Dala Nasser
b. Tyre, Lebanon
Lives and works in Lebanon.
As an artist working through abstraction and alternative forms of image-making, Dala Nasser integrates sound, performance and film in her practice, but remains quintessentially a painter as she thinks specifically through this medium and its most elementary materials: fabric, pigments, stretcher bars, lines. Her indexical paintings of land, made through direct contact on location, stand in opposition to the sweeping vistas offered by traditional landscape painting. In contrast, Nasser’s canvases provide close-up views of the markings of political and environmental conditions.
Considering materials as witnesses, she has developed a growing body of work that foregrounds non-claimed histories, ecologies of slow violence, colonial theft, and infrastructural failure in times and places where human language has been rendered insufficient or out of reach.
Education
2019-2021 MFA Painting/Printmaking, Yale School of Art, New Haven, USA
2012-2016 BFA Fine Arts, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK
2011-2012 Foundation Diploma in Fine Arts, Central Saint Martins University of Art and Design, London, UK
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Adonis River, Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA
2022
Red in Tooth, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
Time spent without its flow, V.O Curations, London, UK
2021
In the Purple, Deborah Schamoni, Munich, Germany
Group Exhibitions
2025
Aichi Triennale 2025: A Time Between Ashes and Roses, Nagoya, Japan
2024
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, USA
Diriyah Biennale 2024: After Rain, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2023
Thinking Historically in the Present, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, UAE
Un lieu de mémoire : Contextes d’existence, Musee d’art Joliette, Canada
Art Basel, Deborah Schamoni booth, Basel, Switzerland
Un lieu de mémoire : Contextes d’existence, Musée d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, Canada
No Title, Chapter NY, New York, USA
My Past is a Foreign Country, Chios, Greece
Old sky, old dirt, new grass, Travesia Cuatro, Madrid, Spain
2022
58th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA
Your flesh as my greatest poem, Antenna Space, Shanghai, China
The Dead Shall be Raised, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2021
How will it end, curated by Alecia Knock, Villa Empain Brussels, Belgium
In Praise of Shadows, curated by Ebony Haynes, Yale School of Art, New Haven, USA
In Praise of Shadows, curated by Ebony L. Haynes, Lyles & King, New York, USA
By Any Means, curated by Gray Weilebinski, VO Curations, London, UK
2020
Dala Nasser & Anne Lowe, L’inconnue, Paris, France
24 Hour Artist fundraiser for Beirut, organized by Habibi Collective
To Thomas, curated by Lucas Morin & Sasha Pevak, La Box, Bourges, France
2019
Homeworks 8 I will return, and I will be millions, curated by Nora Razian, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Surface Tension, curated by Ryan Inouye, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
Touche, curated by Marie Muracciole and Christophe Wavelet, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Lateral Recovery Position, curated by Guslagie Malanda and Lucas Morin, Betonsalon, Paris, France
2018
Body, curated by Domenico De Chirico, L’INCONNUE, Montreal, Canada
This is Water, That is Earth, curated by Mari Spirito, Protocinema at Marfa Projects, Beirut, Lebanon
Surface Work, Victoria Miro, London, UK
The Pain of Others, curated by Myriam Ben Salab, Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2017
An unpredictable expression of human potential – ACT II of the Sharjah Biennial 13, curated by Hicham Khalidi and Natasha Hoare, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Ghosting of Beings and Worlds, Greynoise Gallery, Dubai, UAE
La Diablesse, 14 Micawber Street, London, UK
2016
32nd Salon D’Automne, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Sfera, curated by Bokja Design Studio, Aishti Seaside Complex, Beirut, Lebanon
Slade School of Fine Art Degree Show, UCL, London, UK
Still Point Journal Creative Exchange, Fat Relic, London, UK
Awards / Residencies
2022 Follow Fluxus - After Fluxus art prize nominee, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden Germany
2021 Artist in Residence, V.O Curations, London UK
2019 Artist in Residence at Gapado AIR, Jeju Island South Korea
2017 Sursock Museum 32nd Salon D’Automne Emerging Artist Prize, Beirut LEbanon
2017 Artist in Residence at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut Lebanon
2016 Boise Travel Scholarship, London UK
Lectures / Teaching
2021 Oxford Brookes, Oxford, UK
2020 Teaching Assistant at Yale University, New Haven USA
2018 American University of Beirut, Beirut Lebanon