According to Financial Times News, last October at the Frieze London art fair, 42-year-old artist Sophia Al-Maria publicly declared she was quitting her 15-year art career. Over the fair’s five days, she performed a series called “Wall-Based Work,” which included acts like going on strike for Gaza and “marrying” an audience member for a visa. Despite her retirement announcement, she is fulfilling a prior commitment with a presentation at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar this month with Dubai’s The Third Line gallery. There, she will show a new body of work titled “HILUX,” named after the iconic Toyota truck, featuring ink and watercolor paintings. This show is a homecoming for Al-Maria, who grew up between Qatar and the U.S., and an attempt to correct the misunderstood legacy of “Gulf Futurism,” a term she coined in 2012.
The Real Gulf Futurism
Here’s the thing about coining a term that goes viral: you often lose control of it. Al-Maria created “Gulf Futurism” with musician Fatima Al Qadiri to critique the violent, disorienting speed of modernization fueled by oil. But fashion mags and sci-fi writers like Bruce Sterling turned it into just a cool aesthetic—glossy towers in empty deserts, a kind of apolitical wallpaper. She’s pretty pissed about that. Her work, like 2016’s “Black Friday” at the Whitney, was meant to be satirical, showing how that acceleration “alienates us and kills us.” Now, at Art Basel Qatar, she’s trying to reclaim the idea. And she thinks it’s more relevant than ever, pointing out that this pattern of oil-driven societal whiplash is happening “in Nigeria or anywhere.” It’s not just a Gulf thing anymore.
Why She Quit The Art Market
So why walk away? Al-Maria is brutally honest. She says all the structures around the art world are “really oppressive.” And get this: despite having her work in places like Tate Britain and the Venice Biennale, she still doesn’t make a living from her art. For income, she writes for TV and film, like the series Little Birds. That’s a pretty damning indictment of the system. She also sees artists becoming less bold, terrified of losing income, especially after the blacklisting of those who supported Palestine. “My heart has been broken,” she says. “I believe in art, but not the market.” I think a lot of artists feel that way but don’t have the platform to say it. Her foray into stand-up comedy—part of her farewell—was, in her words, way more expensive on her “heart and soul” than she expected.
Art For Herself Now
What’s next after this “last” show? She’s talking about retraining as a nurse or care worker. “I want to do something in my body, to be present, to step into history and not just be a spectator to suffering,” she says. That’s a powerful shift. The world‘s current state, with words like “genocide” failing to capture reality, has left her feeling that a fundamental human trust has been broken. But she won’t stop making art altogether. She’s been painting for a straight month and enjoying the whole-body aches. The key difference? She’s done with institutions, fundraising proposals, and the market’s grind. “I’m doing it for myself from now on,” she says, lighting another cigarette. It’s a retirement from the industry, but maybe a rebirth for the actual art. And honestly, that might be where the most interesting work comes from.
