Talal Al Najjar is an artist and filmmaker from the Emirates, based between Los Angeles and Dubai. Driven by researching, archiving, and distorting, his interdisciplinary practice recontextualizes material culture, artifacts, and imagery, tinged with irony. Defamiliarization and the uncanny prompt new anthropological and material questions in his work, utilizing an absurdist-alien lens. He produces sculpture, video/film, sound, CGI animation, painting, and installation, in addition to writing, curation, and other media. Primary concerns include ideas around simulation, postproduction, poor images, counter-futurisms, and the contention of postmodern conditions. He received his MFA from ArtCenter College of Design (2023), and his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2021). He has exhibited work in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Chicago, and Los Angeles.