Biography

Spanning drawing, writing, sculpture, video, multimedia and performance, Doa Aly's work explores themes of love, death, madness and alienation. Her work has been structured around a re-imagination of the history of European literature, its concerns, genres and protagonists while constructing connections with current political conditions.

Aly's work has been exhibited by many institutions worldwide. Her solo exhibitions include Desire, Deceit and Difficult Deliveries, Townhouse, Cairo (2013); The House of Sleep, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (2013) and The Girl Splendid in Walking, Darat al Funun, Amman (2010). Among her group shows are When the whites of the eyes are red, Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, US (2017); BAHAR, Sharjah Biennial 13 off-site project, Abud Efendi Mansion, Istanbul (2017); Meeting Points 8: Both Sides of the Curtain, Beirut Art Center and La Loge, Brussels (2016-2017); SOUNDS AS IF, Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF), Cairo (2016); Complicity, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait (2015); Across the Universe, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul (2015); A Prologue to the Past and Present State of Things, Delfina Foundation, London (2015); Lest The Two Seas Meet, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2015); The Recorder Was Left On, Or The Closer I Get To The End The More I Rewrite The Beginning, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) (2015); Dancing Light / Let it move you..., Huis Marseille Museum, Amsterdam (2014-2015); Locus Agonistes: Practices and Logics of the Civic, Beirut Art Center and Argos, Brussels (2011); The Future of Tradition -The Tradition of Future, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2010-2011); Error #17 - Into the light, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp (2010) and What Keeps Mankind Alive?, 11th Istanbul Biennial (2010). Her films and performances have been presented by the New Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.

Aly was shortlisted for the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2017. She attended the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, earning a BFA in painting in 2001.

She was born in 1976 in Cairo, where she continues to live and work.

Related Content