Cuadro

Manal Al-Dowayan was born and raised in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Over the course of her education, she partook in a range of courses in differing art institutions in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Bahrain and London. Manal is represented by the Cuadro Fine Art Gallery.

She has participated in numerous exhibitions including the British Council’s Common Ground project in 2006 and Nawafith: the Saudi-Italian artist exchange (2007). Manal has also exhibited regionally and internationally, in Spain, Bahrain, the UK, USA, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. She won an international call for artists for the Imagining Ourselves anthology in 2003, which was managed by the International Museum of Women in San Francisco. In 2005 she was selected to participate in a photography project which followed with an auctioning of the works by Christie’s. Her photograph Pointing to the Future was exhibited in New York at the 49th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2005.

Manal has a Masters in Systems Analysis and Design and runs her own photography business from her darkroom in Saudi Arabia where she also produces her artworks. Manal’s latest collection, I Am, addresses issues which pertain to the position of the Arab woman in Islamic Society. These collections comprise of works which portray Saudi women whose careers play a vital role in Saudi Society. Each image simultaneously includes a traditional item of jewelry positioned in an obstructive manner. This disruption symbolizes the barriers that women face when partaking in their profession and questions cultural traditions that prevent Saudi women from expanding their roles in society.