Diana Al-Hadid at Dieu Donné: Online

November 18 – December 22, 2023
  • On the occasion of Diana Al-Hadid's first solo exhibition with the gallery, Kasmin presents an inside look at the artist's new body of paper pulp works, developed as part of her Lab Grant Residency at Dieu Donné, New York. Known for her evocative transformations of industrial materials such as fiberglass, gypsum, steel, and bronze, Al-Hadid’s works engage with thematic references across the fields of antiquity, folklore, architecture, manuscripts, cartography, and cosmology, among other subjects, as a way of communing with the present.

    With this body of work, presented exclusively online, Al-Hadid introduces paper to her artistic vocabulary. Dieu Donné’s Lab Grant Program is renowned for providing a single artist per year with an unparalleled opportunity to work in-depth in hand papermaking. For this series, Al-Hadid blends layers of pigmented paper together until material and substrate become one, much like Al-Hadid’s widely-celebrated sculptures and relief paintings.

    • Diana Al-Hadid, Night Journey (Gold Lines), 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Night Journey (Gold Lines), 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, Deep Dive, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Deep Dive, 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, The Sighting, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, The Sighting, 2023
  • "Diana’s process and use of materials lent themselves naturally to the process of hand papermaking. She spent the initial sessions to fully understand the potential of the medium and then, in collaboration with Dieu Donné expert papermakers, Diana mastered several techniques such as pulp painting, stenciling, and blowout—which creates marks using water pressure."
    —Serena Trizzino, Executive Director, Dieu Donné
    • Diana Al-Hadid, Night Medusa, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Night Medusa, 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, Sky Medusa, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Sky Medusa, 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, Deep Sleep, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Deep Sleep, 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, Mother in the Middle, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Mother in the Middle, 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, Turning Mountain, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Turning Mountain, 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, Night Journey (Horizontal), 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Night Journey (Horizontal), 2023
    • Diana Al-Hadid, The Den of the Seven Sleepers, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, The Den of the Seven Sleepers, 2023
  • About Dieu Donné

    About Dieu Donné

    Founded in 1976, Dieu Donné is the leading nonprofit cultural institution dedicated to the use of hand papermaking processes in contemporary art. Through extensive collaborations with Master Papermakers, Dieu Donné introduces emerging and established artists from a wide variety of practices to the creative possibilities in hand papermaking – fostering experimentation and creating innovative works of art.

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    • Diana Al-Hadid, Mad Medusa, 2023
      Diana Al-Hadid, Mad Medusa, 2023
  • "Diana was able to create incredibly fine and detailed lines in her pulp works. Papermaking is a collaborative process and our studio reached its fullest potential while working with Diana."
    —Serena Trizzino, Executive Director, Dieu Donné
  • About the Artist

    Diana Al-Hadid

    Diana Al-Hadid

    Diana Al-Hadid examines the historical frameworks and perspectives that continue to shape discourse on culture and materials today. With a practice spanning sculpture, wall reliefs, and works on paper, the artist weaves together enigmatic narratives that draw inspiration from both ancient and modern civilizations. Al-Hadid’s rich allegorical constructions are born from art historical religious imagery, ancient manuscripts, female archetypes, and folkloric storytelling frameworks. 

    Framed by a host of references from antiquity, cosmology, cartography, and architecture, Al-Hadid’s work gives form to ghostly images abstractly rendered in materials as various as steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, wood, foam, plaster, aluminum foil, and pigment. The artist’s process-based explorations innovate from commonplace industrial materials. Their formidable presence sits steady in the lineage of creation and construction that we associate with empire, complicated by an often-elegiac tone. 

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