The Kiln and the Form: On Making Art When the Mind Won't Settle

There is a particular silence that falls over a studio when the world outside is shaking. And then your phone shrieks. Every phone in Bahrain shrieks: a government broadcast, an air-raid alarm, telling you to take cover because drones have entered Bahraini airspace. The alarm passes, but your mind doesn't come back with it. That is the deeper disruption. Not the alarms themselves, but the preoccupation, the fact that your head is somewhere else even when your hands are on the

Mar 813 min read

The 52nd Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition: Eight Decades of Art, and Why the World Is Finally Paying Attention

The 52nd Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition opened on February 15, 2026, at the Bahrain National Museum in the presence of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa — a visual panorama celebrating the transformations of human experience and place.

Feb 1710 min read

Currently Exhibiting at the 52nd Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition

I'm honoured to be participating in the 52nd Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition, which opened on February 15, 2026. My piece "Abstract Faces" is a series of six layered and melted glass wall sculptures exploring how standards of beauty shift through age and experience. Each face is built from multiple layers of glass, fused together in the kiln — a process that becomes a metaphor for how life's pressures reshape us, without negating the beauty that remains. The title "Abstra

Feb 161 min read

Faces at the RAK Art Collection

Faces is now part of the RAK Art Collection, a space dedicated to continuity, memory, and contemporary artistic dialogue across the Middle East and North Africa. This moment marks both a personal milestone and an ongoing conversation between material, identity, and place.

Jan 282 min read

Exploring Materials for Sculptures in Modern Art

By Jamal Al-Yousif When I first began my journey into modern sculpture, I wasn’t only drawn to form—I was drawn to material . I became fascinated by how different substances carry memory, resistance, fragility, and meaning. Unlike traditional sculpture, which often relied on marble or bronze as symbols of permanence, modern sculpture opened the door to materials that feel closer to our inner lives: materials that fracture, reflect, bend, and endure—much like we do. In my own

Jan 204 min read

Interview with Albilad Newspaper

Jamal Al-Yousif: “Glass and Steel as Mirrors of the Human Soul in Contemporary Sculpture” Interview: Shireen Farid Monday, 1 December 2025 The Bahraini artist Jamal Al-Yousif is regarded as one of the leading sculptors working with glass and steel in the Kingdom of Bahrain. He has succeeded in combining a deep philosophical sensibility with refined technical mastery, producing sculptural works that resonate with the depths of the human psyche. In this interview, Al-Yousif s

Dec 23, 20254 min read