Maha Al Mansoori presents Egypt’s modernist sculptor Mahmoud Moussa
The UAE's first solo exhibition dedicated to pioneering Arab sculptor Mahmoud Moussa opens this November at Region Concept Space in Abu Dhabi, offering a singular engagement with one of modernism's most essential figures.
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Maha Al Mansoori Art Gallery presents Sculpture, Form & Memory, the UAE’s first solo exhibition dedicated to Mahmoud Moussa, one of the twentieth century’s most consequential Arab sculptors. The exhibition runs from 11 to 15 November 2026 at Region Concept Space in MiZa, Zayed Port, Abu Dhabi.
Moussa’s significance within Arab modernism cannot be overstated. Born in Alexandria in 1913, he belonged to the second generation of pioneers who forged modern artistic practice in the Arab world. Unlike his contemporaries who sought their education in European studios, Moussa developed his rigorous formal language independently within Egypt, a distinction that shaped both his aesthetic vocabulary and his intellectual authority. His sculptural practice, refined across a lifetime of disciplined inquiry, eventually positioned him as a mentor to successive generations of artists who recognised in his work a profound engagement with form, volume and the sculptural object’s essential dialogue with space.
The bronze figurative work visible here demonstrates Moussa’s command of the human body rendered with anatomical precision yet infused with an abstracted, almost architectural sensibility. His forms possess both weight and grace, suggesting movement suspended in bronze’s eternal stillness. This aesthetic philosophy, developed with patient deliberation, informed his teaching practice and the legacy he cultivated until his death in 2003 at ninety.
Maha Al Mansoori, the Emirati art collector who founded the gallery bearing her name, has established a nomadic curatorial programme dedicated to presenting emerging and established artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. The gallery currently operates across virtual and physical spaces; a permanent venue in Abu Dhabi will open in early 2027. This exhibition represents the curatorial conviction that modernism’s Arab practitioners deserve sustained scholarly and public attention, and that works such as Moussa’s merit engagement on their own profoundly original terms.
A press preview is scheduled for Wednesday, 11 November 2026 at 11:00 AM.
Imagery courtesy of Maha Al Mansoori Art Gallery.
