, embodied process shaped by automation, surveillance, and unequal access.
Her work engages digital systems, such as mapping technologies, algorithmic platforms, and surveillance infrastructures, to test how digital memory appears, disappears, or becomes unreachable. Across these contexts, ephemerality functions as method, and intimacy emerges as provisional and often non-consensual. Alhimiary’s practice unfolds through situations, scores, and collective encounters that foreground gesture, presence, and failure as forms of knowledge.
Alhimiary holds a PhD in Culture, Communication and Media from University College London and was a visiting researcher at Yale University. She has presented work in gallery, institutional, and academic contexts internationally, while also designing lectures, performances, and workshops as sites of embodied thinking. Her practice sits at the intersection of art, critical digital inquiry, and epistemic experimentation.
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
2020-2025
London School of Economics and Political Science
MSc in Gender Studies
2018-2019
Effat University
BA in English
2011-2015
Residencies
2026 Delfina Foundation, London, UK.
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.
Commissions and Workshops
2025, London, UK, ‘In Conversation with Nouf Alhimiary and Delaine Le Bas’, Royal College of the Arts.
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 Worksho’, at Mostly Visible, Jeddah Art Week
Selected Exhibitions, Screenings and Performances
2025, ‘High Tide’, Royal College of Art, London, UK.
2025, ‘Ad Interim’, Hope 93, London, UK.
2025, ‘Rise Habibi’, The Crypt, Shubbak Festival, London, UK.
2023, ‘Parallel’- Ministry of Culture, VR Exhibition in various locations in Saudi Arabia.
2023, ‘Selections from the Diversity Collection Program, Bates museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, USA.
2019, ‘Arab-British Womxn Film Screening’, Habibi Collective, Catfrod Mews, London.
2019, ‘The Salon of Disobedience’, Mosaic Rooms, London.
2019, ‘Becoming an Archive’, Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths University, London.
2019, ‘Haramacy Festival’, the Albany Theatre London, London.
2017, ‘Cities of Conviction’, UtahMOCA, USA.
2017, ‘Radical Love, Female Lust’, Women of the World Festival, Ireland.
2017, ‘Radical Love, Female Lust’, Crypt Gallery London.
2016, ‘Fully Booked Book Fair’, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.
2016, ‘Phantom Punch’, Bates College Museum of Art, USA.
2015, ‘Invisible Lines’, Islamic Human Rights Commission Gallery, London.
2015, ‘The Internet’, OOMK, Issue Four, Link.
2014, ‘Islamic Art Festival’, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah.
2014, ‘Fotofest Biennial’, The Meeting Place, Houston, TX.
2014, ‘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.
Collections
Villa Lena Foundation Collection.
Women’s Art Library, Goldsmith’s University.
Bates Museum of Art.
Talks / Panels / Conferences
FIAT/ IFTA Everything is Possible and Nothing is True • October 2025
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‘.