WASHINGTON, DC

Please join us on Friday, February 13th from 5:00-7:00pm for the public opening of the MEI Art Gallery’s latest exhibition, Beyond the Weave: Contemporary Dialogues with AlSadu, featuring artworks that reinterpret Kuwait’s rich Sadu textile heritage through innovative contemporary practices. The program for the evening will feature gallery tours with two of our participating artists, live music, and light refreshments.

Sadu, a traditional weaving practice shaped by nomadic desert life and the ingenuity of women makers, translates generations of knowledge into disciplined bands of vivid geometry. Historically woven from sheep and camel wool for tents and furnishings, Sadu’s motifs form a visual language of movement, memory, and identity—elevating a practical necessity into a lasting cultural symbol.

Curated by AlSadu Society, an organization dedicated to preserving and advancing the country’s textile heritage, the exhibition presents works by 12 artists produced during the Sadu Art and Design Initiative (SADI), an annual residency that invites artists to explore Kuwait’s rich Sadu tradition. The works that emerge move between distilled abstraction and immersive inquiry, tracing Sadu across image, object, and experience. Together, they form an evolving record of exchange between past and present, affirming that tradition remains vital not through preservation alone, but through continuous dialogue with new voices and vision.

Participating Artists: Fatema AlBader, Noor AlFayez, Hanadi AlMarzouq, Abdulaziz AlRabea, Samaa AlRefai, Salem AlSalem, Jasem AlSanea, Rua AlShaheen, Munirah AlShami, Maha AlShimmery, Ali AlYousefi, Mahmoud Shaker Mahmoud 

This exhibition is presented in recognition of the Threads of Friendship theme marking the 65th anniversary of Kuwait’s Independence Day and the 35th anniversary of its liberation, and celebrating the enduring ties between Kuwait and the United States.

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Photo: Ali AlYousefi, Forest of Shapes, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. Artwork created during the SADI 2022 Residency.​​​