MassArt Alum Rania Abdalla Kadafour Explores Memory and Identity Through Textile Sculpture
- Alumni in the News
- 3D Arts
- Fibers
MassArt alum Rania Abdalla Kadafour ’24 is featured in Boston Art Review for her distinctive soft-relief sculptures, which combine trapunto quilting, painted needlework, abstraction, and Sudanese cultural memory.
Working from her Jamaica Plain studio, Abdalla Kadafour creates tactile pieces that resist immediate interpretation and invite viewers to look closely, remain curious, and participate in making meaning. Works such as face/gaze, ZOLA, and Paper Doll Dress explore identity, language, cultural memory, assimilation, and the ways clothing can shape self-expression.
The article also highlights Abdalla Kadafour’s community-based practice. Since 2024, she has organized sewing circles that bring Black Bostonians together to create, reflect, and find connection through textile work.
Her latest work continues to examine the body, clothing, restriction, and play. A forthcoming exhibition opens in August at Lagoon New York in Brooklyn.
Learn more at Boston Art Review.
