Amira Rahim

Self-described as a passionate abstract expressionist painter, Amira Rahim is an American artist currently based in Abu Dhabi. Known for her hijabis, camels and abstract series, she is an avid user of bright and vivid colours and one of few who achieves great harmony in these tones. The result is a working body which effectively attracts attention and captures the viewer for personal and lively interaction.

“My work is about expressing the beauty that I see reflected in the life and the world around us. I begin with emotion or vision of a painting in my head and then intuitively seek to find it on the canvas. The spontaneous and layered nature of my process gives each painting its own unique energy. I draw from my experiences of personal narratives, travel, and cultural studies in my work, and attempt to explore them with a curious optimism for the human condition.

Primarily self-taught, I enjoy working in highly-pigmented acrylic paints and regularly incorporate gold leaf, found papers, resin, oil pastels, enamel and the list goes on. I view the process of Art-making as a birth-right, a testament of our fleeting existence, and an ethereal reverence to the Unseen.

This is my story and I am writing it in colour.”