b. 1983, Tacoma, USA; lives and works in London, UK.

Sophia Al-Maria is a Qatari American artist, writer and filmmaker whose practice spans film, video, installation, sculpture, performance and writing. Drawing on autobiography, speculative fiction and mythology, her work interrogates the political, ecological and cultural conditions of contemporary life, often centring voices and histories overlooked by dominant narratives.

Having gone to Cairo to study journalism but ultimately finding her way into literature, Al-Maria studied Comparative Literature there before completing an MA in Aural and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. Al-Maria’s transnational experience informs an ongoing investigation into identity, environmental collapse, technological acceleration and the afterlives of colonialism. She is widely recognised for co-developing the concept of Gulf Futurism with musician Fatima Al Qadiri, which provides a critical framework for examining the social and psychological consequences of rapid urbanisation, hyper-consumerism and post-oil modernity in the Gulf region.

Across her practice, she combines research with poetic and speculative modes of storytelling, drawing equally from Arabic literary traditions, popular culture and science fiction. The resulting works imagine alternative futures while revealing the ideological structures that shape the present, positioning narrative as a powerful tool for rethinking history, memory and collective experience.

Sophia Al-Maria's recent solo exhibitions include HiLux, Art Basel Qatar, Doha (2026); Thirsty for Ruin, Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters (2025); Not My Bag, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2023); Beast Type Song, Turku Art Museum, Turku (2023); INVISIBLE LABORS daydream therapy, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2022); Tender Point Ruin, LUMA Westbau, Zurich (2022); Beast Type Song, GARAGE, Moscow (2021); taraxos, Serpentine x Modern Forms Sculpture Commission, London (2021); Beast Type Song, Tate Britain, London (2019); and Black Friday, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016). Selected group exhibitions include untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people), The National Pavilion of Qatar, 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2026); Rave into the Future: Art in Motion, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2025); Paradigm Shift, 180 Studios, London (2025); Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial, NYUAD Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi (2025); Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2024); ARABOFUTURS: Art, Science Fiction and New Imaginations, Institut du monde arabe, Paris (2024); Everybody Talks About The Weather, Fondazione Prada, Venice (2023); The Milk of Dreams, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022) and Age of You, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (2019).

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