Aida Muluneh's 'This Bloom I Borrow' Debuts at Efie Gallery Dubai

Award-winning Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh brings her extraordinary artistic perspective to Dubai with This Bloom I Borrow, exhibiting at Efie Gallery from 17 January and unveiling more than 10 never-before-seen artworks. Photography and printmaking come together in the evocative series, which celebrates her signature Afrofuturist aesthetic. Using painted backdrops and models covered in body paint, Muluneh produced the photographs in Abidjan, which were then brought to Dubai and further enhanced through silkscreen printing and hand-painting, completed in collaboration with The Workshop Dxb. The mixed-media pieces centre surreal imagery of bold and vibrant African women through vivid pigments and culturally-rooted iconography, architecture and textiles. “The exhibition reflects a deconstruction of what photography can be, using the medium as one might use a brushstroke to express ideas beyond the literal image,” shares Muluneh. “Having spent many years in the darkroom with my introduction to photography rooted in analogue processes, I felt compelled to return to creating images through a blend of digital and physical techniques. For me, this journey is not only about building a new collection, but also about revisiting the history of image production at a time when conversations around AI and image creation are becoming central.” Born in Addis Ababa, Muluneh lived across Cyprus, Greece, the UK, Yemen and Canada and later worked as a Washington Post photojournalist. In 2019, she became the first Black woman to co-curate the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition and in 2020, received the Royal Photographic Society award for curatorship. Her works are held in major collections, including at MoMA and the Smithsonian. Muluneh strives to use art to bring attention to deeper messages. Her Water Life series, in collaboration with WaterAid and H&M Foundation, addresses the difficulties of accessing clean water in some areas of Ethiopia. She is also the founder of Developing and Educating Society Through Art (Desta). Colour is a critical component of Muluneh’s work, with symbols like eyes, masks, keys, flowers and other ancestral motifs appearing in kaleidoscopic colours throughout This Bloom I Borrow, which has been timed to commemorate Efie Gallery’s 15th anniversary. Like her previous pieces, the stars of most of Muluneh’s images are female figures. “Through the women I photograph, I reflect fragments of myself, my cultural memories, my curiosities and the emotional landscapes I navigate,” she says. “In that sense, the female gaze is less a concept and more a vessel through which I explore and express my lived experience.” This story originally appeared in the January 2026 issue of Vogue Arabia