Monira Al Qadiri is a Kuwaiti visual artist and film maker born in Senegal and educated in Japan. In 2010, she received a Ph.D. in inter-media art from Tokyo University of the Arts, where her research was focused on the aesthetics of sadness in the Middle-East region stemming from poetry, music, art and religious practices. Her work explores the relationship between narcissism and masculinity, as well as other dysfunctional gender roles. She is currently expanding her practice towards social and political subjects. She is also part of the artist collective GCC, who has recently held a solo exhibition at MoMA PS1 in 2014.
She has held solo exhibitions at the Sultan Gallery, Kuwait (2011 & 2014), and Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan (2009). Her participation in collective international exhibitions includes: "DUST" CCA Warsaw, Poland (2015), "Whose Subject Am I?" Kunstverein Dusseldorf, Germany (2015), "Accented" Maraya Arts Center, Sharjah, UAE (2015), "The Return of Ghosts" Hong-Gah Museum, Taiwan (2014), "Never Never Land" Edge of Arabia Projects, London (2014), "Exposure" Beirut Art Center, Lebanon (2013), “X-Apartments” Home Works 6, Beirut, Lebanon (2013), “50/20” Sultan Gallery Kuwait (2011), “Paradiso” Watermill Center, New York (2010), “Tokyo Wonder Wall” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Japan (2008), and “In Transition Russia” Moscow Center of Contemporary Art (2008). Her videos and short films have been screened at: Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival (2014), "Where is My Territory?" Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014), "Parle Pour Toi" Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris (2014), Medrar Cairo Video Festival, Egypt (2014),“Aboveground Animation” New Museum, New York (2012), “Art Screen” Obrero, Sweden (2012), “Arab Shorts” Arsenale, Berlin (2012), and the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai (2008 & 2009) among others.