FROM 26 FEB to 20 JUN '27 | Kunsthal Rotterdam will present an exhibition by Berlin-based artist Monira Al Qadiri from 26 February to 20 June 2027. Through sculpture, video and installation, Al Qadiri examines how the oil industry has shaped culture, identity, economics and the landscapes around us.
Oil as part of everyday life
Oil sits at the centre of Monira Al Qadiri's work, but not simply as an industrial material. Her exhibition looks at how deeply petroleum has become embedded in modern life, from fuel and transport to cosmetics, shoes and mobile phones.
Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1983 and now based in Berlin, Al Qadiri grew up in Kuwait. She witnessed first-hand how the arrival and expansion of oil refineries changed the environment and society around her.
That personal connection has become one of the recurring themes in her work. Rather than treating oil purely as an economic resource, Al Qadiri explores the way it influences identity, memory, power and ideas about progress.
Do you run a business? RotterdamStyle is looking for a main sponsor. Get exclusive visibility across our website for a fixed fee. Interested? Contact us 🤝
From oil tankers to giant molecules
Al Qadiri works across sculpture, video and installation, often using striking colour and oversized forms to approach subjects that can otherwise feel abstract or distant.
Her visual language brings together history, popular culture and science fiction. In the Rotterdam exhibition, visitors can expect magnified molecular forms, highly polished shapes recalling industrial drill bits, floating oil tankers and video works concerned with oil extraction.
The result places the visual beauty and almost futuristic appearance of petroleum culture alongside harder questions about its environmental and economic consequences.
Growing up with the oil industry
Al Qadiri's childhood in Kuwait plays an important role in the ideas behind her work. The rapid development of the oil industry transformed the country's landscape, economy and daily life, giving her a close view of how one raw material can reshape an entire society.
That experience allows her work to move between the personal and the global. Oil becomes a way of thinking about where wealth comes from, who controls it and what happens when landscapes and cultures become tied to the extraction of natural resources.
At the same time, her work does not present petroleum only as something dark or destructive. Its surfaces can be colourful, glossy and seductive, reflecting the attraction and technological promise that have long surrounded the oil economy.
Do you run a business? RotterdamStyle is looking for a main sponsor. Get exclusive visibility across our website for a fixed fee. Interested? Contact us 🤝
Power, economics and ecology
Across her practice, Al Qadiri examines the tension between the allure of oil and its wider impact. Questions of power and economics sit alongside concerns about ecology and environmental change.
By exaggerating industrial forms and presenting them almost as precious objects, she draws attention to how familiar petroleum has become. The material is everywhere, yet the processes behind it often remain largely invisible in everyday life.
The exhibition at Kunsthal offers a chance to encounter those systems through objects and images rather than statistics alone.
When to see Monira Al Qadiri
The Monira Al Qadiri exhibition runs from 26 February to 20 June 2027 in HALL 2 at Kunsthal Rotterdam.
