Nja Mahdaoui show opens season at Bassam Freiha Art Foundation

The Bassam Freiha Art Foundation (BFAF), located in Cultural District, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, has opened the new season with a programme of exhibitions, including a Nja Mahdaoui retrospective.

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Untitled 1 work from the Walh series.

Founded by philanthropist and art collector Bassam Said Freiha and the first and only private art foundation on Saadiyat Island, BFAF's new programming combines historic collections, contemporary voices and leading modern Arab artists. Providing a platform for local and international artists and designed to further BFAF's ambition to grow and nurture the region's art scene, each exhibition is accompanied by a programme of community events.

The landmark exhibition titled Nja Mahdaoui: The Choreographer of Letters (Oct. 24-Jan. 25, 2026), explores the work of Tunisian multimedia artist Nja Mahdaoui (b. 1937, Tunisia), one of the most influential figures in Arab modern art. Co-curated by Dr. Michaela Watrelot, head curator and director of exhibitions at Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, and Nja Mahdaoui's daughter, Molka Mahdaoui, the focused retrospective surveys over six decades of practice by the Tunisian master, who sublimates Arabic calligraphy into a visual and abstract contemporary art form. On view are nearly 30 works from his early career through to recent years, including paintings on parchment, vellum paper, linen and metal, silkscreen prints and bronze sculpture. Highlights include an early painting from Mahdaoui's Concretion series (1971), layering intense red, green and blue swirls of lacquered oil, with his signature abstracted calligraphy extending horizontally across the composition, in an interplay of form and gesture.