Images/Bio Sources: https://www.barjeelartfoundation.org/artist/palestine/samia-halaby/ http://www.ayyamgallery.com/artists/samia-halaby https://newyork-arabworld.com/program/samia-halaby-guggenheim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samia_Halaby https://magazine.artland.com/lost-and-found-artist-series-samia-halaby/ https://www.palestinewrites.org/participants-1/samia-halaby

Historical Note

Samia Halaby (1936) is a a leading abstract painter and an influential scholar of Palestinian art, known as one of the Arab world's leading contemporary painters. Born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Design from the University of Cincinnati (1959) and from Indiana University with a Masters in Fine Art (1963). With a grant from the Kansas City Art Institute, Halaby returned to Palestine and in addition visited Syria, Turkey, and Egypt in 1966 to study Islamic architecture. Her 1999 and onward series "The Kafr Qasem Drawings" is born from interviews conducted with survivors and surviving relatives of the Kafr Qasem massacre victims. Her abstract creations are often inspired by nature, especially trees native to Palestine. Since the 1970s, her works have been collected by institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art,; Yale University Art Gallery; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Cleveland Museum of Art; Institut du Monde Arabe; and the British Museum. Her solo shows include Ayyam Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai (2017); Birzeit University Museum, Ramallah (2017); Beirut Exhibition Center, Lebanon (2015); Ayyam Gallery, London (2015, 2013); Ayyam Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai (2014); Ayyam Gallery, DIFC, Dubai (2011); and Ayyam Gallery, Beirut (2010). Further, recent group shows include Katzen Art Center, American University Museum, Washington, USA (2017); Palestine Museum, Birzeit, Palestine (2017); Galerie Tanit, Munich, Germany (2017); The School of Visual Arts, New York, USA (2017); Ayyam Gallery, DIFC, Dubai (2017); Zürcher Gallery, New York, USA (2016); 3rd Qalandiya International Biennial (2016); Darat Al Funun, Amman (2015); the National Academy of Arts, New York (2015); The Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi (2014); Broadway 1602, New York (2014); and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2009). In addition, Halaby served as the first full-time female associate professor at the Yale School of Art, and contributed a groundbreaking studio art program to art departments throughout the American midwest. Her survey Liberation Art of Palestine: Palestinian Paintings and Sculpture in the Second Half of the 20th Century (2001) is considered a pioneering work of Palestinian art history. She is the subject of the film "Samia" (2008), and has produced over 3,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, and drawings.