About
Mahmood Al Abadi
Mahmood Al Abadi is an Emirati artist for whom Arabic calligraphy is the essential root of his practice. His practice brings together tradition and the contemporary, extending across calligraphic and painterly works, design, sculpture, site-related projects and digital experiments. Each work keeps its own language and context, and knowledge of the foundations of calligraphy remains present throughout the range of his practice.
Biography
Mahmood Al Abadi's relationship with calligraphy began during his school years, shaped and encouraged by his family. His knowledge grew through study and practice, then widened through graphic design and contact with the visual arts, while his traditional calligraphic practice continued. This widening opened room to test colour, texture and scale, and to reflect on what the letter can carry, visually and humanly.
Tradition and experiment sit side by side in his works. The Gathering in Honouring Parents begins from research into Qur'anic texts and the relationships between them, bringing eleven calligraphic styles into a composition whose meaning extends across generations. In Tolerance, a structure inspired by the astrolabe connects with the meaning of kind speech. Love Without End is formed from a letter and its relationship with its counterpart and with space, while the viewer's reflection enters the experience.
Emirati identity is present in his works through text, memory and connection to place, taking different forms — from the meaning of a prayer to the influence of the environment on colour. The practice extends into architectural and cultural projects and digital applications, where ideas are tested at new scales, in new materials and in new contexts.
His works have been shown in exhibitions and forums in the UAE and abroad, and his work My Lord, Make This Land Secure received the Al Owais Award for Creativity in 2025. Alongside the practice he takes part in workshops and cultural dialogues on calligraphy, language and identity.
Knowledge of the letter
In some works, calligraphic writing — with its principles and proportions — is the work itself; in others, the idea leads the choice of medium and material. In both, knowledge of proportion and rhythm extends from writing to composition, and from the space between letters to the space within a sculpture.
Drafts and experiments with material and colour reveal how each work arrives at its form, and how it finds its own language without a single style being imposed on it.
Artistic vision
Mahmood Al Abadi's practice rests on knowledge of the principles of Arabic calligraphy and on exploring its possibilities. Letters carry their meanings, and they also build relationships — between mass and space, rhythm and stillness, a surface and what surrounds it.
A work begins from an idea, a text or a context that calls for reflection. The research may lead to choosing interrelated texts, to testing a material or a tool, or to a structure that changes with the viewer's movement and the light. The choice of scale, material and method of execution becomes part of the meaning the work takes on.
This practice lets the letter live in many forms while keeping its connection to calligraphic knowledge. Contemporaneity appears in the question that drives the work and in its relationship to its time, and each piece keeps its own story and way of reaching the viewer.
Path and participation
These milestones follow the continuing widening of Arabic calligraphy's possibilities in Mahmood Al Abadi's practice, with traditional calligraphic practice continuing alongside projects, design and cultural participation. Each milestone leads back to the related works.
- School years
The beginnings of his relationship with Arabic calligraphy, with family encouragement followed by stages of study and practice.
- 2006–2008
Art direction of more than twenty-four issues of Al Arabiya magazine.
More - 2008
Completion of "And Every Place That Grows Glory Is Good", in the collection of the Executive Office of the Government of Dubai.
- 2013
The "Eishi Biladi Studies" works in the exhibition "Ink and Perfume" at the House of Poetry, Dubai.
- 2014
Design of the identity of the Forum for Promoting Peace and curation of its accompanying exhibition; start of the consultancy and artistic development phase of the Andaz Dubai The Palm project.
More - 2015
Execution of the works for Noor Bank's senior management offices.
More - 2016–2017
Writing the inscriptions of Al Zarooni Grand Mosque and designing its unified visual pattern.
More - 2017–2024
Design and production of the Mohammed bin Rashid Award for Excellence in Horse Racing and its visual identity across the project's editions.
More - 2018
The exhibition "Letter and Shadow" at Sikka, and approval of most of the Andaz project works.
- 2019
The exhibition "A Pattern of Script" at Sikka; final delivery of the Andaz project; and the Hyatt Place Dubai Wasl District project.
More - 2020
Start of the direct collaboration with Huawei.
More - 2021
Presentation of his artistic practice at the Youth Pavilion, Expo 2020 Dubai, on 10 November; and participation in the session "Arabic Language and the Arts" at the Arabic Language Summit on 20 December.
- 2022
Participation in "Art Appreciation" at Expo on 16 January; works for the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre; the ALCHIMIE collaboration; and Youth shown at Qasr Al Watan, the Al Owais Calligraphy Forum and the exhibition "Artistic Features".
- 2023
Love Without End and Extension of Love; participation in the exhibition "The History of Arabic Calligraphy in the United Arab Emirates" at Al Shindagha Museum as part of the Dubai Calligraphy Biennale; and the cultural-exchange workshop in China.
- 2024
Works at the 11th Sharjah Calligraphy Forum, including My Lord, Make This Land Secure.
More - 2025
The Al Owais Award for Creativity for My Lord, Make This Land Secure; a winning work, "Walk Gently", at the Fujairah International Arabic Calligraphy Competition in the "Emirati Calligrapher" category; execution of the Al Etihad Credit Bureau project; and participation in "Words That Love Beauty" in Paris and "Artistic Paths" in Hangzhou.
- 2026
Completion of The Gathering in Honouring Parents and "The Best of You to Their Families" within the theme "My Family, My Paradise" of the Sharjah Calligraphy Forum.
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