Zayn Qahtani (b. 1997, Bahrain) lives and works in London. Zayn is a multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, painting and sculpture. Her body of work is a diligent effort at archiving a personal, synesthetic archaeology. They sway between what is seen and what is felt, compiling a personal mythology along the way. Drawing on ancient cultures and nature’s diverse ecosystems, Zayn forms visual stories which seem to exist in the twilight zone - too distorted to be real, too familiar to be a dream.
This animist quality becomes apparent in Zayn's use of materiality: papers crafted from Bahraini date palm trees, bioplastics made from sugarcane, and pigments borne from plants, crystals, metals and earth all intermingle to form reincarnated objects of encrypted divination and illusory storytelling.
Solo exhibitions include; ‘Angels In Purgatory’, VITRINE, London (2023). Recent group exhibitions include; ‘Abu Dhabi Art x Hunna Art’, Abu Dhabi (2024); ‘Sixth Sense’, Standpoint Gallery, London (2024); ‘New Now’, Guts Gallery, London (2024); ‘Contested Bodies’, The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University Galleries, Leeds (2023); ‘Hall of Mirrors’, PLOP Residency, London (2023); ‘The Other Voices of Silence’, Lampo, Milan (2023); ‘Art Athina’, Arusha Gallery, Athens (2023); ‘Dreamer's Eye’, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh (2023); ‘When The Heart of a Pig Has Hardened’, Dice it Small, KIRKI, Tinos, Greece (2023); ‘Hawthorn & The Feast of Julian’, Arusha Gallery, New York (2023); ‘MENART Fair’, HUNNA, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (2023); ‘I Felt That’, The Tub, London (2022); ‘Serendipity’, HUNNA x MIA Art Collection, Dubai (2022); ‘Charta’, Fortnight Institute, New York (2022); ‘Chorus’, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh (2022).
Zayn’s works feature in a selection of collections including; Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Soho House, London and Oxfordshire, and The Ned, Doha.