Maha Mustafa
Maha Mustafa (born 1961, Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi-Swedish-Canadian sculptor and installation artist based between Malmö, Sweden, and Toronto, Canada. Her work includes large-scale public art, museum and gallery installations, and permanent public commissions across Europe and North America. Her work has been exhibited at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Sharjah Biennial, and Darat al Funun in Amman, and is documented in several institutional publications.[1]
Early Life and Education
Mustafa was born in Baghdad in 1961.[2] She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad from 1980 to 1984, specialising in ceramics. She won the Wasiti Biennale First Prize in Sculpture in 1986 and 1989.
During the Gulf War she opened her first studio in Baghdad. She immigrated to Sweden in 1990, settling in Malmö in 1991 with her partner, the artist Ibrahim Rashid.[3] She relocated partly to Toronto in 2005.
In Sweden she completed further studies in Concrete Sculptures (Malmö, 1996), Public Art Monuments in Residential Milieu (Umeå, 1999), Spatial Gestalt (Malmö, 2000), and Light in Urban Space (Malmö, 2003).
Work
Mustafa works across sculpture, installation, and large-scale public commissions. Her work addresses oil, memory, war, and environmental change. Installations frequently incorporate physical materials including ice, water, black liquid, light, and smoke. Public commissions are permanent works integrated into urban infrastructure including transit stations, airport terminals, and city squares.
Her work is held in the Khalid Shoman Collection at Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan,[4] and in the permanent collection of Skissernas Museum at Lund University, Sweden — the world's largest collection of sketches, models and preparatory work for public art.[5]
Selected Works
Black Fountain (2008–2012)
A large basin from which black liquid is continuously pumped upward and falls back into the pool. The work was shown at Södertälje Konsthall (2008), Passagen Konsthall, Linköping (2009), ASpace Gallery, Toronto (2010), MAI Gallery, Montréal (2011), and the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012) as part of Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World, a survey of contemporary art from the Arab world featuring 34 artists from 10 countries.[6][7]
Landscape −37°C (2004)
An installation in which a refrigeration unit generates frozen panels measuring 300 cm × 250 cm. The work was shown at the 8th Sharjah Biennial, UAE, in 2007.[8]
Field (1995–2004)
An installation consisting of approximately 8,000 small light bulbs placed beneath semi-transparent paper. The work toured multiple venues in Sweden and Denmark between 1995 and 2004.
Approaching Red (2013)
A permanent public sculpture at Iceboat Terrace, Toronto, consisting of two large curved steel plates finished in red automotive paint, commissioned by Concord Adex Inc for the CityPlace development.[9]
Passage (2016)
A permanent public sculpture at Dag Hammarskjöld's Square, Malmö, adjacent to the Malmö Live concert hall. The work consists of an 8-metre red mild steel spiral, a 25-metre black granite bench, and an 8-metre-diameter fountain. It was selected through an open public art competition in 2014 with a total budget of 10 million Swedish kronor, and fabricated in the Netherlands by CIG Architecture.[10][11] The architectural coordination was undertaken in collaboration with her daughter Suzan Ibrahim, co-founder of SUSA, a Swedish-Iraqi-Canadian architecture studio based between Toronto, Paris, and Malmö.[12]
Public Commissions
- 2018 — Soundscapes, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, Sweden (winning commission)
- 2017 — Access, Maple GO Station, Metrolinx, Ontario, Canada (winning commission) — Metrolinx is the provincial transit agency managing public transportation across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area
- 2016 — Passage, Dag Hammarskjöld's Square, Malmö, Sweden (winning commission)[13]
- 2013 — Approaching Red, Iceboat Terrace, Toronto, Canada[14]
- 2009 — Waterfall Pavilion, Dunkers Culture House, Helsingborg, Sweden
- 2008 — Canoe Lights, Spadina Underpass, Toronto, Canada
- 2006 — Around Me, Turning Torso, Malmö, Sweden
- 2005 — Red Line, Skåne Region, Sweden
- 1999 — Blue Boat, Central Library, Lund, Sweden
- 1997 — Water Landscape, Malmö General Hospital, Sweden
- 1994 — Three Sails with The Sun, Lomma, Sweden
Selected Exhibitions
Group
- 2023 — Skissernas Museum, Lund, Sweden[15]
- 2021 — Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan — Postcolonial Ecologies, a group exhibition drawn from the Khalid Shoman Collection[16]
