SAF welcomes 2nd cohort for its Residency Programme 2025-2026

Selected through an open call, the local, regional and international artists who will form the cohort include Abdullah Tabaza, Azzah Salwaa, Gian Spina, Joar Songcuya, Monya Riachi, Rai, Richi Bhatia and Zenaéca Singh.

The Residency Programme supports artists pursuing experimental and interdisciplinary practices.

Azzah Salwaa explores the potential of storytelling through memory and archive, blending personal narratives alongside traditional and cultural practices. Spanning illustration, photography, video, performance and textile, her practice invites critical reflection on identity and the multifaceted experience of womanhood. She has exhibited in shows such as Notes on Becoming, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (2025); Senang Bersamamu (Happy Together), Selasar Sunaryo, Bandung (2025); Objects of Care, Backhaus Project, Berlin (2023); and Rasasastra UNION, Semesta Gallery, Jakarta (2022).

Abdullah Tabaza is a Palestinian architect and artist based in Amman whose practice spans drawing, photography, design and installation. Engaging with themes of ecology, displacement and memory, his work probes the fragile relations between people and the natural world. During his recent participation at the Darat al Funun Summer Academy in Amman, he developed and exhibited an installation at the group’s Open Studio at The Lab.

Gian Spina is a widely published writer, visual artist, poet and researcher investigating the erasures and silences embedded in historical narratives. He has taught in numerous institutions worldwide and participated in international residency programmes and exhibitions, including at Documenta 14, Athens; the MMAG Foundation, Amman; GEGENWARTE/PRESENCES, Chemnitz, Germany; and Al-Balad, Jeddah. His collection of poems Cavalos boiando no Nilo [Horses Floating on the Nile] released in 2024.

Joar Songcuya is a Visayan self-taught painter who combines painting, maritime expertise and personal narrative. A trained marine engineer, his work encompasses his experiences as a seaman while also exploring colonial legacies, Filipino labour migration and statelessness. Recent projects include Moments of Delay, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila; Musafiri: Of Travelers and Guests, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; At the Edge of Land, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai/Hayy Jameel, Jeddah; and Pilgrimage to the Ancient Seas, Art Central Hong Kong.

Monya Riachi’s recent work reflects on the entanglement of Victorian history with contemporary political and ecological changes across the Mediterranean. She is the recipient of the 2024 Lewisham Arthouse Postgraduate Award (UK) and the 2024 Boghossian Foundation Visual Arts Prize (Belgium/Lebanon). Based between the United Kingdom and Lebanon, her work has been exhibited internationally, including in Beirut, Glasgow and London. She holds an MFA with distinction from Glasgow School of Art.

Rai interweaves found materials, research, memory and fiction to explore spatial permeability. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at Experimenter, Kolkata; Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa; HH Artspaces, Goa; Gallery Espace, New Delhi; VIS Nordic Journal of Artistic Research; and Salzburg Summer Akademie, Austria. Based in Goa, Rai holds a Master of Design in Animation Film Design from the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, India.

Richi Bhatia’s practice spans drawing, performance, object-making, assemblage and culinary interventions, centring the body as a sensing tool navigating memory, illness, environment, labour, social systems and the market. Her works and performances have been featured in Dubai at Foundry, Gallery Isabelle and Al Serkal Cultural Foundation, as well as at New York University Abu Dhabi and Bikaner House, New Delhi, among others.

Zenaéca Singh’s work investigates the South African sugar economy’s complex connections to migration, colonialism, labour exploitation and gender. Her paintings, sculptures and installations often begin with family photographs that navigate the themes of history, identity and memory. Singh has completed an MFA from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. In 2023, her work was featured in Greatest Hits at Leeuwenhof Slave Lodge Remembrance Gallery, in collaboration with the Association of Visual Arts.