Shaikha Al Mazrou explores perception through steel and marble in Abu Dhabi

Shaikha Al Mazrou is presenting sculptures that challenge how viewers recognise materials in Two Horizons, a solo exhibition at Abu Dhabi's Cultural Foundation scheduled to continue until July 18, 2027. The show combines newly commissioned pieces with earlier work, according to reports by The National and Aletihad.

Across four chapters, the exhibition examines the difference between a material's physical properties and its appearance. Steel can suggest the flexibility of cloth or paper, while carved stone evokes water: the works bring those contrasting impressions into a single exhibition.

One new commission, Fragmented Horizons, uses poles of oxidised steel to establish an artificial horizon within the Cultural Foundation's architecture. Here, the relationship between sculpture and the building is part of the work, with the horizon constructed inside the venue rather than seen outdoors.

A different treatment of solid material appears in a black jade marble sculpture previously exhibited at Japan's Aichi Triennale. Its suggestion of moving water contrasts with the stone itself, extending the exhibition's exploration of how a surface can appear to have qualities its material does not possess.

Water Was Never Blue approaches perception through colour. The work draws on the cyanometer, an instrument for studying the sky's colour, bringing a tool associated with observation into an exhibition concerned with how things are seen.

Folding provides another route into that subject. Architectonics of a Fold uses steel but resembles paper or fabric. The National identifies the final chapter as In Geometry of a Fold, where the sculptures are made from steel that has been folded and coated.

Aletihad also describes The Fold Conceals, a marble work resembling a pile of folded canvases, and The Weight of a Gesture, which takes the shape of a bent rope. Both works are dated 2026 in its report.

The exhibition took roughly a year to develop and extends through the atrium and interior galleries, The National reported. Reem Fadda curated it with co-curators Noor AlMehairbi and Paz Monge, supported by assistant curator Afra Saif Almazrouei.