Fatma Lootah

Emirati artist, Dubai

Fatma Lootah

One of the pioneering voices of contemporary Emirati art, exhibiting since 1972.

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Fatma Lootah in her studio

“The desert gave us our wealth before the oil.”

Fatma Lootah · The National, 2015

Selected works

12 paintings, hung to scale. The bar marks 1 metre.

A woman sits wrapped in a violet garment scattered with gold, above a band of deep blue. #001 Henna140 × 233 cm A young woman looks directly at us from within a white shawl, a single silver earring catching the light. #002 The Earring120.1 × 120.1 cm An elongated figure in an emerald dress, a crimson shawl sweeping over her shoulder and gold bangles at her wrist, stands against a field of sky blue. #012 Grandma98 × 70 cm A woman wrapped in a black shawl sits in profile, a touch of gold at her sleeve, her face grey and composed. #063 Stillness89.9 × 84.8 cm A white horse rears up on bare ground, drawn with a few strokes of grey, umber and charcoal, its mane flaring. #024 The Power150 × 150 cm 2 riders on dark horses advance across an immense pale field, small within a space that seems to have no edges. #026 The Riders101 × 186 cm Dark, stone-like forms of indigo and violet float across a field of white touched with rose. #031 Drifting Stones80 × 73 cm On a red ground a woman sits in a patterned dress, while a pale blue figure, a flat silhouette touched with gold, stands close beside her. #007 The Blue Shadow169 × 88 cm Across 2 joined panels, a cloud of grey, umber and rust spreads and frays at its edges, crossing the line between them. #035 Smoke100 × 160 cm A slender tree rises from a landscape of grey and ochre, its outline softened by a fine mesh laid over the painted surface. #029 Morning Mist120 × 180 cm A young woman with long dark hair wears a green dress heavy with gold embroidery, a gold ornament across her forehead and henna on her hands. #046 The Green Dress145 × 120 cm Across a large white field, a horizontal band of grey, lilac, ochre and acid yellow forms a kind of horizon, while thin drips run down towards the bottom of the canvas. #075 White Horizon179.9 × 150 cm View all 96 works

Between the silence of the desert and the European avant-garde.

Fatma Lootah is one of the pioneering voices of contemporary Emirati art. Born and raised in Dubai, she took part as a teenager in the first group exhibition of art ever held in the UAE, at Dubai’s public library in 1972. She went on to study fine arts at the Art Academy of Baghdad and, from 1979, in Washington D.C. In the mid-1980s she settled in Verona, Italy, where she still lives, and where her encounter with the European performance-art scene became a defining influence on her work.

Read the biography
  1. 1972First group exhibition of art held in the UAE, Dubai Public Library
  2. 2010House 35 in Al Fahidi, gifted by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum after visiting one of her exhibitions
  3. 2018Nasdaq Artist in Residence, Times Square, New York
  4. 2025Noor ʿAla Noor: first Emirati artist to use the dome of Al Wasl Plaza as a canvas
Fatma Lootah lifting a sheet of painted mesh in her studio

House 35, Al Fahidi

In 2010, after visiting one of her exhibitions, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum gifted her House 35 in Dubai’s Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood. Today it is her studio and gallery: the place where an international journey returns, again and again, to the memory and landscape of the Emirates.

House 35, Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, Dubai
Open Monday to Saturday, 10:00–18:00

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Exhibitions and commissions in 2026

All exhibitions since 1972

Noor ʿAla Noor

Light upon Light. In 2025 her installation, inspired by Surah An-Nur, filled the 130-metre dome of Al Wasl Plaza at Expo City Dubai: the first time an Emirati artist used the landmark as a canvas.

Courtesy Caterina Vicaretti

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