Born in Cairo, Egypt, artist Amina Yahia’s work merges ideas of human interaction with folkloric and systematic influences on belief and behavior. Yahia is interested in topics such as socially-influenced behavior and the ritualistic–almost spiritual–aspect that is a result of its repetitiveness. Her large-scale paintings are rooted in post & neocolonial Egyptian society.
The female identity is central to her practice, which she often depicts vis-à-vis portrayals of control systems and reflections of the self. Yahia’s figures, often life-sized, have an underlying satirical nature to them. Her narratives are habitually in search of dissecting the uncanny, banal, intimate, violent, and sensual of the body together with the remnants of cultural embeddedness within bodily movement and function.
Amina Yahia received her BA from New York University. She has shown her work at Tahrir Cultural Center AUC, Cairo, 2023; New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, 2022; Firetti Contemporary, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, 2022; 421, Abu Dhabi, 2021; Maisan15, Dubai, 2021.