SWANA Chronicles

Hend Al-Mansour

Hend Al-Mansour, a multimedia visual artist, gets her inspiration from childhood memories of the strong women who raised her in Hofuf in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Folk tales and stories about historical Arab heroines unleash her creativity and nourish her vision. However, her journey into the art world began on a different path. She started her life with a degree in medicine from Cairo, Egypt. She practiced medicine for almost two decades before realizing her need to dedicate her career to artmaking. With a Master of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2002, she embarked on a journey of artistic exploration, including obtaining a Master of Art History from the University of St. Thomas in St.Paul, Minnesota, in 2013. Al-Mansour’s work has a particular flavor of Islamic art with stylized figures in its center. Arabic art vocabulary of calligraphy, Sadou (Bedouin weaving), and henna patterns often appear within Islamic geometric designs in her pieces. She is known for her shrine-like fabric installations, telling stories about women and inviting viewers to walk through them, giving the audience an immersive experience of what it is like to be in those women’s worlds. Her media include screen-printing, painting, and muralism. Recently, Al-Mansour has embraced digital media, exploring the realms of digital images and animations, adding another dimension to her artistic repertoire.

Al-Mansour has received numerous awards, including the Minnesota State Art Board’s Creative Support in 2022, the Artist Initiative grant in 2019, the McKnight Fellowship in 2018, the Jerome Fellowship of Printmaking in 2013/14, and the Jurors Award of the Contemporary Islamic Art exhibition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2012. Al-Mansour has exhibited worldwide, lectured on Arab art and her journey, and curated exhibitions featuring Middle Eastern artists. As an active member of Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis and the Interfaith Artists group in The Twin Cities, Al-Mansour continues to explore gender dynamics and promote social equality. Joining forces with members of The Habibtis, a national collective of multiethnic American women, she employed her artistic vision to promote cultural diversity in the US.

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