Dina Sami: The Multidisciplinary Artist Redefining Dubai’s Creative Scene

A multidisciplinary artist whose works adorn everything from magazine covers to the walls of cities, Dina’s illustrations and designs demand attention through bold, punchy sketches and nostalgic flair. This makes her one of the most exciting creative minds to watch in the UAE, as she harmoniously represents cultural elements to combine with contemporary artistry.

Dina began her journey as an artist in the UAE but gained international acceptance by pursuing her studies at the world-famous School of Visual Arts in New York. Global exposure broadened her perspective and armed her with the ability to break boundaries in many traditional arts. Today, she is a Creative Director, Illustrator, Animator, and Storyteller who expresses herself across multiple mediums-from packaging and apparel to digital spaces; work through which she pushes past genres. Dina uses multiple art forms: from graphic illustrations, intricate animations, to mixed media projects. Her style is bold, playful, and thought-provoking-and with a story that urges a viewer to dig deeper into the layers of meaning behind a piece. “I love experimenting with mediums to tell a story within a story that evokes an emotion,” she says, reflecting her constant drive for innovation and creativity.

Culturally, the city was the first inspiration of Dina’s work. As the city she spent her childhood in was ever-changing, so is the body of work that captures all facades of life in the city and all those connotations which it brings along. Much seen upon the walls of Dubai or read in print and digital media, much of Dina’s art appears to carry a nostalgia that sends one back to a simpler time. One of the most striking aspects of Dina’s work is the use of monochrome illustrations-the signature component of her style. This simplest of black and white works to help the message succeed through effective communication of deep emotion, without colour distraction. At other times, she does not pull back from color either, applying it only with purpose and with finesse in order to allow pieces to stand out for vibrancy and depth.

One who could fuse old culture nostalgia into modern art forms, and nowadays she is the hub of Dubai’s artistic life-from walls to digital fronts, her art is nowhere, catching the eye of an art enthusiast as well as a layman. She believes it is very essential that one creates such art which is accessible to one and all, so that each can find a piece of themselves in her art.

Today, Dina’s work adorns Dubai’s various ever-lively art scenes, from collaboration with brands to marketing agencies that try to exploit her unique style of storytelling about itself. Her work has been commissioned for magazine covers and branded campaigns and even public spaces to further validate her status as a key player in the local art world. One of the most significant contributions of hers to the Dubai art scene is being the Creative Director of her projects, imbuing a mix of her artistic vision with the needs of numerous clients. Whether it was working with corporate brands or non-profits, she applied the same passion and storytelling to the project, ensuring that her art always spoke to the viewer on a deeper level.

Dina Sami was unyielding creativity, also into endless exploration. Her work bridges time, as it connects the past and the future, the personal, and the universal-this is a gaping bridge indeed, which Dina bridges with her stories. Through her art, Dina continues telling stories which run perfectly in tandem with people’s lives, thus marking an influence on the shape of Dubai’s art scene to come.