Lamya Gargash was born in 1982 in Dubai, U.A.E. She earned a B.S. in visual communication from the American University of Sharjah, U.A.E., in 2004 and a M.A. in communication design from Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of Arts London, in 2007. She lives and works in Dubai.
Concerned with the relics of an ever self-renewing architecture, Gargash documents the forgotten spaces in public and private realms in Emirati society. Throughout her career, she has won a number of awards for her work in film and photography. At the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), her series Familial, which documents every one-star hotel in the U.A.E., was featured in the U.A.E.¹s first Venice Biennale exhibition, It¹s Not You, It¹s Me. In 2004 she received first prize in the Emirates Film Competition, as well as a Special Recognition award in Dubai Media City¹s Ibda¹a Media Students Awards for her movie Wet Tiles. Her first artist book, Presence (Dubai: The Third Line, 2006), is a photographic series documenting recently vacated houses and structures in the U.A.E. that have been abandoned or left for demolition. Gargash¹s work has been included in several group exhibitions and film festivals, including View From Inside, Contemporary Arab photography, Video and Mixed Media Art, FotoFest 2014 Biennial Houston, Texas, USA; I Exist (in Some Way) (2013), The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK, in partnership with Look/13, the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival and Belgian Nomadic Arts Centre, Moussem International Photography Festival; A Light unto Nations Photography Show (2007), Toronto, Canada. She participated in several film festivals such as Locarno Film Festival, Locarno, Switzerland; Osaka Film Festival, Osaka, Japan; Amsterdam Arab Film Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Paris Arab Film Festival, Paris, France and Dubai International Film Festival, Dubai, UAE. Throughout her career. Her series Presence was presented in solo shows at Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Cologne, in 2010 and Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy, in 2011. Another series, Through the Looking Glass, was exhibited in a solo exhibition at The Third Line, Dubai, in 2012. She has taken part in many photo essays and publications such as The Uncommon Guidebook Dubai Edition & Harpers Bazaar Art.