My latest piece about Nabil Anani’s new show, currently at Zawyeh Gallery, just came out for The New Arab.
Nabil is one of the founders of the contemporary Palestinian art movement. His works highlight Palestine’s folkloric culture and seek to foster national pride beyond Israel’s 75-year occupation.
Read More![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=1200%2C799&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, “you never feel you are in one single place. You never feel that the city is belonging to anyone, although everyone claims it as theirs.”
The artist’s new show opened on 14 November at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai, and last until 5 January. Called “Tracing Boundaries”, the artist focuses on Jerusalem as a religious symbol, while also looking at it as a subject of pop culture. He traces the boundaries between holiness and material culture and invites the visitor to observe a fine line between spirituality and commercial clutter.
I have interviewed the artist for Middle East Monitor
Read More![Palestinian artist Hazem Harb [Hazem Harb]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hazem.jpg?resize=1199%2C800&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 nationalism, but I don’t dwell on them by making straightforward political art. In my work, I’m trying to represent the hidden narratives of Palestine and leave room for individual memories and personal stories to come through.” “
The webmagazine Middle east Monitor has just published my interview with Palestinian artist Hazem Harb.
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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Lend your pen to what’s important, my friend. Life is beautiful when you use what has been given to you – in my case this passion for writing – to share with others what inspires you and makes you – and others – feel that tingling of excitement.
So a lot has been written already about Islamo-Pop Palestinian artist Laila Shawa. However I wanted to measure myself with the work of this artist too, and learn about about her incredible life. And I did it for Middle East Monitor, some of the kindest people devoting themselves to the socio-political realm.
Here is the link to the article
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I have interviewed Palestinian artist Rana Samara for Middle East Monitor. Rana is a highly inquisitive, courageous and determined woman. These characteristics propelled her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art as a mother of three children from a conservative background. Her passion for art has led her to a two-year MA in Fine Art at Northwestern University, Chicago.
The backbone of Rana’s work are conversations with women about gender and intimate relations. Her latest series of work called “Intimate Space”, was presented by Ramallah’s at Art Dubai 2017 and put the spotlight on the depth and complexity of the research of Palestinian artist.
Here is the link to the interview
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It should written of the information leaflet, like the one you find in medicine boxes: long term exposure to contemporary art changes your way of thinking. It gives you a complexity of thinking and variety of perspective on issues, which is extremely important. For example, the work of Palestinian artists Khalil Rabah – especially his “Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind” is one that urges people re-consider reality in other terms – especially because here the boundaries between artwork and actual history-making institution are really thin. It was a privilege to have the chance to interview him for Middle East Monitor, after having seen his work at MACRO Museum in Rome.
Here’s 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
