Yasmeen Sudairy (Saudi, b. 1981) and Rajaa AlHajj (Yemeni, b. 1995) began their artistic collaboration in 2016, transcending their dialogue into a dynamic, abstract practice. Their creative process, characterized by impulsive exchanges and a shared exploration of diverse mediums, manifests in a rich array of works, including traditional painting, animation, three-dimensional projects using discarded metal materials, and painted wooden sculptures. Their art combines organic and mechanical elements, remixing and assembling disparate parts into a contained sum that introduces an atmosphere of invented forms and vibrant color fields.
Before their meeting in 2016, Rajaa had been deeply immersed in drawing, employing surreal and dreamlike forms, while Yasmeen, having just completed her MFA, felt lost amidst the jargon and theoretical excess of the academic world. Their encounter in Al-Balad, Jeddah, following a play audition in which Yasmeen was participating, was serendipitous. Introduced by mutual friends, the two artists immediately connected over their passion for art, as if they had known each other forever. Rajaa soon visited Yasmeen’s studio, bringing along materials and paintings, and their collaboration began.
They drew inspiration from their shared fascination with mechanical drawings and early 20th-century patents, particularly those by Francis Picabia featured on the covers of the Dadaist magazine, 391, and Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical sketches. These influences, along with their admiration for artists such as Roberto Matta, Neo Rauch, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, and 1920s surrealists such as Georges Braque, shaped the evolution of their joint practice. Over the years, Rajaa’s organic, surreal shapes merged seamlessly with Yasmeen’s mechanical forms, making it almost impossible to distinguish between the two. They both gravitated toward the concept of internal mechanisms creating a whole entity, such as car parts forming the internal structure of something as alien-like as a vehicle.
This concept of “parts of a whole” became central to their work and perfectly complemented their combined styles.Their inspirations are wide-ranging: from studies of patents and analytical drawings, influenced by Yasmeen’s brief study of architecture, to Japanese manga depictions of forms, and the tactile experience of playing with gadgets and cars as children. They draw on natural elements like pressure and gravity, adopting a maximalist, stacked approach. While figurative art has its place, Yasmeen and Rajaa believe that abstraction allows for the exploration of dimensions beyondthe visual, offering viewers a portal into a world that could exist—a reality transcended.
This selection of paintings showcases a dialogue between works created in 2019—when the artists believe their collaborative output truly began to take shape—and 2024, a year marked by an intense flourishing in their partnership. This period includes larger and more introspective works, with highlights such as Yasmeen’s Postpartum and Rajaa’s Surge.
Among the featured pieces is a pair of collaborative paintings on linen, Parade and Array, created five years apart. These works offer a glimpse into the evolution of the duo’s practice over time. The selection also includes a series of five double-sided paintings on carved wooden blocks, representing their attempts to translate their developed visual language into new proportions, moving closer to a different dimension.