Unstable Grounds: NYUAD MFA Graduate Exhibition 2025 presents the work of graduate students completing the two-year Master of Fine Arts in Art and Media at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Marking the fourth year of collaboration between 421 Arts Campus and NYUAD, this exhibition highlights the research and experimentation of the 2025 MFA cohort, whose work explores the environment, displacement, migration, memory, and human connection. 

The artists in this exhibition, Dima Abou Zannad, Bao, Adele Bea Cipste, Hala El Abora, Mowen Li (Amira), Jude Maharmeh, Safeya Sharif, and Danutė Vaitekūnaitė, engage with themes of the origin stories of flora, fauna, and water as metaphors for environmental and economic cycles; memory and its role in shaping contemporary perceptions; and communion as a site of vulnerability and celebration, reflecting on displacement, community, and belonging.

Working across photography, drawing, mixed media, installation, video, sculpture, painting, printmaking, and performance, the artists push the boundaries of their disciplines, creating interdisciplinary works that challenge and expand conventional forms. While this cohort is diverse and international, their practices are deeply grounded in local specificity, responding to the landscapes, urban environments, commercial exchange zones, and creative histories of West Asia. Like past cohorts, they have advanced their material and conceptual inquiries through theoretical and archival approaches.

Through this collaboration, 421 Arts Campus and NYUAD support the development of emerging contemporary practices in the region, providing MFA graduates with a platform to share their artistic research and growth. The program continues to evolve, attracting artists from around the world at different stages in their careers, expanding through increased student enrollment, visiting artist engagements, and post-MFA opportunities such as residencies with 421 and Yale School of Art.

The 2025 cohort would like to thank their MFA faculty for their guidance and mentorship throughout the program.

In memory of Tarek Al-Ghoussein (1962–2022), professor, mentor, and artist, whose legacy continues to shape the MFA program at NYUAD.