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Qatar Museums (QM) has unveiled Autorretrato (Self-Portrait, 2022) by Argentinian artist Gabriel Chaile, a major new installation in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.Installed in Mathaf's performance space, the work underscores the museum's ongoing commitment to cultural exchange and its support for impactful contemporary artistic practices that resonate across the region and beyond.Autorretrato is also part of the Qatar Argentina and Chile 2025 Years of Culture, a national initiative that builds lasting partnerships and celebrates shared creativity, history, and innovation.The partnership with Argentina this year highlights the depth of artistic traditions, contemporary practices, and collaborative projects, positioning this new installation as a milestone in promoting cross-cultural dialogue and strengthening international artistic connections.The deputy chief executive of ALRIWAQ, Public Art, and Rubaiya, Her Excellency Sheikha Reem al-Thani, said: "As Mathaf celebrates its 15th anniversary, the unveiling of Gabriel Chaile's Autorretrato highlights the transformative role of public art in connecting audiences with contemporary creative practice.”“This artwork not only enriches the museum's anniversary programme but also serves as a catalyst for dialogue, inviting reflection on ancestry, heritage, and the ways in which personal and collective identities are interwoven,” she said. “By situating Chaile's sculpture within a public space, we aim to create meaningful encounters that resonate across cultures, histories, and generations."Born in 1985 in San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina, Chaile is renowned for sculptural practice grounded in the material cultures, archaeological histories, and native traditions of Latin America.Drawing from his Afro-Arab and Indigenous heritage, Chaile's work examines how identity is shaped by inherited memory, community narratives, and centuries of cultural interconnection.Autorretrato departs from traditional portraiture and expresses identity through symbolic and material elements.The sculpture's surface is marked by raised clusters inspired in part by the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf, suggesting textured hair and referencing Chaile's hybrid Afro-Arab and Latin ancestry.Subtle eye-shaped impressions appear on both sides of the work, echoing the dual-headed forms characteristic of pre-Hispanic ceramics and introducing a sense of duality and introspection."Autorretrato brings together material memory and lived experience in a way that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant,” said Mathaf director Zeina Arida.“Gabriel Chaile's work encourages us to consider how form can carry history and resilience,” she said. “Presenting this work at Mathaf during our 15th anniversary year is an ideal way to introduce the museum's future focus on ceramic art, crafting a dialogue where tradition meets innovative form."Crafted in adobe, a clay that was often used for Indigenous architecture and pottery across the continent, the work grounds itself in the earth, and the sculpture's conical form recalls traditional pipes once used in everyday life in northwestern Argentina.By merging these references, Chaile creates a work that articulates what he describes as a "Genealogy of Form", a framework through which ancestral memory, material history, and contemporary identity converge.The sculpture is presented as part of Evolution Nation, an 18-month campaign honouring Qatar's cultural journey over the past 50 years since the founding of the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ).Curated by Qatar Creates, the national initiative positions Qatar as a global hub for art, culture, and creativity.As part of this celebration, the unveiling of Chaile's Autorretrato represents a significant milestone for the QM, highlighting the institution's ongoing commitment to commissioning and presenting contemporary public art that connects local audiences with global artistic practice.  

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opened “Resolutions: Celebrating 15 years of Mathaf Exhibition” and “we refuse_d” to the public Friday, honouring its roots in Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali al-Thani’s foundational collection and confronting the struggles of artists who face censorship and displacement.“Resolutions”, on view until August 8, 2026, explores the institution’s journey, showcasing four areas that cover its origins and impact on the region.The section “Infrastructure: Traces of a Legacy”, curated by Fatima Mostafawi, examines the museum as a complex case study rooted in the vision of artist and collector Sheikh Hassan.It details how Doha emerged as an artistic hub during the political turmoil of the 1990s and includes archival materials like letters, photographs, and video interviews that capture Sheikh Hassan’s role as both fellow artist and patron.The exhibition continues its self-examination with “Mathaf as Institutional Memory: An Exhibition History”, curated by Hadeel al-Kohaji, which chronicles the “kaleidoscopic range” of exhibitions the museum has hosted.This section utilises an elaborate timeline and backstage documents to foster a sense of institutional memory, valuing the museum’s publications, graphic design, and international partnerships.“Resolution” broadens its scope to the regional impact of art, featuring “Education: Art as Knowledge Creation”, curated by Noora Abdulmajeed.This underscores the foundational role of art education in cultivating revolutionary possibilities and knowledge circulation within the Arab world.“Representation and the Writing of History”, curated by Arthur Debsi, spotlights how artists in West Asia and North Africa used a shared visual language in the post-independence era to define a Pan-Arab ideology and continuous resistance, especially in relation to the occupation of Palestine.Addressing contemporary issues, “we refuse_d” exhibition, curated by Nadia Radwan and Vasif Kortun, brings together 15 artists whose practices explore refusal, endurance, and action.On view until February 9, 2026, this exhibition asks critical questions about how to persist, resist, and create under conditions of silencing, censorship, and displacement.Speaking to the media, Kortun said: “To see other people’s misery it’s not what we really wanted to do and we kind of turned the idea of refusal around its head... we know of the concrete cases of cancelations but what we don’t know is the untold, or unwritten or unknowable history of refusals and cancellations.”Among the highlights of this exhibition are Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara’s *Untitled, from the Mahmoud Darwish series (2008), the newly commissioned installation *Resonance (2025) by Majd Abdel Hamid, Samia Halaby’s *Six Golden Heroes (2021), and Taysir Batniji’s early work *Untitled (1997).