Ruba Nadar (b. 1998)
Artist Statement
February 2026
My work and studio function as spaces of collection and reassembly, where figures and roles shaped by image are reconsidered through gesture, memory, and cinematic re-interpretation. I work with collage scraps, painting, stitched fabrics, torn photographs, and archival sports imagery to create layered compositions and objects that hover between presence and absence. Each material is selected for its physical and cultural resonance, and assembled through the lens of visibility, longing, and remembrance.
Drawing from Egyptian cinema and my own Egyptian and Lebanese family archive, I am interested in the tension embedded in images: pauses, glances, and fragments that suggest unspoken narratives. Film stills, photographs, and textiles are disrupted and reworked, allowing imagined characters to emerge through intention and interruption. At its core, my practice approaches the archive as an emotional and historical site, where fragments of personal and collective memory are rearranged into intimate, unresolved forms.