From doodling designs in her bedroom, to displaying her work at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, 24-year-old Emirati artist Hend Almurid captivates the viewer with her attention to detail and talent for creating fascinating patterns. If you visit her exhibition spread across MAS Photography Studio until 31 May, you’ll find yourself immersed in a real-life jigsaw puzzle and freestyle drawings, combined to create an optical illusion.

The motto behind her work is ‘My art, my universe’. We speak with the emerging artist to find out more about her creative journey and what it’s like to see her work displayed at Manarat Al Saadiyat. “As a child, I always loved drawing,” she recalls. “I’ve been drawing since I learnt how to hold a pencil. It all started at school, and then my drawings kept getting better and different every year.” Different in the sense of evolving and ever-shaping is certainly an impression we experience when enjoying Hend’s drawings, as our eyes follow her mesmerising trails and designs.

“I love using art pens as my main medium more than anything else,” she shares. “However, it depends on the project. I try to not make all the faces appear the same way and sometimes this can be a challenge.” On what informs Hend’s creative language, she notes, “I’ve discovered that my artworks remind people of the cartoons that they used to enjoy in their childhood. I spent a lot of time watching them and that has inspired my drawings.”

As for showcasing her work to the public at Manarat Al Saadiyat, a leading centre for local cultural displays, workshops, and international exhibitions, Hend tells us how she was encouraged by the team to be a part of the exhibition and she happily agreed.

“My plan for the future is to have many more exhibitions, and for my name to be immortalised,” she states. As for the name of her brand, ‘Hendsight’, she explains that it comes from the word ‘hindsight’. “My art is an extension of me and I create my own universe within it. And anyone who views and appreciates my work can be a part of it.”

With a black ballpoint pen as her tool of choice, Hend has also experimented with portraits that are instantly reminiscent of Cubist works like those by Pablo Picasso, Ammar Alobaidi, Badr Abbas and Fadi Yazigi. But she aspires to carve out her own identity. “My journey is different from others.”

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