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May 31, 2023
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Naima Morelli
Starting this year, Abu Dhabi is building a contemporary art scene tending to the local community, and is positioning itself as the main taste-maker in the discourse on the Global South in the Middle East
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May 16, 2023
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Naima Morelli
Alotaibi doesn't sheer away from using image distortion and experimental printing processes in order to create portrayals of male figures that contend with evolving conceptions of Arab masculinity
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April 27, 2023
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Naima Morelli
A collective show at CUE Art Foundation in New York reflects on the hybrid identities of Arab Americans. Called "A thought is a memory", the show is curated by...
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March 22, 2023
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Naima Morelli
The exhibition "Hijrah: In the Footsteps of the Prophet" and the documentary "In the Footsteps of the Beloved" are embracing historical and scientific evidence, signalling a change in Saudi...
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March 14, 2023
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Naima Morelli
The Libyan Pantry Project in Tripoli's old city recovers the forgotten histories associated with Libya's consumer culture from the early 1960s to the late '90s. It opened on 27...
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January 3, 2023
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Naima Morelli
For the next few weeks, the 3rd Ramallah Art Fair is creating a bridge between the local and the international art worlds to nourish Palestinian artists and their collector...
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November 23, 2022
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Naima Morelli
The new Dubai show of Ramallah-based artist Bashar Alhroub looks at his native city Jerusalem as a place with multiple identities. "When you are in Jerusalem," Alhroub told me,...
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October 31, 2022
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Naima Morelli
With its two leading art fairs, Paris + Art Basel and ASIA NOW, as well as exhibitions scattered around the city, Paris Art Week 2022 had an extensive presence...
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October 14, 2022
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Naima Morelli
Women artists are gaining more and more relevance and traction in the contemporary art scene in Oman. Although the history of Omani women in art is fairly recent, their...
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September 25, 2022
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Naima Morelli
Emirati curator Alia Zaal says her work has been inspired by her father's weak eyesight as 'he was forced to approach art a bit differently, paying a lot of attention to detail'
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Videos & Photo Stories
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May 25, 2022
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Naima Morelli
It all started with a simple conversation among Palestinian artists some twenty years ago. It was right after the outbreak of the Second Intifada that some of the most...
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April 28, 2022
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Naima Morelli
At the very centre of Palazzo Mora, an old Venetian building, I stepped across the front yard and then through rooms where workers were still setting up artworks from...
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March 17, 2022
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Naima Morelli
Where does a refugee find her homeland? Perhaps in unexpected places; a memory of the country might emerge through the most mundane gestures, or even from a simple interaction...
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February 14, 2022
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Naima Morelli
We inhabit a burning world, where everything is constantly dying while also being alive, brightly so. From our emotions to our thoughts and feelings, from our bodies to the...
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January 26, 2022
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Naima Morelli
When we think of political art from Palestine or elsewhere, very rarely do abstract paintings come to mind. We would rather think of militant canvases in a realistic style,...
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December 7, 2021
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Naima Morelli
The late Lebanese artist Etel Adnan once said that, "We are used to living in a world of 'either, or', but we are complex beings, multiple beings, diverse beings."...
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November 23, 2021
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Naima Morelli
What does it mean to be Libyan? How to reconstruct a sense of belonging for the country and its people, starting from the deepest roots of Libyan culture, while...
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October 11, 2021
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Naima Morelli
Palestinian artist Hazem Harb doesn't try to define the idea of Palestine in his work. "For me, Palestine just is," he tells me. "I'm interested in its history and...
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August 26, 2021
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Naima Morelli
Many of us have misconceptions and preconceived ideas about the art scene in the Gulf countries. Hence, when we see the work of a gallery like Hunna/ هُنَّ —...
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May 25, 2021
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Naima Morelli
When we think of the genre of magical realism, we often think about South American literature, where spirits of the past, food and social issues blur together. However, for...
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April 1, 2021
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Naima Morelli
Tripoli-born art entrepreneur and educator Shatha Sbeta is very clear about her objective. "I want to bring Libyan female artists and their artworks — as well as their stories...
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March 19, 2021
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Naima Morelli
It has been said that artists always work on exploring a single idea throughout their entire life; an idea connected deeply to the core of their being; and they...
