Naima Morelli
Naima Morelli is an arts writer and journalist who specialises in contemporary art from Asia-Pacific and the MENA region.
She has written for the Financial Times, Al Jazeera, the Art Newspaper, ArtAsiaPacific, Internazionale and Il Manifesto, among others, and is a regular contributor to Plural Art Mag and Middle East Eye as well as writing curatorial texts for galleries.
Items by Naima Morelli
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- December 7, 2021 Naima Morelli
Painting in Arabic: the life and work of the late Lebanese artist Etel Adnan
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.” Her entire life demonstrated that maxim. Etel Adnan passed away last month, and is being remembered by the Guggenheim Museum with...
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- November 23, 2021 Naima Morelli
'I am Libya': 24-year-old artist Shefa Salem re-imagines Libyan history
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 preserving diversity? These are the questions that artist, Shefa Salem, is grappling with for her first solo show I am Libya,...
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- October 11, 2021 Naima Morelli
Power does not defeat memory: interview with Palestinian artist Hazem Harb
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 nationalism, but I don’t dwell on them by making straightforward political art. In my work, I’m trying to represent the...
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- August 26, 2021 Naima Morelli
The unseen and the un-thought: Hunna/ هُنَّ gallery represents powerful women artists from the Gulf
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 — founded this year and representing eight women artists from the Gulf — we open our eyes in disbelief. How can...
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- May 25, 2021 Naima Morelli
Magical realism and the uncovering of pre-Islamic mythology: interview with Emirati artist Moza Almatrooshi
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 Emirati artist Moza Almatrooshi, this blending of imagination and everyday life is something that has always been under the skin...
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- April 1, 2021 Naima Morelli
Art as a force for Libyan women’s empowerment: interview with Shatha Sbeta
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 — out to the world through commerce,” she tells me. Sbeta is the founder of De-Orientalizing Art, the online gallery and...
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- March 19, 2021 Naima Morelli
The brighter side of Arab cinema: interview with Palestinian American director Suha Araj
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 keep on proposing it in different forms. This is definitely the case with Palestinian American film director Suha Araj. “For me,...
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- January 2, 2021 Naima Morelli
Najlaa Elageli and expanding the perception of contemporary Libyan art
MEMO speaks to London-based Libyan gallerist and curator Najlaa Elageli...
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- December 16, 2020 Naima Morelli
Palestinian-American director Hind Shoufani tells MEMO about her new documentary
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 we triumph or not, whether I carry some piece of identification paper with blue colours on it, or green colours...
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- November 18, 2020 Naima Morelli
Samandal: Lebanese graphic novelists rise from the ashes
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 at this time. Samandal — the Arabic word for salamander – is thus the name that a group of Lebanese...
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- October 1, 2020 Naima Morelli
Nadia Khiari’s satirical cats recount the contradictions of today’s Tunisia
“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 protests and immediately before he fled the country. She transformed the rage and indignation of the moment into sharp irony...
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- September 25, 2020 Naima Morelli
‘Spring will come, but it is the grieving process that will dictate when,’ says Lebanese artist Zena El-Khalil
“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 of discomfort for us. The trepidation of the unknown can bring about anxiety and frustration. However, this phase is absolutely...
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- April 5, 2020 Naima Morelli
‘The era of essence, imagination and hard work’: interview with Palestinian artist Steve Sabella
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 reflecting the hardships of the Palestinians become universal metaphors for global rebirth. “We are in the era of something new,” says...
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- March 17, 2020 Naima Morelli
Palestine’s recent history through political landscape posters
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 public opinion, propagating a biased portrayal of the events unfolding in occupied Palestine. He decided to engage in efforts to...
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- March 4, 2020 Naima Morelli
The past, present and future of Ethiopia by artist Aïda Muluneh
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 “The three ages of Woman” by Gustav Klimt. The photo contains pop-culture elements, calling to mind the comic book character...
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- January 31, 2020 Naima Morelli
Defusing violence through humour is one aspect of artist Massinissa Selmani’s work
’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 Naima Morelli
Inaugural Rabat Biennale show rewrites the rules of the contemporary art game
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 al aqsa – the far west of the Arab world — look like? These were the questions that French-Algerian curator, philosopher,...
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- October 24, 2019 Naima Morelli
Libya. Back Home uses theatre to tackle collective memory
In the spirit of the Festival – born as a multimedia platform – Libya. Back Home brings multimedia art to the stage...
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- July 23, 2019 Naima Morelli
Igniting Casablanca’s art scene: interview with Yasmine Laraqui
Born in 1989 in Casablanca, Yasmine's strength is the open-mindedness and determination typical of her generation...
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- June 26, 2019 Naima Morelli
New directions for the Palestinian Museum
Interview with director Dr Adila Laïdi Hanieh...
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- May 13, 2019 Naima Morelli
Artists get political at the 2019 Venice Biennale
The 2019 Venice Biennale has asked artists to step into the socio-political realm, in the middle of far-right Matteo Salvini’s Italy. And they have done it, dismantling Orientalism and getting the Mediterranean closer together in the process. In the current period of massive migration across the Mediterranean, the role of...
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- May 7, 2019 Naima Morelli
While Europe looks at Moroccan art, Moroccan art looks at Africa
Art institutions all around the world are paying increasing attention to emerging Moroccan artists...
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- April 5, 2019 Naima Morelli
Non-aggressive socio-political art at the 2019 Sharjah Biennial
The contemporary art world has flocked for the Sharjah Biennial in the past month ...
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- April 2, 2019 Naima Morelli
The life and work of Palestinian Islamo-Pop artist Laila Shawa
A group of women wearing different-coloured niqabs carry ice creams that are just as colourful. Their eyes are closed as if they are about to savour the different flavours. Of course, they can’t, because their mouths are covered by cloth. This painted image is a powerful statement not only...