Karima Al Shomely

Karima Al Shomely is an Emirati artist who makes staged photographs, prints, paintings, installations and aluminium sculptures. She was born in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and is based there. Her sculptures are upright and folded metal forms covered in the patterns of printed dress fabrics.

The Emirati burqa, a face mask once widely worn by women, has been her central subject. Her doctoral thesis was on it: "An intimate object: a practice-based study of the Emirati Burqa". She showed Emirati Burqa: An Intimate Object at Sharjah Heritage Museum, 2017 to 2018. Sahhara: Hidden Adornments, 2022 to 2023, named after the bride's chest, brought together wedding chests, tin boxes, jewellery and fabrics. Between a Fold and a Memory, 2026, pairs photographs of a woman in a burqa, such as Bu Tarah (2024), with aluminium works recording fabrics used for jalabiyas and kanduras.

She took a BFA at the University of Sharjah in 2007 and a master's degree at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, in 2009. Her PhD followed at Kingston University in 2016, and she teaches at the University of Sharjah. She won second prize for installation at the Sharjah International Art Biennial in 2001 and held a Delfina Foundation residency in London in 2011. Her work is in the collection of the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.