Nawal Abdel Rahim
Nawal Dawoud Abdel Rahim is a Jordanian visual artist whose practice has been shaped by sustained self-directed study and long-term studio discipline. She holds a Diploma in Fine Arts from Amman Al-Ahliyya University, a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, and postgraduate studies in Library and Information Science. This interdisciplinary background informs a method attentive to structure, systems of meaning, and the archival qualities of image-making, while her visual language remains grounded in personal intuition and lived experience. Working primarily in acrylic and oil on canvas, Abdel Rahim develops compositions that frequently recall the logic of mosaic construction: discrete, carefully calibrated units accrue through layering and repetition to produce surfaces of dense patterning and rhythmic cohesion. Her iconography moves across human, animal, botanical, and architectural or geometric forms, articulated through an approach that privileges compositional order and symbolic charge. Within these scenes, figures are often bound by relational networks that carry motifs of hope and love, while recurring references to heritage—traditional dress and tightly clustered vernacular dwellings—operate less as illustration than as mnemonic fragments, indexing collective memory and the persistence of place. A defining aspect of her work is the insertion of subtle, at times partially occluded signs—an encrypted lexicon that complicates immediate legibility and invites sustained viewing. Her chromatic range frequently draws on earth tones inflected with light, producing an atmosphere in which detail becomes both descriptive and affective. The work negotiates a space between Expressionism and Impressionism, balancing painterly immediacy with an underlying structural intent, and positioning perception itself as a site of meaning. Abdel Rahim worked in the education sector for eleven years before dedicating herself more fully to artistic production. She has been a member of the Jordanian Association of Visual Artists (Amman) since 2009. She presented her first solo exhibition in Amman, Jordan, in 2022, and has participated in exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Sarajevo, and Tokyo, as well as in multiple exhibitions across Jordan. In 2023, she received First Prize in Visual Arts in the “Nashmi and My Talent for Jerusalem” competition, organized by the Al-Qubba Cultural Association, with the award ceremony held at Applied Science University.