Hanaa Malallah (Iraq, 1958) is an artist, researcher, and educator whose work stands among the most significant voices in contemporary Middle Eastern art. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, she later pursued advanced academic research at the University of Baghdad, where she obtained both a Master’s degree and a PhD. Her doctoral research, completed in 2005, developed a rigorous semiotic approach to art, applying philosophical and logical structures to the interpretation of ancient Mesopotamian visual culture, establishing a critical foundation that continues to inform her artistic practice.

Since the early 1990s, Malallah has explored the concept of destruction as an essential condition of human existence, translating it into a distinctive visual language. Central to her practice is the use of found materials, which she subjects to processes of alteration and transformation, culminating in what she defined in 2007 as the “Ruins Technique.” This approach reflects a deep engagement with the material and symbolic legacy of Mesopotamian culture, while progressively expanding toward an investigation of landscape, memory, and the temporal dimensions of decay and survival.

Following an artist residency at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris in 2006, Malallah relocated to Europe, where she continued her research and artistic production through fellowships at institutions such as the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Chelsea College of Art in London. Alongside her artistic career, she has maintained a strong academic presence, lecturing at the University of Baghdad and at the Royal University for Women in Bahrain, contributing to the development of critical discourse in the region and beyond.

Her work has been widely exhibited internationally and is held in major museum and institutional collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum and the Imperial War Museum in London, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman, as well as the Barjeel Art Foundation in Dubai and the Dalloul Art Foundation in Beirut.

Through a practice that unites theoretical rigor and material experimentation, Malallah has developed a body of work that reflects on loss, transformation, and resilience, positioning her among the most influential contemporary artists to emerge from Iraq. She currently lives and works in London, where she continues her artistic and research activity within an international context.