For Art Basel 2024, Marfa’ is showcasing a solo presentation by artist Tamara Al Samerraei.

The intricate layering of memory is a central part of Tamara al Samerraei’s work. In the series of works presented, she revisits old paintings by first photographing them and then creating new paintings based on these photographs. The artist is a reluctant voyeur, stalking her memories, now becoming ruins and as such, host to visitors other than herself alone.

She retraces the stage of past intimacies, the bed, the abandoned studio and other remnants, not only as an observer, repeating motifs to summon some kind of order; but also, as subject in the present tense, with current self-portraits, mediated by photographs captured by another.

Although deliberate in terms of their process and elements, a dreamlike uncertainty erupts in the paintings. As the artist surveys her memories-become-ruins, projecting, however tentatively, her own presence within them, she is shadowed by ambivalent figures, recurrent animal and child-like figures engaging in strange play. A sense of diffuse predation, of danger, hangs over her pursuit.

By arranging, rearranging, and embedding images of what was lost, the artist hopes to put this pursuit to rest.