Tashkeel, the Dubai-based multidisciplinary art and design space, has selected its new cohorts of artists and designers who will be mentored by renowned industry professionals and receive studio support throughout the year to make their works come to life.

Tanween design programme

Taskheel marks its fifth edition of the Tanween design programme this year with the selection of product designer Lina Ghalib, architect Neda Salmanpour, interior designer Nada AbuShaqra, and duo Julia Ibbini and Stephane Noyer of Ibbini Studio, who will have the opportunity to showcase their limited-edition creations at Dubai Design Week in November. The upcoming resident designers were selected from more than 40 applicants, a 51 per cent increase in submissions since the programme’s official launch in 2015.

Critical Practice Programme

UAE-based contemporary visual artists Mays Albaik, Hamdan Buti Al Shamsi, Hind Mezain, and Nora Zeid will be receiving studio access, training, critique and production support as part of their one-year Critical Practice programme participation.

Tanween 2020 Cohort
Lina Ghalib
Lina Ghalib studied at the College of Architecture, Art and Design – American University of Sharjah, and the University of Arts London ¬– Chelsea College of Arts. Following internships at Roar (Pallavi Dean Interiors) and Fikra Design Studio, she joined Aljoud Lootah Design Studio as Product Designer in 2017.

Neda Salmanpour
Architect Neda Salmanpour is an Honours graduate of the University of Sharjah. Her passion and dedication to architecture and design has continued into practice. Chosen as a top Candidate for the University of Sharjah’s IAESTE international internship programme, she currently works as a Junior Architect at Binchy and Binchy Architecture, ranked in 2019 as among the Top 20 Boutique Design Firms in the Middle East. She was recently nominated as ‘Young Talent of the Year’ by Design Middle-East Award and currently serves on the board of Architectural Engineering Department Advisory Board at the University of Sharjah.

Ibbini Studio
Ibbini Studio is a collaboration creating works in contemporary art and design and that explore the boundaries of possibilities between human and machine. Julia Ibbini is a visual artist and designer, Stephane Noyer is a computer scientist and maker. Together they traverse analogue and digital to create works with highly detailed machined precision, but which remain distinctly human in origin.

Van Cleef & Arpels Middle East Emergent Designer Prize. In addition to private collectors, the studio has a number of corporate clients including Ministry of Presidential Affairs Abu Dhabi, Galleria Mall (Sowwah Central), St. Regis Amman, New York University Abu Dhabi, Emaar and Tamkeen to name a few.

Julia and Stephane are interested in exploring different materials, techniques and scale; finding ways to highlight through design objects the fascinating amount of mathematics involved behind much of the traditional design inherent in the region.

Critical Practice Programme 2020 Cohort
Mays Albaik’s interdisciplinary visual practice has literary writing at its heart. Crystalizing as performance, video, and spatial installations, her work seeks to assert a connection to a location through the study of literary fauna, of poetic production that is as tied to land as rooted plants.

Hamdan Buti Al Shamsi is self-taught and focuses on photography, graphic design and writing. An alumnus of Campus Art Dubai and Salama Emerging Artist Fellowship (SEAF), he has participated in exhibitions including ‘Three Generations’ (Abu Dhabi, 2013/14); ‘Emirati Insights’ (Abu Dhabi, 2015); ‘Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates’ (USA tour, 2014) and has exhibited at FN Designs, SIKKA Art Fair, Maraya Art Centre, Marsam Mattar and Tashkeel.

Hind Mezaina delves into themes of collective memory, the notion of heritage and the representation of Dubai and the UAE in the media. It is a continuous development of what she describes as a ‘visual archaeology’ through research, observation, collecting and preserving memories. Working primarily in photography, and more recently in video and collage, she has been exhibited regionally and internationally in several group shows, including ‘Made in Tashkeel’ (Tashkeel, 2018); Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj (2017); ‘Al Haraka Baraka: In Movement There Is Blessing’ (Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, 2016).

Nora Zeid is an Egyptian illustrator, designer and animator based in Dubai. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bc.S in Visual Communication and a minor in Illustration and Animation from the American University of Sharjah and is currently working at Abjad Design as a creative designer.