25 September 2026
About the Talk:
Curated by Rajae El Mouhandiz, Art She Crafted features from paintings and manuscripts, to textiles, fashion, design, photography, and installations, exploring how women, despite structural exclusion, have played an essential role in shaping the art world as we know it today: as creators, patrons, collectors, donors, and innovators.
Accompany the curator and the invited artists on a tour along their works in the exhibition, and engage in discussions with them to explore the themes of the show through their lens and their practices.
Location: Greenroom, ground floor
Price: free with museum ticket – get a ticket here.
- 16.00: Entry and walkthrough of the exhibition Art She Crafted with curator Rajae El Mouhandiz and artists.
- 17.00: Introduction by Rajae El Mouhandiz
- 17.10 – 18:30: Conversation with the artists moderated by Rajae El Mouhandiz & a public Q&A
- 18.30: End of program
About the artists
Malak Mattar (Palestine, 1999)
Malak Mattar was born in 1999 in the Gaza Strip and grew up under occupation and the military siege. From a family of talented cultural practitioners, Mattar started making art as a teenager during a period of open conflict (Operation Protective Edge, 2014), and she soon began to sell work online and exhibit internationally. She won a scholarship to study political science at Istanbul Aydin university (2018–22) and another to study a Masters of Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s, London, in 2023.
Soon after arriving in the UK, Mattar’s entire world was turned upside down, causing her work to undergo a dramatic shift in style, subject matter and palette. While artist-in-residence at An Effort in Central London (December 2023–February 2024), she documented the genocide in her homeland through a series of mostly monochrome drawings and paintings. She later combined these scenes into a monumental greyscale painting called No Words. This work is a testimony to the apocalyptic horror and extent of the displacement, ethnic cleansing and atrocities being ravaged upon Mattar’s fellow Palestinians: “It needs to be completely horrific,” she stated while making the work, “otherwise it will not accurately reflect the genocide.”
Mattar wrote and illustrated the bestselling children’s book Sitti’s Bird (2021) based on her own life experiences, which is already in its second print run. In defiance of strict travel restrictions, Mattar has lectured in universities across the USA (2020–21) and she has had solo exhibitions in Palestine (2015 onwards); Costa Rica (2015); Great Britain (2017, 2018, 2023, 2024); Sweden (2018); USA (2019, 2021); Germany (2020); Lebanon (2021); Portugal (2022) and Italy (2022). Most recently, Malak had two concurrent exhibitions in London, and her monumental painting No Words was shown for the first time (March 2024). Her artworks have also been collected, published, and exhibited in numerous group shows worldwide.
Sophia Kacimi (Morocco/France, 1991)
Sophia Kacimi is a French-Moroccan creative working at the intersection of craft, fashion, interior design and art. After years in the luxury industry with houses like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry, Sophia felt the need to bring a deeper sense of meaning back into her work. She founded Zoubida as a human-scale project shaped by her desire to reconnect with her Moroccan roots and to explore more ethical ways of creating and producing.
Maïmouna Guerresi (Italy, 1951)
Maïmouna Guerresi works in a hybrid embrace of ancestry from African, Asian and European cultures, following her encounter with Islam.
Guerresi, who is known for her photographic series but also has a strong practice in sculpture, textile works, installation, and video; presents an intimate perspective on human spirituality in relation to mysticism, shedding a new light on community and the soul, heavily influenced by Sufi traditions in Senegal, Sudan, and Morocco. Recurrent symbols such as milk, light, the hijab, and nature are used in her work to create awareness of the unifying qualities of Islamic spirituality. The images are delicate narratives with fluid sequencing, an appreciation of shared humanity beyond borders – psychological, cultural, and political.
She has exhibited in prominent institutions such as the Venice Biennale (Italian Pavilion), National Museum of Bamako (Malí), KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art of Helsinki (Finland), Bahrain National Museum (Bahrain), Sharjah Art Museum (UAE), Fotografiska Museum Shanghai (China), Wereld Museum (Rotterdam, The Netherland), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (Washington, D.C), C/O Berlin Foundation (Germany), I.M.A Institute du Monde Arabe (Paris, France, the 13th Cairo Biennale (Egypt), The Lagos Photo Festival (Nigeria), LOBA Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Shanghai Center of Photography (China), Gallery Gongbech (South Korea), and Kyotographie, among others.
Her works are included in private and public collections worldwide, including the Boghossian Foundation, GAM Galleria Arte Moderna Achille Forti, Minneapolis Institute of Art, LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of African, Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
Thandiwe Muriu (Kenya, 1990) is a Nairobi-based photographer whose work explores identity, culture, and female empowerment through bold, visually striking images inspired by Ankara and East African kanga textiles. A self-taught photographer, she first built a successful career in advertising before launching her artistic practice in 2020. Her acclaimed series Camo combines fashion, photography, and pattern to celebrate African women and cultural heritage. Muriu’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Musée de l’Homme in Paris, and Perrotin Gallery, and is held in major public and private collections. In 2024, she published her first monograph, Camo, and participated in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center Residency Program, researching East African kanga textiles for her ongoing series Woven Voices.
About the exhibition
Art She Crafted presents and celebrates the ways women around the world, from ancient times to the present, have shaped art and culture. Their names are often absent from dominant art history. This exhibition brings to light the vital role women have played across all eras and continents in the development of artistic and cultural movements. It demonstrates their structural contributions to periods of cultural flourishing. In doing so, class also becomes evident: not all women had equal access to artistic opportunities or resources.
Based on over a decade of research by curator El Mouhandiz Art She Crafted weaves together different eras, countries, and art forms into a compelling story, revealing how women around the world have played a vital role in shaping art history. Some gained opportunities to study and create through family or social networks, while others remained largely unseen or unrecognized.
The exhibition highlights individual female artists’ work alongside collective art forms such as Palestinian tatreez embroidery and Shipibo ceramics from Peru. Together, they show how generations of women, often without recognition, have preserved and passed on their knowledge, rituals, and identities.