Ala Younis is a globally recognized artist whose expanded practice includes curating, research, and publishing. Past of a Temporal Universe marks her first institutional survey in West Asia. Through her multiple, long-iterating bodies of work, Younis challenges audiences to piece together new understandings from traces of history behind the scenes of the world stage.
“I weave between the personal and the collective in my storytelling. Working within a university museum context makes possible many added layers of exchange with others who study, teach, and learn around the questions that drive my investigation.”
— Ala Younis
Informed by her training in architecture and visual cultures, Younis’s projects center the physical developments and narrative intersections of the Arab geographies in which she grew up, frequently drawing from a wide range of formal and informal archives. Her archival installations, textiles, murals, mosaics, and drawings make subtle, startling connections among political, social, urban, and popular imaginaries.
Ala Younis, “Climate Conditions 2” (2025), mosaic panel on metal frame, 100 x 80 cm
The exhibition debuts four major new commissions alongside iterations of landmark projects for which she is best known, including Plan for Greater Baghdad (2015), Nefertiti (2008), and Tin Soldiers (2010-11). Together, these works trace conceptual and formal throughlines in her oeuvre, from the tools and skills she developed as she emerged in the art scene of Amman, Jordan, to her experiments in navigating new knowledge as she evolved the unique methods and perspective for which she is renowned today.
At NYU Abu Dhabi, Younis developed work in concert with multiple scholarly frameworks. A new chapter in her High Dam project emerged out of her collaboration with a scholar of Soviet-Arab relations, NYUAD Associate Professor of History Masha Kirasirova. Other work in the exhibition was developed with support from NYUAD’s al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art, and the Arts and Humanities Research Forums.
In answer to the question of how to make a retrospective from such a scholarly and hybrid practice, Maya Allison, NYUAD’s Galleries Executive Director and University Chief Curator, writes:
“I have long-admired Younis’ hybrid practice as artist-researcher-curator. Working with her animates my thinking about the future of art exhibitions in the era of global museums, and the need for this kaleidoscopic approach to new understandings of our past and future.”
Past of a Temporal Universe is on view at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery through January 18, 2026.
To learn more, visit nyuad-artgallery.org.
Ala Younis “Breathing Carpet” (2025), machine, rug, wood, video
Installation view of Ala Younis, ”Plan for Greater Baghdad” (2015), two- and three-dimensional prints, dimensions variable
Ala Younis, “Corniche Tunnel Art: Industrial City” (2025), metal IKEA shelves, items from artist’s time in Abu Dhabi
