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Draft:Maha Mustafa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maha Mustafa (born 1961 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi-born sculptor and installation artist who lives and works between Malmö, Sweden, and Toronto, Canada.[1][2] Her practice encompasses installation and large-scale public art.[3][4] Mustafa participated in the eighth Sharjah Biennial in 2007 and in Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2012.[5][6][7]

Mustafa's installation Black Fountain received critical attention in Hyperallergic and the Italian art magazine Artribune following its presentation at the Mori Art Museum.[8][9] Her permanent public sculpture Passage, located at Dag Hammarskjöld Square beside Malmö Live, was selected through a public-art competition and inaugurated in 2016.[4][10]

Early life and education

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Mustafa was born in Baghdad in 1961. She studied sculpture and ceramics for four years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad.[11][2] She established a studio during the Iran–Iraq War before moving to Sweden around 1990.[11]

Mustafa and the artist Ibrahim Rashid, whom she met while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, settled in Malmö in 1991.[2] In 2005 they moved to Canada.[3] Mustafa subsequently divided her time between Malmö and Toronto.[1][11]

Career

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In 2004, Mustafa and Rashid presented Beyond 100°C at Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan. The exhibition addressed relationships between people, the environment and material processes.[12]

In 2005, Mustafa and Rashid exhibited Checkpoint X at Landskrona Konsthall in Sweden. The exhibition received a dedicated review in Helsingborgs Dagblad by art critic Martin Schibli.[13]

Mustafa participated in the eighth Sharjah Biennial, Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change, in 2007.[5] The biennial, which addressed environmental and social questions through contemporary art, was also reviewed by the Swedish national newspaper Dagens Nyheter, whose coverage identified Mustafa among the participating artists.[6]

In 2008, Södertälje Konsthall presented Ground Zero, an exhibition by Mustafa and Rashid.[2] In 2010, A Space Gallery in Toronto presented their exhibition Looking for Oxygen. An accompanying essay by Nayrouz Abu-Hatoum and Sarah Hamdi discussed Mustafa's practice in relation to environmental destruction, materiality and the effects of violence, with Black Fountain as a central work.[3]

In 2012, Black Fountain was included in Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.[7] The exhibition surveyed contemporary art from the Arab world.[7][8]

In 2018, Mustafa's proposal Soundscapes was selected as a winning work in a public-art competition organised by Swedavia for new artworks at Stockholm Arlanda Airport.[14]

Mustafa is represented in the Khalid Shoman Collection at Darat al Funun.[15] A 2016 sketch for Passage was included in the Skissernas Museum exhibition Come as you are! …and other new acquisitions in Lund in 2023.[16]

Selected works

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Black Fountain

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Black Fountain is a mixed-media installation centred on a fountain that pumps black liquid upward before it falls into a surrounding pool.[3][17] The work was presented at A Space Gallery in Toronto in 2010 and at the Mori Art Museum in 2012.[3][7]

Mori Art Museum curator Kondo Kenichi related the work to Mustafa's experience of black rain in Iraq during the Gulf War, when burning oil fields affected the atmosphere, and discussed its associations with oil and conflict.[17] Writing in Hyperallergic, Christopher Kuhl described the work as "elegant and ugly, quiet and mysterious" and called it a "supremely conceptualized piece".[8] Cristiana De Marchi, writing in Artribune, discussed the work as a monumental artistic response to the black rain associated with the Gulf War.[9]

Approaching Red

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Approaching Red is a two-part metal public sculpture installed at Concord CityPlace in Toronto in 2013.[18] The work occupies the pedestrian piazza between the Parade condominium towers, allowing pedestrians to pass through and around its curved forms.[18]

UrbanToronto covered both the installation and the subsequent official presentation of the sculpture. In a feature published in June 2013, Craig White discussed Approaching Red in the context of CityPlace's wider collection of public art and its relationship to the surrounding pedestrian environment.[19]

Passage

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In 2014, the City of Malmö invited four artists to submit proposals for a public artwork at Dag Hammarskjöld Square. Mustafa's proposal, Passage, was selected as the winning entry.[11][4] The work was completed and inaugurated in December 2016 beside Malmö Live.[4][10]

Passage consists of three principal elements: an eight-metre-high red spiral sculpture, a 25-metre-long curved diabase seating element, and a fountain.[4] The professional artists' organisation Konstnärernas Riksorganisation published a feature on Mustafa and the work in 2017,[4] while its inauguration was reported by Sydsvenskan.[10]

In 2026, Malmö Live published an interview with Mustafa marking ten years since the completion of the work, discussing its relationship to movement, public space and social interaction.[11]

References

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  1. 1 2 "Maha Mustafa". Darat al Funun. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Ground Zero". Södertälje Konsthall. 2008. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Abu-Hatoum, Nayrouz; Hamdi, Sarah (2010). "Looking For Oxygen". A Space Gallery. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hagdahl, Nora (2017). "Gestaltaren: Maha Mustafa "Passage"" (in Swedish). Konstnärernas Riksorganisation. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Sharjah Biennial 8 inaugurates on April 4th, 2007". Sharjah Art Foundation. 4 March 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Konsten att förändra sitt liv". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). 5 May 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Artists & Works". Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World. Mori Art Museum. 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 Kuhl, Christopher (20 February 2013). "Beyond Stereotypes: Art and the New Arab Reality". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  9. 1 2 De Marchi, Cristiana (17 July 2012). "L'intramontabile mito dell'Orient Express". Artribune (in Italian). Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 Magnusson, Erik (8 December 2016). "Så blev Malmös nyaste piazza smyckad". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "Tio år med Passage – Maha Mustafa om sin skulptur" (in Swedish). Malmö Live. 22 June 2026. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  12. ↑ "Beyond 100° C". Darat al Funun. 2004. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  13. ↑ Schibli, Martin (June 2005). "Checkpoint för ljus och mörker". Helsingborgs Dagblad (in Swedish). Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  14. ↑ "New art to adorn Stockholm Arlanda Airport". Swedavia. 8 June 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  15. ↑ Rogers, Sarah (2013). "Histories in the Making: The Khalid Shoman Collection and Darat al Funun". Arab Art Histories: The Khalid Shoman Collection (PDF). The Khalid Shoman Foundation. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  16. ↑ "Come as you are! – and other new acquisitions". Skissernas Museum. 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  17. 1 2 "Exhibition highlights: Black Fountain and "Arab Lounge" — Interview: Kondo Kenichi on "Arab Express" (Part 2)". Mori Art Museum. 17 October 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  18. 1 2 White, Craig (1 March 2013). "Approaching Red Arrives at CityPlace". UrbanToronto. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  19. ↑ White, Craig (21 June 2013). "The Story of Approaching Red, Bold New Art at Concord CityPlace". UrbanToronto. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
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