Within the body that carries grief. Within the voice that has learned when to whisper and when to break the silence.
Each story here is different. And yet, they meet in quiet recognition.
Loss, of what never had the chance to be.
The weight of a body that carries history, expectation, and rebellion all at once.
The unspoken sorrow of leaving, of staying, of never quite belonging.
The quiet power of choosing expression over suppression, of shaping freedom without war, of surrendering—not in defeat, but in transformation.
This is a space where art does not conform to what is expected.
Where the raw and the tender coexist.
Strength is not about fighting louder, but about being—fully, vulnerably, honestly.
“Hear Me from My Eyes” brings together women who have found their ways to express, reclaim, and exist through art.
Featuring the works of:
Marianna Barsoum Zoghbi, Sepide Kamalbeik, Zeinab Abdi Goodarzi, Therese Fostock, Mariam Ketait, Bahar Assar, Diya Sanjeev.
Curated by Asareh Ebrahimpour.
Sepideh Kamalbeik
Sepideh Kamalbeik (b. 1984, Tehran) left a career in genetics to pursue visual arts, drawn to its expressive freedom. Since 2013, she has explored fashion design, sculpture, and jewelry-making, eventually finding hervoice in glass art.
Blending traditional and contemporary techniques, her work plays with fragility and resilience, light and transparency, existing between reality and imagination. Before moving to Dubai, she exhibited in Iran, and this marks her first international showcase. This piece is part of her “Forty” collection.
Artist Statement:
Art, for me, is a way to explore emotions, memories, and the unseen. My background in genetics showed me that transformation is both biological and deeply human. Glass became my language—fragile yet resilient, fluid yet unyielding, like the soul.
Through light, shadow, and form, I express liberation, metamorphosis, and truth. Using traditional and modern techniques, my work holds stories—some emerge from darkness,some shatter, some are reborn. Each piece is a journey from stillness to transformation.
Art statement:
Seed of Light
“I was a helpless seed buried under the soil,
But in the end, You turned the seed into a rare gem.” — Rumi
“Seed of Light” is a birth, liberation, and transformation story—the moment where life, consciousness, and freedom intersect. The ovum, once bound by the umbilical cord, breaks free. The cocoon, the sprout, and the miscarried fetus symbolize transition and rebirth. The cord, first nailed to the wall as a symbol of rigidity, eventually snaps, allowing movement toward light. Shaped by fire, glass transforms—fracturing, reshaping, and evolving, like the human soul. This piece is an invitation to reflect on freedom, breaking boundaries, and the light that endures within darkness.
Marianna Barsoum Zobhi
Marianna is a Lebanese artist whose work bridges heritage and contemporary storytelling. Born in Oman in 1976 to Lebanese parents, she now resides in the UAE. Her art blends Arabic influences and calligraphy into a vibrant yet layered expression of emotion.
Exploring identity and social themes, her evocative portraits have been exhibited in New York, Paris, and Lebanon. Through raw yet mesmerizing imagery, she invites viewers to find their own stories within her layers of color and form.
Artist Statement:
My work gives form to silent grief, revealing its weight through texture. Using papier-mâché, plaster, beads, and embroidery, I explore resilience and loss.
As beads and threads spill onto the floor, sorrow becomes visible, merging into a collective memory. In giving grief a voice, we transform pain into connection and healing.
Art statement:
Tears That Bind
This series explores how shared sorrow creates connections. The round canvases represent the cyclical nature of grief, where loss is never erased but redefined through understanding. Eyes and poetry symbolize silent thoughts, with each tear leaving its mark. Blue beads and threads symbolize the quiet strength of women who stitch their grief into something enduring. The act of stitching connects individual sorrows, creating a collective embrace of remembrance and healing.
Life
This piece reflects the masks we wear to navigate the world, hiding our emotions. The 1-meter round canvas holds 50 papier-mâché faces, symbolizing the personas we create. Plaster bandages represent both physical and emotional healing, while the covered eyes represent the urge to hide. White paint symbolizes life and loss, especially the grief of miscarriage. Silver foil reflects both societal expectations and acts of care, reminding us of both vulnerability and strength.
Zeinab Abdi Goodarzi
Zeinab is a photographer and filmmaker, born andraised in Iran and based in the UAE. She began her filmmaking journey in Iran, where her first documentary won first place. She creates films for cultural projects while integrating sound healing and photography into her work.
Artist Statement:
I believe art has the power to heal, to transcend language, and to connect us with deeper truths. Whether crafting a film, capturing a photograph, or working with sound, I intend to evoke emotion, awaken awareness, and create experiences that linger beyond the moment.
My journey began with documentary filmmaking in Iran, evolving into a creative practicethat now includes films for cultural institutions in Dubai. Inspired by nature, energy, and the complexities of human emotion, I use my art to invite audiences to reflect, feel, and reconnect with themselves. Whether through the rhythm of a drum, the resonance of a singing bowl, or the cinematic play of light and shadow, my work is an invitation into a world where every element tells a story beyond words.
Art Statement:
Rebirth
Tears That Nourish
Internal Storm
The Healing Cocoon
This series reflects my journey of understanding the emotions we carry. Tears That Nourish shows crying as a path to self-connection. Internal Storm represents the chaos within. The Healing Cocoon is about transformation, and Rebirth symbolizes strength in embracing our truth. I hope these pieces help you connect with your own emotions and see healing as part of becoming whole.
