ABOUT

Najlaa El-Ageli, an architect (AA Dip) with over twenty years of experience in the profession, founded Noon Arts Projects in 2012. A small private arts foundation, with a mission to bring the best of contemporary art from the MENA region, from both emerging and established artists, and expose it to the world stage.

Collaborating with various cultural foundations and galleries, she has successfully curated over 24 projects. She has collaborated with the London based Shubbak festival 2023 & 2015, The Africa Centre in London 2023, The Nour Festival 2015 curating the solo retrospective exhibition "Birthmark Theory" for the late Libyan/Canadian artist Arwa Abouon, The Benetton Foundation 2016 Italy for the Imago Mundi Libya project and went on to curate two successful group exhibitions with Casa Arabe in Spain between 2018 and 2020. One of them, 'Pop Art from North Africa', with a collective of 19 artists from North Africa exploring the phenomenon of Pop Art; and, the other one titled 'Retracing A Disappearing Landscape', featuring another collective of 18 artists with a link to Libya, addressing collective memory and personal histories relating to modern day Libya.

From 2020 till 2022 Najlaa collaborated with Sulger Buel Gallery in London as an independent curator, she curated "Waves", a collective of five emerging North African artists, "Soul Taming" for renowned and established Egyptian/ Nubian artist Fathi Hassan, "Darna" Installation exhibition for French Moroccan street artist COMBO and most recent “The Alternative Museum of the Sudan” for Sudanese/Egyptian artist Amado Alfadni.

Najlaa produced and co curated two major exhibitions with engagement programmes in 2023 . The Libyan Pantry in Tripoli, Libya and Totalitarian Props at The Africa Centre, London and partnering with the London Shubbak Festival.

Respected for the quality of her exhibitions through Noon Arts, Najlaa was soon offered projects to curate the work of artists who hail from the wider MENA region.

Najlaa aims to continue to source the best of both emerging and established artwork from Libya as well as the diverse terrain that is the MENA region and its many diaspora communities spread across the Western world.

Najlaa, was selected to be a member of the jury for ‘The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) 2016 and 2019, and sat as member of the board for The London Prints Studio from 2017 to 2020.