Amna AlBaker Qatari, b. 1996

There is something unmistakably sacred about walking into Amna AlBaker’s studio. Not in the religious sense—but in the way that scent, sound, and space can hold room for vulnerability. The air is often perfumed heavily and heavenly with incense. Not to freshen, nor to welcome guests. It is Amna’s own ritual: to cleanse, to claim, and to prepare. In her studio, the act of burning incense becomes a tool, an instrument, a mark-maker. She burns her words into fabric, texts written like smoke: fleeting, ghostly, yet permanent. Amna’s practice leans...