Biography
Maliha Tabari is Palestinian-Jordanian by background and grew up across the Gulf during the 1990s. She completed a BFA at Otis College of Art and Design in California and Ringling School of Art and Design in Florida, then returned to Dubai with an idea and a list of studio visits to make. In 2003 she founded Artspace Dubai — later renamed Tabari Artspace — under the patronage of Princess Haya bint Al Hussein. She was among the first to open a commercial gallery dedicated to contemporary Middle Eastern art in the UAE. Her early programme was built around modern masters she visited in person: Adam Henein, Omar El-Nagdi, Hussein Madi, Mohamed Abla. The second exhibition the gallery hosted drew over 200 people on opening night. Over two decades the artists she built careers around have entered the collections of the British Museum, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Barjeel Art Foundation. She has described the most important part of her work as the time spent with artists and building those relationships. The gallery she built is now run by an all-women team and places particular emphasis on female artists and diasporic voices. Tabari Artspace has participated in Art Dubai, Abu Dhabi Art and international fairs, and launched Home from Home, an international residency programme.