About

Reem is a London- and Doha-based installation and material artist working through garment-based practice using oud and the abaya to construct systems of value, memory, and transformation.

Her work moves across installation, sculpture, photography, and performative actions, engaging materials embedded in Gulf life: textiles, scent, and garments; to reflect the circulation of value across geographies and social worlds.

She is the founder of Oud Abaya, an evolving interdisciplinary practice that transforms the abaya from garment into sculptural architecture and symbolic language. Her projects are often independently conceived, produced, and curated, unfolding within domestic and land-based environments.

Developed outside institutional frameworks, her work asserts an independent model of artistic production within the Qatari context, where autonomous, site-specific practice of this scale remains rare. She assumes authorship not only of the artworks, but of the spatial and curatorial framework itself.

Her practice is informed by research into material culture, circular design systems, and the infrastructures that support creative production. She holds an MSc in Philanthropy, Grantmaking and Social Investment from City, University of London.

She is also co-owner of Sara Secrets Tailoring Workshop in Qatar, founded in 2009 by Sara, head designer of the studio. The workshop is known for its distinctive approach to abaya tailoring, maintaining the traditional black base while developing refined variations in cut and construction, alongside adaptive and collaborative garment production.

Alongside her installations, she is developing an independent archive documenting artists working outside institutional frameworks, particularly within Gulf cultural landscapes.