“I’m Never Coming Back” Solo Exhibition by Aidha Badr at Firetti Contemporary, Dubai

Motherhood marks a quiet yet profound transformation. It arrives without ceremony, altering the texture of days and the weight of thoughts until even the smallest parts of oneself feel unfamiliar. Not replaced, but carefully rearranged.

In I’m Never Coming Back, Aidha Badr paints from this liminal space, between daughter and mother, between who she was and who she is becoming. The works unfold like diary entries: fragile, unfiltered, and emotionally exposed. They capture the disorientation of a silent unraveling, where identity hovers between what has passed and what is still taking form.

Badr’s earlier practice focused on untangling the roots of female desire and exploring the intricacies of the daughter-mother relationship, notably by scrutinizing the way the maternal figure and its representations play a significant role in childhood and the early stages of a girl’s development. In this new body of work, the lens shifts inward. Now painting as a mother herself, Badr’s canvases have become a space to project her own vulnerabilities, reflections, and lived experiences. They become intimate territories where personal memory, maternal identity, and self-exploration intersect.

Such are the self-portraits: they are fragmented, portraying the artist as a distant Madonna -aloof, protective, and enigmatic. Cropped tightly and rendered with deliberate restraint, they withhold intimacy while conveying a quiet authority. Handwritten text punctuates the paintings, echoing fragments of the artist’s inner monologue: “Stay with me a little longer,” “Nothing ever happens”. These words trace the subtle shifts of identity that motherhood entails.

This tension between vulnerability and resilience is mirrored in the introduction of the horse, which emerges as a central motif and mirrors the artist’s own process of acceptance and change. Throughout the exhibition, it takes multiple shapes: a dissected toy, evoking the fragility and reconstruction of identity; two foals, captured mid-movement, suggesting vulnerability and tentative exploration; three studies that culminate in the work I Am Not the Same and I Am Never Coming Back, where a fully formed and proud horse dominates a toy version of itself. This final image embodies the ultimate acceptance of change, the reconciliation of past and present selves, and the recognition that growth requires both letting go and standing fully in one’s transformed identity. In the artist’s words,  “accepting change without fighting it—to move forward quietly, with grace. It’s not about running or escaping anymore. It’s about being present with whatever’s shifted, and finding a kind of freedom in that.”

Ultimately, I’m Never Coming Back is a meditation on the female psyche, on what is lost and what is gained in transition. The voices of the artist, as a daughter and now as a mother, are layered and folded into each other. The daughter remains present: curious, playful, sensitive, always looking back. The mother, quieter and more grounded, brings a protective yet unresolved weight. Together, they shape this new body of work that reflects the dualities of becoming and gives space to a transformation experienced by so many yet so seldom spoken of.

About the Artist

Aidha Badr (b.1996, Brooklyn, NY) is an artist formally trained in portraiture. Her practice explores memory as a medium, unraveling theories of female desire, attachment, and object relations. Through painting, she examines universal experiences of femininity, childhood, and domestication, often through dreamlike compositions that revisit domestic rituals and inner-child memories.

Her earlier works explored maternal relationships through the gaze of a daughter; her current practice reflects the profound shifts of motherhood, offering intimate meditations on identity in motion. Aidha Badr lives and works in Dubai.

About Firetti Contemporary

Firetti Contemporary is a gallery where art and creative concepts align from the region and beyond, encouraging global engagement through creating meaningful and sustainable collections.

By representing both established and emerging artists from all over the world, Firetti Contemporary strives to build a multidisciplinary art space with a strong identity to an international platform. Bringing together like-minded individuals and pioneers of the artistic and expressive future, the gallery assembles a dynamic curation of works that encourage the importance of individuality as well as establishing collective alignment. 

Using the vast space of the gallery, Firetti Contemporary ventures to support a network of collaborations with a unique taste in presentation, becoming an integral part of the local community. The gallery embraces the central place that art can play in sustainability and social issues, whilst doing so its mission is to become a vehicle for social change, instilling values in our society through the inspirational power of art.

Founded by Mara Firetti, an entrepreneur and devoted art collector who is deeply committed to fostering the advancement and global recognition of artists. Over the past 15 years, Mara has distinguished herself as an astute art advisor and dedicated advocate for artists, orchestrating public events and international exhibitions in prestigious institutions and renowned Art Fairs. Through these endeavors, she has cultivated an impressive array of esteemed art collectors, simultaneously gaining invaluable expertise as a press officer, and cultivating an extensive network of significant connections.

With her headquarters in Dubai, Mara’s overarching vision revolves around cultivating an intricate web of artistic collaborations characterized by a distinctive presentation approach. This vision, in turn, seeks to seamlessly integrate with the local community. Through this endeavor, Mara is dedicated to nurturing emerging artists in the region and embracing the pivotal role that art assumes in fostering sustainability and addressing societal concerns. In her noble pursuit, her mission extends to catalyzing social change, utilizing the transformative influence of art to inculcate values that enrich our society.