Archives: Artists
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(1973 – 2018) An Iranian contemporary multidisciplinary visual artist whose work focused on women’s issues, gender representation, and the beauty industry.She is best known for depiction of rebellious Iranian women in her Girls in Cars and Miss Hybrid series of photographs. Aliabadi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1973 to Maymanat and Iraj Aliabadi. Her…
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(1930 – 2010) An Egyptian artist and art professor specializing in printed design. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts Cairo in 1954 and her Master of Fine Arts in graphic printing 1957 from the University of Southern California. Beginning in 1958, Aleem taught printmaking at the Faculty of Fine…
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(1908 – 1977) Nakhla, a pioneering Egyptian artist, faced gender-based barriers early in her education but persevered to make significant contributions to the art world. Born at a time when attending the Egyptian School of Fine Arts was restricted for her gender, she instead attended an all-girls school operated by nuns and taught in French.…
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( 1927 – 2020)A Tunisian designer and decorator. Menchari was born in Tunis in 1927. Her father was a lawyer and her mother, Habiba Menchari, was known for her lectures on female empowerment. As a teenager, she met Jean and Violet Henson, who introduced Menchari to horticulture and helped her meet artists such as Man…
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(1982 – 2016) Leila Alaoui, a French–Moroccan photographer and video artist, dedicated her career to shedding light on social injustices and advocating for cultural identity, diversity, migration, and displacement. Born in Paris to a Moroccan father and French mother, Alaoui spent her formative years in Marrakesh, Morocco. The plight of migrants undertaking perilous journeys left…
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(1940 – 2022) Laila Shawa was born on 4 April 1940 in Gaza, Mandatory Palestine, eight years prior to the 1948 Nakba and the founding of the State of Israel. Shawa was well educated; she attended boarding school at the Leonardo da Vinci Art Institute in Cairo from 1957 to 1958, then went to the…
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( 1893 – 1940) Karimeh Abbud was born in Bethlehem. Her father Said Abbud, was working as a teacher in Bethlehem, after the family had moved from Khiam, in South of Lebanon to Palestine. At the turn of the century, he became pastor of the Lutheran church for the following five decades. Karimeh was the…
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(1934 – 2005) Juliana Seraphim is a Palestinian-born painter. She was a refugee in the 1950s, and later lived in Lebanon. Seraphim was born in 1934 in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine. She was among the first waves of displaced Palestinian refugees to move to Beirut, Lebanon in 1952. She was 14 when her family fled first…
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Iqbal Karesly (1925-1969) this self-taught Syrian artist had a beautiful artistic career, yet a short life. Karesly did not study art, she get married at the age of 15. She travelled from place to place in Syria first along with her father who was a teacher, and then along with her husband to settle for…
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(1924 – 1989) Inji was born into a wealthy family from Cairo’s francophone aristocracy on April 16, 1924. She received a strict Catholic education prior to studying at the Lycée Français in Cairo where she was first introduced to Marxism. Inji began painting from a young age and was a member of the influential Art…
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(1931 – 2019) Huguette Caland was a Lebanese painter, sculptor and fashion designer known for her erotic abstract paintings and body landscapes. Based out of Los Angeles, her art was displayed in numerous exhibitions and museums around the world. Caland was born into a Lebanese political family in Beirut, Lebanon on 19 January 1931. Her…
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(1923 – 2009) Khal was an American artist and critic of Lebanese descent. Helen Khal was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania to a Lebanese American family from Tripoli, Lebanon. She started her painting career at the age of 21; when illness forced house rest, she began to draw. On a visit to Lebanon in 1946 she…
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(1925 – 2021) Gazbia Sirry, born in Cairo in 1925, emerged as a prominent Egyptian artist, leaving an indelible mark on the art world over a career spanning six decades. Initially studying fine arts at the Higher Institute of Art Education for Women Teachers in 1950, she later became a professor at the institute and…
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(1920 – 2010) The style of painting that she is famous for is called “nagash painting”, or a fresco wall painting in the majlis, or front parlour, of the traditional Asir home. “Called ‘nagash’ in Arabic, the wall paintings were a mark of pride for a woman in her house.” They are composed of various…
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Effat Naghi was born into an aristocratic family in Alexandria. Her brother was the great artist Mohamed Naghi, who was twenty years her senior. Naghi was tutored at home and in her early years traveled to Europe several times with her father. When Mohamed Naghi realised that his sister possessed artistic talents, he began to…