Mona Taha’s practice moves fluidly between drawing and painting, and across different media such as charcoal, ink, gouache, watercolor, and collage, among others. Her work is both figurative and atmospheric, balancing a distinctive sensuality with a raw, unguarded honesty.
Process and material are central to her work. She often works intuitively, letting fluid mediums spread, stain, and settle unpredictably while building compositions through layering, interruption, and response. Collage, often composed of offcuts and remnants from earlier works, plays a central role in her recent practice. It introduces fragments that simultaneously conceal and disclose, suggesting incompletion and rupture as generative forces.
Rooted in autobiography, her work explores identity, femininity, self-discovery, and transformation. For Taha, making art is a therapeutic process, allowing space for reflection, confrontation, and growth.
While earlier works often centered on portraiture and the body as sites of inquiry, her recent paintings expand this exploration outward. Figures appear embedded within their environments, dissolving into and emerging from landscapes that act not as backdrop but as presence and structure.
Taha’s work continues to evolve as an intimate yet expansive exploration of selfhood. It opens toward broader ideas of connection, resilience, and renewal. Through this, she encourages deeper self-awareness and a reclamation of identity, especially for women navigating the tension between societal expectations and inner truth.
She has shown her work in Surfaces (Afriart Gallery, 2019), Where the Wild Things are (Afriart Gallery, 2022), Echo (Jenkins Johnson Projects NYC, 2022), Shapes of Water (Afriart Gallery, 2023), and Eastern Voices: Contemporary Art from East Africa (Addis Fine Art, London, 2023). Besides, she has participated in Art Basel Miami Beach, Liste Art Fair Basel, Art Paris, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair New York and London, Art X Lagos, Abu Dhabi Art, and FNB Joburg.
Selected Press:
Marques Hardin for Manifesto! An Art Publication fromArtgence: Artist Spotlight: Mona Taha. 2021
1-54 New York Studio Visit Series: Mona Taha (2021).
Imara Africa Blog: African art on show - Spotlight on Art XLagos. 2021.
New African Magazine: Artists to watch at this year’s 1-54Contemporary African Art Fair. 2021.
The Art Kultured: 100 Days of Women Artists – Mona Taha. 2021.