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January 2, 2021
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Naima Morelli
MEMO speaks to London-based Libyan gallerist and curator Najlaa Elageli
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December 16, 2020
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Naima Morelli
Artist, director and poet Hind Shoufani insists that her Palestinian-ness is a political act. "It is a choice to be on this side of history," she tells me, "whether...
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November 18, 2020
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Naima Morelli
In ancient mythology it was believed that salamanders are born from fire. No metaphor would be more fitting for the Lebanese artists who need to rise from the ashes...
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October 1, 2020
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Naima Morelli
"It was one humiliation too many," is how artist Nadia Khiari recalls the speech of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 13 January 2011, following the street...
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September 25, 2020
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Naima Morelli
"Just like the seasons of the Earth, there is a time and place for everything," says Lebanese artist Zena El-Khalil. "Winter has the tendency to create the most amount...
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April 5, 2020
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Naima Morelli
For multimedia artist Steve Sabella, these hard times require us to access the potential of our imagination in order to conjure up our collective future. His works of art...
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March 17, 2020
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Naima Morelli
Palestinian ambassador Ali Kazak arrived in Australia in 1970, at the peak of the Palestinian revolutionary political and military activity. He found that the Zionist narrative was prevalent in...
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March 4, 2020
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Naima Morelli
Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh's striking photograph titled "The past, the present and the future" depicts three women with blue skin; it is extremely evocative, and reminiscent of the painting...
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January 31, 2020
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Naima Morelli
’Even today it’s really small. In Algeria there is no real cultural strategy, and outside Algiers it is really difficult to do something in the arts. But over the past few years the situation has started to change, thanks to a few private initiatives’
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October 28, 2019
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Naima Morelli
Do we need another biennale when the landscape of such exhibitions worldwide is already saturated? Why do we need one in Morocco? What would such an event in al-maghrib...
Starting this year, Abu Dhabi is building a contemporary art scene tending to the local community, and is positioning itself as the main taste-maker in the discourse on the Global South in the Middle East![Hawazin Alotaibi, an emerging Saudi American artist ,based in Brixton, London [Phoebe Wingrove/An Effort Art 2]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/My-project-1-4.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Alotaibi doesn't sheer away from using image distortion and experimental printing processes in order to create portrayals of male figures that contend with evolving conceptions of Arab masculinity![Works by Zeinab Saab as part of A thought is a memory, curated by Noel Maghathe. Presented by CUE Art Foundation, 2023 [Photo by Filip Wolak]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/My-project-1-5.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
A collective show at CUE Art Foundation in New York reflects on the hybrid identities of Arab Americans. Called "A thought is a memory", the show is curated by...
The exhibition "Hijrah: In the Footsteps of the Prophet" and the documentary "In the Footsteps of the Beloved" are embracing historical and scientific evidence, signalling a change in Saudi...![A new show in Tripoli looks at 70 years of Libya’s consumer culture. [Photo By Najlaa Elageli]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/A-new-show-in-Tripoli-looks-at-70-years-of-Libyas-consumer-culture.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The Libyan Pantry Project in Tripoli's old city recovers the forgotten histories associated with Libya's consumer culture from the early 1960s to the late '90s. It opened on 27...![The third edition of Ramallah Art Fair at Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah [Instagram/ramallah_artfair]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screenshot_20230103_095931-e1672744236261.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
For the next few weeks, the 3rd Ramallah Art Fair is creating a bridge between the local and the international art worlds to nourish Palestinian artists and their collector...![Bashar Alhroub [Zawyeh gallery]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/portrait-with-sabeel-qaytobay-2-scaled-e1669216667126.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The new Dubai show of Ramallah-based artist Bashar Alhroub looks at his native city Jerusalem as a place with multiple identities. "When you are in Jerusalem," Alhroub told me,...![Le Monnaye de Paris, ASIA NOW’s location [Naima Morelli]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1e6e4d869ad62566-photo-e1667220053301.jpeg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
With its two leading art fairs, Paris + Art Basel and ASIA NOW, as well as exhibitions scattered around the city, Paris Art Week 2022 had an extensive presence...
Women artists are gaining more and more relevance and traction in the contemporary art scene in Oman. Although the history of Omani women in art is fairly recent, their...