Mariam Ketait
Mariam Ketait is a Dubai-based multidisciplinary artist blending sound, healing, and visual storytelling. With amedical background and a fascination with space, herwork explores feminine energy, unity, andtransformation.
Her series Communion merges Ocean drums, and women’s stories, creating an immersive experience that bridges the strength and softness, tradition andinnovation.
Artist Statement:
My art is a bridge between sound, energy, and storytelling. I explore the unseen—turning sound waves into stories, adding the gold leaf as a metaphor for sun and the earth, and weaving women’s stories into visual form. Each piece is an invitation to connect, reflect, and experience the balance between strength and softness, the past and the future.
This is about all the unspoken stories that I have been carrying.
Art statement:
Golden Currents of Stories Untold
Communion is a series inspired by the power of the voice, collective healing, and the energy that binds us across generations and borders. The pieces are imprinted with sound mandalas, evoking the vibrations of spoken words and unspoken truths. Each work reflects themes of resilience, connection, and unity, blending elements of nature, such as flowers in snow, with narratives of Afghan women’s strength and survival. This series invites the viewer to listen— not just with the ears but with the heart—allowing space for reflection, release, and communion with the self and the collective.
Therese Fostock
Therese Fostock is a Swedish artist whose move to Saudi Arabia in 2011 reshaped her identity. Navigating culture shock and motherhood, she turned to art as a means of expression. Originally trained in hairdressing, she found her voice through spirituality and yoga, experimenting with acrylics, gypsum, and construction materials on large canvases. Her textured works capture the tensionbetween comfort and pressure, reflecting themes of resilience and transformation. Now based in the UAE, Therese has exhibited widely, with her pieces collected across the region.
Artist Statement:
My art is a reflection of this journey. It captures the tension between struggle and adaptation, between unfamiliarity and newfound belonging. Through texture and form, I express the emotional landscape of my experience—sometimes harsh, sometimes gentle, but always evolving. My work is Avisual diary of resilience, transformation, and the beauty found in both chaos and harmony.
Art statement:
SOLUTIONS
CRACKED PAST
These paintings hold pieces of my early years in Saudi Arabia—a time of constant movement, change, and feeling like a fish out of water.
I used plastic and bubble wrap to capture the comfort I was told I had, yet even in that safety, I felt pressure—like I was wrapped too tightly in uncertainty. The mirrors and plasters, textured like bubble wrap, reflect this restless state, shifting from one emotion to another, never quite settling.
Stucco, soft at first but hardening over time, became a symbol of resilience—the way we adapt, even when we don’t realize it. And the mirrors? They hold both struggle and perspective, offering glimpses beyond the weight of the past, toward growth and change. This series isn’t just about my journey—it’s an open reflection, an invitation to explore the push and pull between comfort, pressure, and transformation in our own lives.
Bahar Assar, Guest Artist
Bahar Assar is a Tehran-based sculptor working with bronze, turquoise, stone, and hair to explore themes of time, life, womanhood, and birth. Forher, time is both an adversary and an ally—woveninto human pain, memory, and transformation. Her work has been exhibited across Iran, the MiddleEast, and Turkey.
Artist Statement:
Something has always stirred within me—an unspoken presence, a form waiting to take shape. Painting wasn’t enough, so I turned to sculpture, where raw materials become vessels of meaning. Like the ancient woman who pressed her hands against cave walls, I carve, mold, and shape to give voice to the unseen. If not for this urge, I wouldn’t create—I would simply watch nature, listening for what it has to say.
Art Statement:
FORBIDDEN DANCING IDEAS
Forbidden Dancing Ideas is a project that aims to showcase the creativity and ingenuity of individuals who have ideas that are often considered taboo or off-limits. The project’s main message is that while there may be limitations to what we can say or do, our dancing ideas are always free to move and express themselves.
ZERO ONE
You can’t whisper silently without remembering the impact of the departed. Images of those injuries will remain on the bodies of humanity in different ways for years, decades, and even centuries.
DISOBEDIENCE
Biting the apple, disobedience or choice, choice by free will or choice by instinct, the apple is a strange symbol of choice and disobedience, but the two are intertwined, that is impossible to separate them. Is the apple a closed circle? or the key to enter a world of infinite choice?
Diya Sanjeev
Diya Sanjeev is an Indian artist born and raised in Dubai, UAE. She earned her BA (Hons) in Fine Artfrom Loughborough University in 2024 and hasexhibited her work in Bath and Leicester, UK. Her practice explores the formation of selfhood, primarily through moving image, while in corporating other materials as suited to herthemes. Through her work, she invites viewers to reflect on their own sense of identity and belonging, framed through the lens of home.
Artist Statement
My work explores the meaning of home and its role in shaping identity. As an Indian raised in the UAE and now living in the UK, my sense of home constantly shifts—each place feeling both familiar and distant. Is home changing, or is my evolving self redefining it? Influenced by theories of hybridity and dialogical selves, I see identity asfluid, shaped by cultures, memories, and displacement. I primarily work with moving images, blending personal footage with archival materialto evoke longing and reflection. Depending on the theme, I also incorporate drawing, sculpture, and performance to tell my story.
Art Statement:
Woman of the House
Woman of the House reflects on the act of creating a home and the toll it takes on women’s identities. Inspired by my grandmother, a homemaker for over 50 years, the work addresses how women sacrifice their sense of self through nurturing roles that go unnoticed. Plaster casts of her face and fingers are used to create kolam designs on construction materials, symbolizing the connection between self and home. These patterns of home are both an offering and a consuming sacrifice.