- 2012 — Mori Art Museum, Tokyo — Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World[17]
- 2007 — Sharjah Biennial 8, UAE — Art, Ecology & The Politics of Change: Still Life — one of the leading international contemporary art biennials in the Arab world[18]
- 2004 — Arteast, The NewSpace, New York, USA
- 2001–2002 — Stroke of Genius, Brunei Gallery and Kufa Gallery, London; Faulconer Gallery, Iowa
- 1997 — Malmö Art Museum, Sweden
Solo
- 2011 — MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) Gallery, Montréal — Looking for Oxygen
- 2010 — ASpace Gallery, Toronto — Looking for Oxygen
- 2008 — Södertälje Konsthall, Sweden — Ground Zero[19]
- 2007 — Trollhättan Konsthall, Sweden — Checkpoint X
- 2004 — Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan — Beyond 100°C
- 1998 — Barbacka Konsthall, Kristianstad, Sweden
Publications
- Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World, Mori Art Museum, 2012. ISBN 978-4-582-20670-8[20]
- Still Life: Art, Ecology & the Politics of Change, Part I, Sharjah Biennial 8, ed. Serene Huleileh, 2007. ISBN 9948-04-328-6[21]
- Oil: Beauty and Horror in the Petrol Age, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2021. ISBN 978-3753300962
- Passage, texts by John Peter Nilsson and Dan Jönsson, 2017. ISBN 978-91-639-2306-7
Grants and Awards
- 2025 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
- 2023 — Toronto Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
- 2022 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
- 2018 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
- 2015 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
- 2011 — Canada Council for the Arts, Canada
- 2011 — Iaspis, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Sweden
- 2007 — Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, Canada
- 2005 — Swedish National Council for Culture, Sweden
- 2004 — Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Sweden
- 1998 — Immigrant Institute Grant, Borås, Sweden
- 1989 — Wasiti Biennale First Prize in Sculpture, Baghdad, Iraq
- 1986 — Wasiti Biennale First Prize in Sculpture, Baghdad, Iraq
References
- ↑ Kondo Kenichi; Yamamoto Kaoru (2012). Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World. Mori Art Museum. ISBN 978-4-582-20670-8. Search this book on
- ↑ "Ground Zero". Södertälje Konsthall. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Ground Zero". Södertälje Konsthall. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Postcolonial Ecologies". Darat al Funun. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "About Skissernas Museum". Skissernas Museum, Lund University. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Exhibition highlights: Black Fountain — Interview with Kondo Kenichi". Mori Art Museum. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ Kondo Kenichi; Yamamoto Kaoru (2012). Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World. Mori Art Museum. ISBN 978-4-582-20670-8. Search this book on
- ↑ Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change. Sharjah Art Foundation. 2007. ISBN 9948-04-328-6. Search this book on
- ↑ "Approaching Red by Maha Mustafa". Kubes Steel. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Konstverket Passage av Maha Mustafa är invigt". Malmö stad. 2016-12-08. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Gestaltaren: Maha Mustafa – Passage". Konstnärernas Riksorganisation. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "About". SUSA. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Konstverket Passage av Maha Mustafa är invigt". Malmö stad. 2016-12-08. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Approaching Red by Maha Mustafa". Kubes Steel. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "About Skissernas Museum". Skissernas Museum, Lund University. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Postcolonial Ecologies". Darat al Funun. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ Kondo Kenichi; Yamamoto Kaoru (2012). Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World. Mori Art Museum. ISBN 978-4-582-20670-8. Search this book on
- ↑ Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change. Sharjah Art Foundation. 2007. ISBN 9948-04-328-6. Search this book on
- ↑ "Ground Zero". Södertälje Konsthall. Retrieved 2024. Check date values in:
|accessdate=(help) - ↑ Kondo Kenichi; Yamamoto Kaoru (2012). Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World. Mori Art Museum. ISBN 978-4-582-20670-8. Search this book on
- ↑ Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change. Sharjah Art Foundation. 2007. ISBN 9948-04-328-6. Search this book on
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