Draft:Maha Mustafa

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Maha Mustafa (born 1961, Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi-Swedish-Canadian sculptor and installation artist based between Malmö, Sweden, and Toronto, Canada. Her work includes large-scale public art, museum and gallery installations, and permanent public commissions across Europe and North America. Her installation Black Fountain was reviewed in Hyperallergic and Artribune following its presentation at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, in 2012. She has been covered by Sydsvenskan, Sweden's largest regional newspaper, in connection with her public commissions in Malmö.

Early Life and Education

Mustafa was born in Baghdad in 1961. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad from 1980 to 1984, specialising in ceramics. She won the Wasiti Biennale First Prize in Sculpture in 1986 and 1989.

During the Gulf War she opened her first studio in Baghdad. She immigrated to Sweden in 1990, settling in Malmö in 1991 with her partner, the artist Ibrahim Rashid. She relocated partly to Toronto in 2005.

In Sweden she completed further studies in Concrete Sculptures (Malmö, 1996), Public Art Monuments in Residential Milieu (Umeå, 1999), Spatial Gestalt (Malmö, 2000), and Light in Urban Space (Malmö, 2003).

Work

Mustafa works across sculpture, installation, and large-scale public commissions. Her work addresses oil, memory, war, and environmental change. Installations frequently incorporate physical materials including ice, water, black liquid, light, and smoke. Public commissions are permanent works integrated into urban infrastructure including transit stations, airport terminals, and city squares.

Her work is held in the Khalid Shoman Collection at Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan, and in the permanent collection of Skissernas Museum at Lund University, Sweden — the world's largest collection of sketches, models and preparatory work for public art.

Selected Works

Black Fountain (2008–2012)

A large basin from which black liquid is continuously pumped upward and falls back into the pool. Writing in Hyperallergic, Christopher Kuhl described it as "elegant and ugly, quiet and mysterious" and "a supremely conceptualized piece". Artribune used the work as its lead image in a feature on the Arab Express exhibition at the Mori Art Museum. The work was shown at Södertälje Konsthall (2008), Passagen Konsthall, Linköping (2009), ASpace Gallery, Toronto (2010), MAI Gallery, Montréal (2011), and the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012) as part of Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World, a survey of contemporary art from the Arab world featuring 34 artists from 10 countries.

Landscape −37°C (2004)

An installation in which a refrigeration unit generates frozen panels measuring 300 cm × 250 cm. The work was shown at the 8th Sharjah Biennial, UAE, in 2007.

Field (1995–2004)

An installation consisting of approximately 8,000 small light bulbs placed beneath semi-transparent paper. The work toured multiple venues in Sweden and Denmark between 1995 and 2004.

Approaching Red (2013)

A permanent public sculpture at CityPlace, Toronto, commissioned by Concord Adex Inc. The work was installed in March 2013.

Soundscapes (2018)

A winning public art commission for Stockholm Arlanda Airport, selected through an open competition run by Swedavia, the Swedish airport authority.

Game of Burning Stones (2023)

A series of abstract sculptures shown at the Art Gallery of Burlington, Ontario, as part of the Community Generator programme in 2025.

Passage (2016)

A permanent public sculpture at Dag Hammarskjöld's Square, Malmö, adjacent to the Malmö Live concert hall. The work consists of an 8-metre red mild steel spiral, a 25-metre black granite bench, and an 8-metre-diameter fountain. It was selected through an open public art competition in 2014 and fabricated in the Netherlands. Sydsvenskan reported on the inauguration on 8 December 2016. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary in 2026, Malmö Live published a feature interview with the artist about the work.

Public Commissions

• 2018 — Soundscapes, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, Sweden (winning commission)
• 2017 — Access, Maple GO Station, Metrolinx, Ontario, Canada (winning commission)
• 2016 — Passage, Dag Hammarskjöld's Square, Malmö, Sweden (winning commission)
• 2013 — Approaching Red, CityPlace, Toronto, Canada
• 2009 — Waterfall Pavilion, Dunkers Culture House, Helsingborg, Sweden
• 2008 — Canoe Lights, Spadina Underpass, Toronto, Canada
• 2006 — Around Me, Turning Torso, Malmö, Sweden
• 2005 — Red Line, Skåne Region, Sweden
• 1999 — Blue Boat, Central Library, Lund, Sweden
• 1997 — Water Landscape, Malmö General Hospital, Sweden
• 1994 — Three Sails with The Sun, Lomma, Sweden

Selected Exhibitions

Group

• 2023 — Skissernas Museum, Lund, Sweden
• 2021 — Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan — Postcolonial Ecologies
• 2012 — Mori Art Museum, Tokyo — Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World
• 2007 — Sharjah Biennial 8, UAE — Art, Ecology & The Politics of Change: Still Life
• 2004 — Arteast, The NewSpace, New York, USA
• 2001–2002 — Stroke of Genius, Brunei Gallery and Kufa Gallery, London; Faulconer Gallery, Iowa
• 1997 — Malmö Art Museum, Sweden

Solo

• 2011 — MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) Gallery, Montréal — Looking for Oxygen
• 2010 — ASpace Gallery, Toronto — Looking for Oxygen
• 2008 — Södertälje Konsthall, Sweden — Ground Zero
• 2007 — Trollhättan Konsthall, Sweden — Checkpoint X
• 2004 — Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan — Beyond 100°C
• 1998 — Barbacka Konsthall, Kristianstad, Sweden

Publications

• Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World, Mori Art Museum, 2012. ISBN 978-4-582-20670-8
• Still Life: Art, Ecology & the Politics of Change, Part I, Sharjah Biennial 8, ed. Serene Huleileh, 2007. ISBN 9948-04-328-6
• Oil: Beauty and Horror in the Petrol Age, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2021. ISBN 978-3753300962
• Passage, texts by John Peter Nilsson and Dan Jönsson, 2017. ISBN 978-91-639-2306-7

Grants and Awards

• 2025 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
• 2023 — Toronto Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
• 2022 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
• 2018 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
• 2015 — Ontario Arts Council, Creation Grant, Canada
• 2011 — Canada Council for the Arts, Canada
• 2011 — Iaspis, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Sweden
• 2007 — Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, Canada
• 2005 — Swedish National Council for Culture, Sweden
• 2004 — Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Sweden
• 1998 — Immigrant Institute Grant, Borås, Sweden
• 1989 — Wasiti Biennale First Prize in Sculpture, Baghdad, Iraq
• 1986 — Wasiti Biennale First Prize in Sculpture, Baghdad, Iraq

External links

• Official website