SHERIN GUIRGUIS

Sherin Guirguis’ sculpture, Mashrabiya, will be on view in the recently opened Hossein Afshar Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from June 27 – November 29, 2026. In traditional Arabic and Islamic architecture, the mashrabiya is an intricate, latticed wooden window screen designed to let in air and light while shielding women in the domestic sphere from the public gaze. For Guirguis, the mashrabiya serves as a vital conceptual metaphor and formal device to explore intersectional feminism, cultural displacement, and the boundaries between public and private space. Guirguis replicates mashrabiya latticework to highlight the "visible absence" of the female body in public history. By carving these patterns into her art, she converts a mechanism of domestic confinement into an active site of feminist critique.