
About Zeinab Zarei
Dubai-based Art Director and creativedesigner and material researcher with a background in Industrial Design. Her practice explores how geometry, folding, and material behavior can transform inherited visual languages into contemporary spatial and wearable forms.
Working across paper, textiles, leather, and other flexible materials, she develops wearable sculptures, spatial structures, and experimental material systems through a process of bottom-up morphological research. Rather than imposing predetermined forms, she allows structure to emerge through the interaction between geometry, material, and making.
Drawing from the geometric heritage of Iran and the folding traditions of Japan, her work investigates how cultural memory can be embodied through material transformation. By translating historical visual systems into contemporary experiences, she examines the relationship between heritage, perception, the body, and space.
Her work has been presented through exhibitions, research projects, and collaborative initiatives. She has received international recognition, including the International Design Awards (IDA), and is a recipient of the UAE Golden Visa for Creatives.
Upcoming Exhibition, Osaka
Zeinab Zarei will present her wearable art as part of the upcoming OSAKA Group Exhibition at Arrival Gallery in Osaka, Japan, from 16–19 October 2026. The exhibition brings together contemporary artists and creative practices, offering a platform for Zarei to showcase her work at the intersection of art, fashion, material exploration, and the body within an international gallery setting.
The piece brings together Iranian miniature painting, Shahnameh imagery, traditional tilework and Japanese folding traditions, translating them into a folded textile structure that sits between garment, sculpture and architecture. Its deep blue recalls both Persian lapis lazuli and Japanese ai-iro indigo, treating geometry as a living carrier of cultural memory.
Beyond the Portfolio
A closer look at my ongoing creative practice, experiments, collaborations,
and the ideas shaping my work beyond finished projects.
Location
Arjan, Al Barsha South
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Follow the journey
@ZeiinabZareii