Sama Alshaibi at Paris Photo
Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
Paris Photo, Nov 12-15, 2026 - Grand Palais
Sama Alshaibi Presents Waiting for the Beasts at Paris Photo 2026
Sama Alshaibi presents new works from Waiting for the Beasts (2026) with Galerie Esther Woerdehoff at Paris Photo. The series began with photographs made alongside her son in the Mesopotamian Marshes of southern Iraq, a landscape to which she returned after forty years in exile. Threatened by receding waters and expanding oil infrastructure, the marshes provide the setting for gestures inspired by Early Dynastic Sumerian votive figures and the relationship between Ninsun and her son Gilgamesh. Accompanied by newly composed omen texts adapted into Akkadian and rendered in cuneiform, the photographs explore the intergenerational consequences of war, exile, and environmental extraction.
Through photogravure and blind debossing, Alshaibi translates the ancient clay tablet into photographic paper, bringing image and inscription together on a surface transformed by pressure. Moving between the photograph's record of the past and the omen's anticipation of the future, Waiting for the Beasts considers what histories of loss and displacement might foretell for the next generation.
“The Numbered” from the project “Waiting for the Beasts”
Photogravure with blind debossing, 2026
Raining Blood. Photography and Arms Trafficking
Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria
29 September, 2026 - 18 April, 2027
With Raining Blood, the Weltmuseum Wien presents an exhibition examining the arms trade around 1900 and its entanglement with war and armed conflict. Drawing from the museum’s collection, the exhibition considers the deeply ambivalent histories and consequences of weapons and their circulation. Alshaibi will participate with her 10-panel screenprint project, Generation after Generation. Curated by Dr. Hanin Hannouch, Curator for Analog and Digital Media at the Weltmuseum Wien.
“Generation after Generation” from the project “Affiché”
Mixed media screenprints, 2019
Generative Disruption: Feminist Art from the Collection
Ruby City, San Antonio, TX
September 26, 2026 – August 29, 2027
With Generative Disruption: Feminist Art from the Collection, Ruby City presents an exhibition examining the legacy of feminist artistic practices from the 1990s to the present. Drawing largely from the Linda Pace Collection, the exhibition considers the range of materials, methods of production, and subject matter that feminist art has embraced. Alshaibi will participate with a selection of photogravure prints from Carry Over, produced during her 2019 Artpace residency. Curated by Elyse A. Gonzales, Director of Ruby City.
“Water Bearer II” from the project “Carry Over”
Photogravure print with blind embossing, 2019
The Lost Paintings: a Prelude to Return
currently on view at the Bristol Art Museum & Art Gallery
Queens Rd, Bristol, BS8 1RL
June 19 – September 27, 2026
Curated by Rula Khoury, Joëlle Tomb, and Haidi Motola, this powerful international exhibition brings together 53 artists from Palestine and its diaspora to reimagine the lost works of Maroun Tomb, an exhibition originally erased by the Nakba in 1947 and rediscovered through archival research. The internationally touring exhibition debuted in a two-part installation at articule and MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and has also shown in London, Boston, and Belfast.
Click here to learn more about the exhibition
Sama Alshaibi's photograph “Like Sugar From Ashes” is featured in the touring exhibition.