Fakhriya Al-Yahyai has had a passion for art since childhood. She joined the first batch of art students at Sultan Qaboos University’s department of art education in the 1990s.
At the time, the young student did not much care that some of her relatives questioned the merit of her chosen field, which they deemed unimportant. But Al-Yahyai continued her studies and became one of the most prominent names in the plastic arts in the Gulf region, in art practice and teaching alike.
Al-Yahyai is proud of being the first academic artist and researcher specializing in the plastic arts in the Sultanate of Oman. “The path to success was difficult, but I was determined to keep going. I wanted to succeed as a mother, a wife, an artist, and an academic.”
After graduating ranked first in her department in 1995, Al-Yahyai joined the faculty as a teaching assistant. She later obtained a master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wales and De Montfort University, in Britain.