Dina Ali named Patina Resident Artist 2026

“It’s a joy to see the Patina Art Residency give artists the time, space and encouragement to explore new possibilities. Supporting an artist at a pivotal moment can make a lasting difference, and it’s a privilege to be part of that journey.” said Maria Sukkar. 

The second edition of the Residency centres on the theme Rooted Realms, inviting artists to consider how place, identity and the environment shape one another. Each residency is rooted in its destination. At Patina Maldives, Fari Islands, inaugural winner Shezad Dawood is deepening his relationship with ocean conservation alongside the resort's on-site marine biologist. At Patina Osaka, Ali will join a hotel shaped by kisetsukan – the Japanese sensitivity to seasonal change – and explore humanity's relationship with the natural world through the changing seasons. Designed by Strickland and located beside Japan's historic Osaka Castle, Patina Osaka was recently named World's No.1 Best Hotel in the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2026. Ali will spend up to 30 days in residence, with full board and dedicated creative space.  

Ali trained in architecture and urban design before completing an MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. Her paintings consider how spatial and social fabrics intersect and evolve through negotiation and renewal, and how attachments to place, and its presences or absences, shape history, memory and longing. 

Growing up within an Arab-Japanese community, she experienced Japanese culture as part of the rhythm of childhood and her work brings Japanese patterns, papers and textiles together with motifs from her Arab heritage.  

“My relationship with home is very complicated because I’ve lived in 20 homes in 15 cities, and only visited my homeland for the first time in my life last month. So I have really lived longing for a place to belong,” says Ali. “A couple of years ago I went to Japan during the cherry blossom, and that felt so much like home. I was in a museum in Kyoto looking at the art, and all the paper that I grew up with, and I felt like this place knows me, gets me. I remember thinking then that my relationship to this culture has not ended yet, and wondering what will the next chapter be, and how will I make it happen? 

Materials are so loaded with meanings, with culture and with longing.  Japanese paper and fabric really speaks to me because it's like Syrian brocade, so I’m looking forward to spending time in Osaka and exploring pattern through Japanese fabric and paper in my compositions.” 

During her residency, Ali intends to explore Osaka as an interconnected landscape, where centuries-old craft traditions, contemporary urban life, waterways and seasonal change coexist and influence one another. Through walking, observation, collecting and engagement with local materials and people, she will investigate how a place can hold multiple layers of history, time and belonging simultaneously. 

One work created during, or meaningfully shaped by, the Residency will become part of the evolving Patina Collection, an artistic record of Patina’s destinations and the cultural and environmental contexts that shape them. It gives Patina a considered way to grow the collection with serious industry insight and reflects what modern patronage in hospitality can be: supporting artistic development while building a collection with depth and meaning.