421 Arts Campus Announces Artists in Residence 2025

We are pleased to announce the selected participants for the 2025 edition of the 421 Artist Residency Program.

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Congratulations to Reem AlHashmi, Moza Almazrouei, Tamara Barrage, Khaled Esguerra, Utsa Hazarika, and UT-R Studio. These selected artists will spend five months in residence at the studio spaces on our premises in Mina Zayed. 

 

The residency program is open to both UAE-based and international artists through an annual open call, and provides dedicated studio spaces. This year, the open call received over 200 applications from across 46 countries, including submissions from across the SWANASA region, such as Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, as well as from countries across the global south, such as Kenya, Nigeria, Mongolia, and China. It also attracted artists working in diaspora communities across the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Australia. Notably, the open call saw broader representation across all stages of artistic careers, from emerging to established practitioners.

 

The 421 Artist Residency Program is designed for creative practitioners who seek a dedicated studio space, time and space to experiment. The program allows artists to focus on research and development for new bodies of work, with access to critical support such as crit sessions and studio visits, production support, and other opportunities. 

 

Cohort 1 (February–July 2025):

  • Khaled Esguerra is a photographer, visual artist, and designer from Abu Dhabi whose practice explores migrant identity, urban narratives, and the claiming of space in the Gulf, shaped by his experience growing up in Abu Dhabi.
  • Moza Almazrouei uses sculpture, film, and writing to explore material and mineral politics embedded within urban spaces.
  • Tamara Barrage is a Lebanese artist and designer based in Dubai, whose work navigates the boundary between design and sculpture.

 

Cohort 2 (August–December 2025):

  • Reem AlHashmi is a contemporary multidisciplinary artist, born in the UAE, whose works are driven by the physical exploration of the human psyche through sculpture, installation, and textile dyeing.
  • Utsa Hazarika is a research-based artist and writer whose practice, spanning video, installation, and sculpture, explores the intersections of power, memory, and resistance through interdisciplinary dialogue.
  • UT-R Studio, the collaborative duo of Tasnim Tinawi and Uthra Varghese, investigates the many ways design can elevate the relationship between cultural context and the built environment.