It has been a few months now that I have been working on two articles about Libyan contemporary art for the webmagazine Middle East Eye.
The first one of the two just came out. Here we look at the younger talents in the country and in the diaspora, Shefa Salem, Tewa Barnosa, Mohamed Abumeis, Malak El Ghuel and Faiza Ramadan, with the observation from gallerist and expert Najlaa Elageli from Noon Arts.
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The drill is simple, yet it’s one that we can hardly keep in mind. Don’t fool with Mother Nature. And take responsibility for your behaviour towards all species. This is what the pandemic is teaching us, and what Thai artist Ruangsak Anuwatwimon has been speaking about through more than a decade of highly impactful, heartbreaking artworks.
I have interviewed the artist and the curator Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani for the show Reincarnations III – Ecologies of Life is presently showing at Warin Lab Contemporary, Bangkok. The piece is on Plural Art Mag.
Here is the link to the article
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“The magical realism that resonates with me the most is the religious mythology that is born out of the Arabian Peninsula,” she tells me. “Until recently, there were minimal efforts to unearth all the erasure of pre-Islamic mythologies and histories in the region. I became interested in all the negative spaces that were vacant and allowed for a re-imagined social landscape to form.”
The webmagazine Middle East Monitor has just published my interview with Emirati artist Mooza Almatrooshi.
Here is the link to the interview
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The Singapore-based webmagazine Plural Art Mag has just published an interview with artist Justin Lee and Teng Jee Hum, one half of the Teng Collection, together with June Ong.
It was beautiful to learn how their synergies came together to create a one-of-a-kind show at The Private Museum in Singapore.
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I went to Cambodia for the first time in 2018, doing Siem Reap, Battambang and Phnom Penh. During my one month research trip I spoke with as many artist, curators, gallerist that I could.
Cambodia and its arts scene operated a deep transformation in my spirit, and I became very fond of the burgeoning art scene there, steadily developing despite the many difficulties.
One of the most deep, articulated conversation that I had during that time was with artist and curator Vuth Lyno. When I visited him at the art space Sa Sa BASSAC in Phnom Penh, I mostly asked him about the art community.
This time, I have interviewed him for Plural Art Mag, about it latest work Sala Samnak at Mirage Contemporary Art Space, Siem Reap.
Here is the link to the interview
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In the last couple of years I have been developing a growing fascination with the complexities of Libyan culture. While in my past I have been focused mainly on how Italian artists were looking at colonialism in Libya, now I’m starting to delve on the voices of Libyan artists themselves.
And what a better way of approaching the subject than interviewing Najlaa Elageli for Middle East Monitor. She has greatly contributed to spread the knowledge on contemporary Libyan art in the country and abroad.
Here is the link to the interview
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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 on it, or rainbow glitter tie-dye on it.”
Middle East Monitor has just published my interview with Hind Shoufani.
Here is the link to the interview
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Middle East Monitor has just published my interview with Lena Merhej, Karen Keyrouz and Barrack Rima, members of the Lebanese comics collective Samandal
Here is the link to the article
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It’s always a privilege to be able to interview cultural figures I have been admiring for a long time. Since my first inception to Singapore, I wowed at the green architecture of the firm WOHA.
Thanks to a virtual show at Gajah Gallery, I have found out WOHA’s founder Richard Hassell is also an art lover and collector. He curated the show Complex Humour highlighting works by I GAK Murniasih and Yunizar.
Both artists present humourous works overlaid with much more difficult themes, as well as tribal elements.
Here is the link to the interview
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My interview with illustrator and comic book artist Andrea Serio has just been published on the Italian webmagazine Art a Part of Culture.
I have been admiring this artist for many years, and is no exaggeration to say that his art influenced my way of looking at the landscape.
Here is the link to the interview
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I have recently interviewed Tunisian cartoonist Nadia Khiari for Middle East Monitor.
Khiari delivered her disillusioned humour through a cartoon cat called Willis. Appearing in magazines and on signs held aloft by protesters, Willis soon became the iconic “Cat of the Revolution”.
Here is the link to the interview
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Naima Morelli is an arts writer and journalist specialized 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 she is a regular contributor to Plural Art Mag, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye as well as writing curatorial texts for galleries.
She is the author of three books on Southeast Asian contemporary art.
Reach out: contact [at] naimamorelli.com
Published! How a stuntwoman created a badass community during the pandemic
Global Comment just published a piece of mine which is a bit different from what I usually write.
It’s an article about Canada-based teacher, actor and stuntwoman Michelle Christa Smith, who showed up every day on YouTube and Instagram from the very start of the pandemic, teaching not only her signature style of staff spinning, but also resilience, consistency, and building an amazing virtual community.
I know because, of course, I practiced along!
Here is the link to the article
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