Hayfa Algwaiz

Hayfa Algwaiz (b. 1991, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) is an architect and painter whose work explores ideas of memory, absence, and the experience of place through drawing, painting, and spatial studies. With a formal background in architecture, she is particularly interested in how environments are perceived, remembered, and represented. Her practice aims to reveal what is often overlooked by focusing on themes of removal, redaction, and partial visibility.

Throughout her career, Algwaiz has been consistently drawn to the rendering of space—especially in its flat, two-dimensional representations—rather than its physical construction. Her work examines the duality of interior and exterior worlds: how individuals perceive their surroundings, and how opposites can reflect and influence one another. Domestic scenes in her work are rooted in introspections on culture, religion, family dynamics, and tradition, while exterior landscapes speak of progress, modernization, and the shaping of collective identity.

She frequently employs techniques such as rendering, axonometric projections, and realism to investigate the dimensions of time and space, as well as the dialectics between subjects and objects. During time spent abroad, she developed a heightened sensitivity to context—and to its absence. She observed how the removal of a place or object can paradoxically amplify its presence, evoking a stronger emotional resonance.

Al Gwaiz’s work centers on the overlooked rituals, habits, and mundane aspects of everyday life that quietly shape personal and collective identity.