Art as aide-memoire: Abda Fayyaz’s works are reminders of the divine

Abda Fayyaz is one of the artists taking part in Perspectives – II, a celebration of art inaugurated on May 29 and ongoing at Capital Club, DIFC. A Pakistani national based in Dubai, she is a self-taught and award-winning artist; her work is a reflection of how she understands the universe and the constant changes and transformations that take place within and around us.

She works mainly in acrylic and her artworks meld classical subjects, contemporary styles and cutting edge techniques. Her pieces convey the message of interlinked energies: Nature’s mysteries and features of the cosmos, form a significant part of her canvas.

“Everything has a purpose, meaning and an important role to play, whether a grain of sand, a drop of water or the entire cosmos — we are here for a reason through which we all are closely connected. We all are one!” she says. An established artist with over 10 years of art practice, she has showcased her talent in nearly 20 exhibitions just only in the past three years.

She holds art talks and workshops and has won innumerable awards, including the Anna Molka Gallery Award (2022) and DC Aviation and All Futtaim Art Award (2022, in the Flight into Innovation Art competition) and her artwork has been recognised as being among the best at World Art Dubai, 2021. Abda Fayyaz connects with Gulf Today

What are the influences on your art?

The deepest influences on my art come not from the external world, but from the subtle worlds we often ignore - the realms of silence, intuition, and inner knowledge. Nature is one of my greatest teachers; I often observe how a leaf curls, how shadows stretch at different times of the day, or how stillness can have its own language. My work is also shaped by a desire to peel back the layers we wear to survive the outer world, and instead offer a gateway inward. The influences are universal rhythms, timeless truths, and a yearning for connection. Every line I draw, every layer I build, is an echo of that journey — a way to bridge the infinite and the intimate.

The Search Within — Red 2.

Does Rumi or other Sufis play a role in your art?

Rumi deeply resonates with me, as does Ibn Arabi and other Sufi mystics. Their words aren’t mere poetry — they are openings, reminders, living teachings. The Sufi idea that the Almighty is not out there but in here — within every cell and in every breath — is the same current I try to touch in my work.

What is the message of your works?

If I had to distill it into one word, the message would be: ‘Remember’. My work invites viewers to remember who they are beneath identity, conditioning, and distraction. It is a gentle nudge back to the sacred link that we all carry within us, a call to reconnect with the inner compass we often silence. The divine isn’t something you need to seek outside - it’s a remembering of what you’ve always carried. The canvas becomes a companion on that inner journey.

What roles do black, grey and white play in your art?

These colours are the spiritual language of the work. Black isn’t used as a symbol of emptiness or negativity. It is a space of potential, like the night sky or the womb. White in my work is not purity in the traditional sense – it is illumination, a sudden knowing, or the light that enters when we allow it. Grey, the space between, holds its own wisdom. It allows the conversation between shadow and light to unfold in a more nuanced way. Together, these tones act like prayer beads.

What made you turn to using red colour in your latest pieces?

Red came like a pulse — a vital, undeniable force that insisted on being seen and felt. Red didn’t arrive gently. It erupted. It brought fire, blood, and flesh. It’s primal and spiritual at once — the colour of roots and also of awakening. I didn’t choose red; it chose me. In the ‘Red Edition’, this colour acts as a mirror for all that we often suppress: desire, urgency, boldness, even action. It is the colour of the heart, of courage and also vulnerability. It brings with it not just energy, but a kind of sacred heat. Red is not a departure from my earlier works — it is a deepening.

Abda Fayyaz looks out into the world.

The calligraphy in your works do not belong to any particular school. Is this so?

My calligraphy is untethered from any formal tradition. I’m drawn to the ‘gesture’ of writing rather than the message itself. My scripts are closer to breathing or chanting than to writing. I’m not trying to be read — I’m trying to be felt. In that way, the calligraphy becomes an extension of my deeper philosophy: that truth doesn’t have to be explained to be understood. These cave like calligraphy elements speak to something older than language — something ancestral, intuitive, and timeless.

Can you tell us how you are evolving as an artist?

In the past, I might have sought validation or clarity before beginning a piece. Now, I allow myself to start without knowing where I’ll end. That shift — from control to surrender — has been the most significant part of my evolution. I no longer seek perfection; I seek truth.