Sophia Al-Maria

Sophia Al-Maria is an artist and writer living in London. She is the author or Sad Sack (Book Works, 2019), and guest editor of The Happy Hypocrite – Fresh Hell, issue 8 (Book Works, 2015). Al-Maria’s memoir, The Girl Who Fell to Earth (Harper Perennial, 2012), was translated into Arabic and published by Bloomsbury Qatar in 2015, and her short stories have been published in various collections including The Djinn Falls in Love (Solaris, UK, 2017). She is a contributing editor of Bidoun. In 2016 Al-Maria presented ‘Black Friday’, her first US solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and was nominated for Film London’s Jarman Award. Recently, she has been screenwriting for film and television, alongside solo exhibitions at Project Native Informant in London (‘ilysm’, 2018), Third Line Gallery in Dubai, and further presentations, participation in film festivals and arts events internationally.

Sophia Al-Maria was Whitechapel Gallery’s Writer in Residence 2018 – her exhibition ‘BCE’ (Whitechapel Gallery, January – April 2019), draws on a year of performances and readings, culminating in two short creation myth films: one from the ancient past, originating with the Wayuu tribe in northern Colombia; the other from the distant future, made with Victoria Sin.