Turkish Jordanian artist Fahrelnissa Zeid (1901–1991) was trained in both Istanbul and Paris and became a pivotal figure within the Turkish avant-garde as well as the development of Modernism in the mid-20th-century. Her first solo exhibition was held in Istanbul in 1945, and in 1954 she was the first woman to be the subject of a solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London.

Her work and legacy returned to the limelight in 2017 with a major eponymous retrospective at the Tate Modern, which was complemented by the publication of the artist’s biography by art historian Adila Laïdi-Hanieh. Now, Laïdi-Hanieh is the curator behind a new gallery exhibition, “Immersion,” dedicated to Zeid at Dirimart—the artist’s first solo gallery show in London this century.

Showcasing works produced across a range of styles and periods from Zeid’s career, several pieces going on view have never before been publicly exhibited, offering an invaluable opportunity and insight into her singular creative practice.

Ahead of the show, we reached out to Laïdi-Hanieh to learn more about her personal relationship to the artist, as well as what went into bringing the exhibition at Dirimart to life.

Left: Fahrelnissa Zeid in her London studio (1953). Photo: George Parmiter. Raad Zeid Al-Hussein Collection. Right: Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, Ph.D. Courtesy of Dirimart.

You published Zeid’s biography in 2017 to coincide with the Tate Modern retrospective. What is your connection to, and relationship with the artist? What do you find about her work specifically so compelling?

My connection with Fahrelnissa Zeid is incredibly personal. I was a painting student of hers in my mid-teens when I lived in Jordan, and she was a powerful presence in my life at that time. However, after graduation, life took me in different directions, and I only really reconnected with her work when I was finishing my PhD dissertation and re-read what had been written about her practice during her lifetime.

I was quite struck by some of the anachronisms, orientalism, and sexism, and more generally by the discrepancy with the visual evidence of her oeuvre, as well as with the person I knew. So I felt that her career really deserved to be revisited and better understood, something I’ve been dedicated to since 2016.

Fahrelnissa Zeid, Adam and Eve and the Broken World (1948). © Estate of Fahrelnissa Zeid. Photo: Melissa Castro Duarte. Courtesy of Dirimart.

How would you describe the curatorial starting point for this project with Dirimart London? Has this evolved or changed over the course of bringing “Immersion” to life?

The starting point was sourcing the works. Both Dirimart and I really wanted to exhibit works still owned by her estate, so I began the selection process with those that had been rarely exhibited or photographed. From there, I chose works that could tell a story about the lesser-known aspects of her practice, reconciling diversity with coherence.

The simplest way to describe the thread, and what ultimately informed the title of the exhibition, is the immersive universes that Zeid was drawn to and created in her expressionist practice, across registers and media.

Fahrelnissa Zeid, detail of Adam and Eve and the Broken World (1948). © Estate of Fahrelnissa Zeid. Photo: Melissa Castro Duarte. Courtesy of Dirimart.

While Zeid was of course the subject of a major retrospective at Tate, this show marks the first gallery solo dedicated to her work this century in the U.K. Did the importance of this moment inform or influence how you curated the exhibition?

The Tate show was nine years ago now, and in that time so much has happened. Many works by Zeid have been rediscovered, restored, retrieved from private collections, and entered the market. Access to her works has also been greatly advanced by social media and online sources, with images of her monumental kinetic geometric abstractions and her late-career hieratic portraits now widely circulating.

I was therefore mindful of the need to provide a fresh experience for a 2026 gallery visitor, by enriching viewers’ experience through a selection that goes deeper into segments of Zeid’s practice that may be less well known to the general public.

What works in the show are your personal favorites, or you see as the most significant?

There are many. It’s impossible to choose. Some works are favorites stylistically, because I can track through them the evolution of Zeid’s technique, process, and mood. Others are particularly important to this show because they were first exhibited in London galleries and have not been seen since for decades. So it’s a mix, and I’d rather leave the choice of favorites to visitors.

Fahrelnissa Zeid, Alice in Wonderland (1955). © Estate of Fahrelnissa Zeid. Photo: Melissa Castro Duarte. Courtesy of Dirimart.

From your extensive experience researching and curating Zeid, is there anything specific about her life or practice that you think viewers and readers should know going in to better understand her work?

I always associated Zeid with other Global South female modernists such as Tarsila do Amaral, Frida Kahlo, and Amrita Sher-Gil. They share a great deal in common. However, Zeid differs from them in two respects. First, her career expanded in the late 1940s when she was able to ride the abstraction wave and explore all the opportunities it afforded: lyrical abstraction, geometric and gestural work, abstract landscape, strange motifs, proto-op art, and experiments with canvas scale. Abstraction was particularly suited to her interest in color, her exalted temperament, her playfulness, and her need to surpass herself.

The second difference is that, unlike the other three artists, she was not primarily interested in working through national-cultural specificities in dialogue with Modernism. Instead, she focused on developing her practice according to her own subjective, spiritual conception of the artistic process. I hope people can appreciate her as the unique figure of 20th-century modernism that she was.

Fahrelnissa Zeid, Storm (1962). © Estate of Fahrelnissa Zeid. Photo: Melissa Castro Duarte. Courtesy of Dirimart.

What do you hope visitors of “Immersion” take away with them?

Pleasure, and joy at having an up-close encounter with these exceptional works and their dialogue with each other; their technical virtuosity and their radical presence. I hope visitors also notice the versatility of the registers Zeid worked in, and the thematic leitmotifs she pursued throughout her practice.

“Fahrelnissa Zeid: Immersion” is on view at Dirimart, London, April 21–May 30, 2026.