Becoming Visible: Becoming Image

Becoming Visible: Becoming Image is a group exhibition of ten artists from the fourth cohort of the Spectrum photography residency at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Cultural District, Abu Dhabi. It runs until 28 October 2026.

The artists spent four months developing new work through research, mentorship and critical exchange. Their works combine photographs with video, sculpture, textiles and installation. "Stars, pearls, the Ghaf tree, the body's imprint, and the rhythms of everyday life appear here not as subjects of representation, but as elements moving within the image itself," the venue writes. Dhabia AlMansoori's With This Fruit, I Will Build a Kingdom (2026) follows a ten-year-old boy cutting fruit, with photographs set inside a tower of wooden blocks. Faisal Al Marzooqi's Echo Chambers (2026) pairs analogue contact sheets of musicians with enlarged prints chosen by the sitters. Mahra Al Sheryani's Thuraya: Constellations of Inheritance (2026) combines digital prints with traditional Emirati burqas. Viktoryia Vinnikava's Elusive Reality of Time (2022 to 2026) pairs photographs of Abu Dhabi architecture, each marked with the date and time it was taken.

The artists are Yijing Li (Bao), Dhabia AlMansoori, Faisal Al Marzooqi, Ghanem Alameri, Khadija Hamid, Mahra Al Sheryani, Mariia Pertseva, Nadia Alnuaimi, Sultana Alameeri and Viktoryia Vinnikava. The National describes them as Emirati, regional and international artists based in the UAE. The programme's mentor is the photography expert Jassem Rabee Al Awadi.

Other works include Yijing Li's installation Come Back When the Trees Bear Fruit, which draws on an apple tree planted in her hometown. Mariia Pertseva's What the Depth Holds uses translucent fabric, fishing net, pearls and underwater projection.