Emirati curator Alia Zaal says her work has been inspired by her father's weak eyesight as 'he was forced to approach art a bit differently, paying a lot of attention to detail'
It all started with a simple conversation among Palestinian artists some twenty years ago. It was right after the outbreak of the Second Intifada that some of the most...![Nameer Qassim, “Enough”, 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 100x100 cm [Courtesy of The Palestinian Museum US]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Nameer-Qassim-Enough-2020-Acrylic-on-canvas-100x100-cm.-1-e1651149649212.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
At the very centre of Palazzo Mora, an old Venetian building, I stepped across the front yard and then through rooms where workers were still setting up artworks from...
Where does a refugee find her homeland? Perhaps in unexpected places; a memory of the country might emerge through the most mundane gestures, or even from a simple interaction...![Diana Al Hadid [Diego Flores]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/dania.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
We inhabit a burning world, where everything is constantly dying while also being alive, brightly so. From our emotions to our thoughts and feelings, from our bodies to the...
When we think of political art from Palestine or elsewhere, very rarely do abstract paintings come to mind. We would rather think of militant canvases in a realistic style,...
The late Lebanese artist Etel Adnan once said that, "We are used to living in a world of 'either, or', but we are complex beings, multiple beings, diverse beings."...
What does it mean to be Libyan? How to reconstruct a sense of belonging for the country and its people, starting from the deepest roots of Libyan culture, while...![Palestinian artist Hazem Harb [Hazem Harb]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hazem.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Palestinian artist Hazem Harb doesn't try to define the idea of Palestine in his work. "For me, Palestine just is," he tells me. "I'm interested in its history and...
Many of us have misconceptions and preconceived ideas about the art scene in the Gulf countries. Hence, when we see the work of a gallery like Hunna/ هُنَّ —...
When we think of the genre of magical realism, we often think about South American literature, where spirits of the past, food and social issues blur together. However, for...
Tripoli-born art entrepreneur and educator Shatha Sbeta is very clear about her objective. "I want to bring Libyan female artists and their artworks — as well as their stories...
It has been said that artists always work on exploring a single idea throughout their entire life; an idea connected deeply to the core of their being; and they...![Image from the exhibition "Retracing A Disappearing Landscape", held in Madrid and Cordoba, in 2018 and 2019 [image: Najlaa Elageli]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/D8A5230-scaled-e1609600172201.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
MEMO speaks to London-based Libyan gallerist and curator Najlaa Elageli![Artist, director and poet Hind Shoufani, 14 October 2017 [Sukoonmag/Twitter]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hind-Shoufani.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Artist, director and poet Hind Shoufani insists that her Palestinian-ness is a political act. "It is a choice to be on this side of history," she tells me, "whether...
In ancient mythology it was believed that salamanders are born from fire. No metaphor would be more fitting for the Lebanese artists who need to rise from the ashes...
"It was one humiliation too many," is how artist Nadia Khiari recalls the speech of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 13 January 2011, following the street...![Whirling on site at Beit Beirut [Zena el Khalil]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Zena-el-Khalil-whirling-on-site-at-Beit-Beirut-e1601031138142.png?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
"Just like the seasons of the Earth, there is a time and place for everything," says Lebanese artist Zena El-Khalil. "Winter has the tendency to create the most amount...![Palestinian artist Steve Sabella [Naima Morelli]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Palestinian-artist-Steve-Sabella.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
For multimedia artist Steve Sabella, these hard times require us to access the potential of our imagination in order to conjure up our collective future. His works of art...![Exhibition of posters at gallery [Hareth Yousef]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Photo-by-Hareth-Yousef-تصوير-حارث-يوسف.-003-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Palestinian ambassador Ali Kazak arrived in Australia in 1970, at the peak of the Palestinian revolutionary political and military activity. He found that the Zionist narrative was prevalent in...![Photographer Aida Muluneh's “The past, the present and the future” [Courtesy of Aida Muluneh Studio]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ARTIST-AIDA-MULUNEH.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh's striking photograph titled "The past, the present and the future" depicts three women with blue skin; it is extremely evocative, and reminiscent of the painting...
’Even today it’s really small. In Algeria there is no real cultural strategy, and outside Algiers it is really difficult to do something in the arts. But over the past few years the situation has started to change, thanks to a few private initiatives’
Do we need another biennale when the landscape of such exhibitions worldwide is already saturated? Why do we need one in Morocco? What would such an event in al-maghrib...