Nadia Ayari Tunisian, American, b. 1981
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Together, 2025
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All Day, 2024
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All Night, 2024
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Repose, 2024
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Loop VI, 2022
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Bend 4, 2019
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Bend 1, 2018
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Safe Word, 2016
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Tight, 2016
Born 1981. Tunis, Tunisia
Lives and works Brooklyn, New York
Nadia Ayari is a Tunisian American painter based in New York known for her distinctively textured paintings that balance abstraction and narration while exploring themes of survival.
Ayari moved to the United States in 2000, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from Boston University and a Master’s degree of Fine Arts in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. Straddling abstraction and figuration, her work often negotiates the personal and the political. Employing a set of protagonists inspired by the flora of her native North Africa, she creates compositions that are visual representations of our Anthropocene condition. She renders these scenes in thick, methodically applied oil-paint to give the characters and the plastic space they inhabit substantial skin, making them physically relatable.
Her works can be found in collections of the Collection Pinault, Paris, France; the Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon; The X Museum, Beijing, China, The Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis, Tunisia; The Scantland Collection, Columbus, Ohio; Fundación Medianoche, Grenada, Spain; Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakesh, Morocco Barjeel Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; State Museum of Contemporary Art; Thessaloniki, Greece; Saatchi Collection, London, UK.
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Art Basel is searching for a new sweet spot in the art market — will ‘Premiere’ be the answer?
The fair’s latest showing for fresh art is propelled by socially engaged work, from Lonnie Holley’s retelling of civil rights history to Lin May Saeed’s vision of animal liberationMelanie Gerlis, The Financial Times , 10 June 2025 -
Art Basel’s brand-new Premiere sector at a glance
Introduced this year, it focuses on recent artistic production and precisely curated projects, revealing a diverse array of voices and approaches, from intimate personal narratives to urgent ecological themesElliat Albrecht, Art Basel, 6 June 2025
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Together, 2025
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All Day, 2024
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All Night, 2024
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Repose, 2024
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Loop VI, 2022
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Bend 4, 2019
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Bend 1, 2018
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Safe Word, 2016
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Tight, 2016
Education
2007 MFA in Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2005 CFA in Painting, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
2004 BA in Art History, Boston University, Boston, MA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026 Selma Feriani, Tunis, Tunisia (upcoming)
2024 Lisa Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria
About Surrender, Double Q Gallery, Hong Kong
2023 Glitches, Amplifications, Cadet Capela, Paris, France
2022 Eyelash in the Unknown, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami, FL
Wave, 89 Greene at Signs and Symbols, New York, NY
2021 We Saw Stars, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK
2020 New Drawings, Taymour Grahne Projects (online)
8 Ways of Holding On, Art Genève, Taymour Grahne Projects, Geneva,
Switzerland
2019 8 Ways of Holding On, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK
2016 Alien, Untitled Miami Beach, Taymour Grahne Gallery, Miami, FL
Bricks, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, NY
2013 The Fountain and the Fig, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE
2011 This Place, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Nadia Ayari, Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy
Selected Group Exhibition
2024 Spectre Visible, Christie’s, Paris, France
2023 One Wall a Web Through Which the Moment Walks, 1/9 unosunove,
Rome, Italy
States of Becoming, Independent Curators International, Center for Art
Design and Visual Culture, Baltimore, MD
Kawkaba: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Collection, Christie’s, London,
UK
Immersed, Jack Siebert Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2022States of Becoming, Independent Curators International, The Africa
Center, New York, NY
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Taymour Grahne Projects, London,
UK
Landscape, Woaw Gallery, Hong Kong
Density’s Glitch, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
Intimacy, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK
The Entelechians, Eric Ruschman, Chicago, IL
2021 Trove, Artsy, Edition, Miami, FL
Art, a Serious Game, MACAAL, Marrakech, Morocco
Greater New York, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY
Ridiculous Sublime, SFA Advisory, New York, NY
2020 El que busca, encuentra...y sigue encontrando, White Columns, New
York, NY (online)
2018 Cinnamon, Produce Model Gallery, Chicago, IL
2017 Between Two Rounds of Fire, the Exile of the Sea, American University
Museum, Washington, DC
Volley, Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY
Immigrancy, Samson Projects, Boston, MA
Dallas Art Fair, Taymour Grahne Gallery, Dallas, TX
Through Thick and Thin: Image Painting Today, Erin Cluley Gallery,
Dallas, TX
100 Chefs D’Oeuvre, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2016 A Verdant Summer, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, NY
Me, My, Mine, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
Dallas Art Fair, Taymour Grahne Gallery, Dallas, TX
Art Dubai, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Walls and Margins, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE
EXPO Chicago, Taymour Grahne Gallery, Chicago, IL
Seducers, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014 Art Dubai Projects, Dubai, UAE
Hudson Guild, New York, NY
2013 Diamonds, Diamonds, Gallery Diet, Miami, FL
2011 Domino, Biennale: 3, Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art,
Thessaloniki, Greece
2010 United States Pavilion, 12th International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt
Mutual Migration, Michael Rosenthal Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
On Paper, Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Zuoz, Switzerland
May December, Memorial Hall Gallery, Providence, RI
Curatorial Projects
2014 Didn’t Start the Fire, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, NY
2011 Our Backs Against the Wall, Josée Bienvenue, New York, NY
2009 Across Histories: Artist and Curator Talks, ArteEast, Cabinet Space,
Brooklyn, NY
Residencies
2014 A.i.R Dubai, Dubai, UAE
2009 Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
2006 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME
Collections
Collection Pinault, Paris, France
Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunisia
Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
The X Museum, Beijing, China
The Scantland Collection, Columbus, Ohio
Fundación Medianoche, Grenada, Spain
Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakesh, Morocco
Barjeel Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
Saatchi Collection, London, UK
Awards
2019 Lotos Foundation Prize, Lotos Foundation, New York, NY
2009 Robert Motherwell Award, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
2006 Matching Scholarship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME