Middle Eastern Art Gallery

B. 1980

 

Visual artist Hazem Harb's trajectory, spanning several decades, maintains an unwavering dialogue with his symbolically charged homeland.

Moving from Gaza to Rome to receive his MFA at The European Institute of Design, and then on to the UAE, Harb has learnt to navigate life as a liminal. Knowing that his place of origin can never be just a 'land', the artist unleashes an ever-evolving repertoire of artistic techniques to negotiate a space which has been carved up and re-drawn many times. His art is at once subsumed in deep locality, fuelled by personal insight, and entangled in conversations that cannot be easily separated from the global arena. His practice is intended more as visual excavation than romanticisation of the Other, and through it, we can explore the paradoxical and pressured relations between people and places. Steering away from nostalgia and the fetishisation of displacement, he draws from academia, architecture, as well as European art traditions, to negotiate an axis of complex social and cultural relations; built and natural environments, longing and belonging.

Much like the artists of the early twentieth century who, through the deployment of collage, healed from the trauma of the first world war by binding together everyday and artistic experiences; Harb succeeds in materialising complex and unfamiliar terrain. Operating as a researcher, by collecting and synthesising archives of rarified ephemera including photographs, negatives and maps, Harb mediates his materials in a manner which dismantles them from a static space. Through a process of collage, layered down with geometric precision, he stitches  visual artefacts together and forms fresh constructions that invite unheard discourses and a historical rethinking.

 

EDUCATION

2009, MFA, The European Institute of Design, Rome, Italy

2006, Course in Visual Art, Academy of Fine Arts, Rome, Italy 

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024, Gauze, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE

2021, Temporary Museum. For Palestine, Maraya Art Centre, UAE

2020, Contemporary Heritage, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE

2019, Power Does Not Defeat Memory, Sabsay Gallery, Copenhagen

2015, The Invisible Landscape and Concrete Futures, Salsali Private Museum, Dubai, UAE

2014, Present Future, Artissima, Italy

2013, Al Baseera, Athr Gallery, Jeddah, KSA

2012, Satellite Space, Dubai, UAE

2012, Me and The Other Half, Art13, London, UK (Represented by Athr Gallery Jeddah, KSA

2012, I Can Imagine You Without Your Home, Etemad Gallery, Dubai, UAE

2010, Is This Your First Time In Gaza? The Mosaic Rooms, Al Qattan Foundation, London, UK

2007, Made by War, National Ethnographic and Pre-Historical Museum Luigi Pigorini, Rome, Italy

2006, Life on a Line, Rome, Florence, Rimini, Bologna, Salerno, Italy

2005, Improvisational Waves, Al-Hallaj Gallery, Ramallah, Palestine

2004, Exit, French Cultural Centre, Gaza, Palestine 

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024, Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial, NYU Gallery, Abu Dhabi

2022, Portrait of a Nation II, ADMAF, Abu Dhabi
2020-21, Global(e) Resistance, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2020, Al Baseera, CAP Kuwait, Kuwait 

2019-20, Gohyang: Home, SeMA, Seoul Museum of Art, Korea 

2018, Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Jaou Tunis, Tunisia

2018, Active Forms, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE

2018, El Beit, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE

2016, Al Haraka Baraka: In Movement There is Blessing, Maraya Art Center, Al Qasba, UAE 2016, Chers Amis - MNAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris

2015, Common Grounds, Villa Stuck Museum, Munich, Germany

2015, Politics & The Production of Space: The Written City, City Halls, Bruges, Belgium

2015, RCD>PLY>RWD>FFWD>STOP>EJ, curated by Aya Haidar, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London, UK

2013 and 2014, Sphere 6, Galleria Continua's Le Moulin, France

2013, Traces & Revelations, The Oriental Museum, Durham University, Durham, UK

2013, Resilience and Light: Contemporary Palestinian Art, Studio 3 Gallery, University of Kent. Curated by Aser El Saqqa of Arts Canteen, UK

2012, Art: Gwangju: 12 2012- LIFE IS TOO SHORT, Salsali Private Museum, Dubai, UAE 2011, Passport To Palestine, La Scatola Gallery and Janet Rady Fine Art London, UK, AM Qattan Foundation Project Space 2010, A Patch On My Evil Eye, The Arab British Centre, London, UK

2009, Young Artists from Occupied Palestine and the Golan Heights (Selected works) The Mosaic Rooms, AM Qattan Foundation, London, UK 2009, 22 Gaza; An Everlasting Memory, Gaza, Palestine

2009, Exposition de Gaza à Morlaix au Roudour - Morlaix, France

2009, Gaza 61 + Seoul 59 Gallery Young (Samchun-dong), Seoul, South Korea

2008, Labyrinth, Finalists' Group Show, The Hasan Hourani Award, AM. Qattan Foundation Ramallah, Palestine

2007, Installation for Earth Day, Faculty of Engineering, University of Rome, Rome, Italy 2006, Passages of Time, National Ethnographic and Pre-historical Museum Luigi Pigorini, Rome, Italy

2006, The Freedom and Life Promise, (travelling exhibition) La Flèche, Mayet, Le Grand Luce, Chartres, Château de Loire, France

2005, There is Not Night Enough to Dream Twice (in cooperation with UNDP), Dubai, UAE

2005, Colours of Hope (in cooperation with UNDP) PAPP's Fourth Annual Art Action - Moi ET l'autre, Egyptian Cultural Centre, Paris, France

2003, The Dust of the Land, Arts and Crafts Village, Gaza, Palestine

2003, Artists from Gaza, Gallery al-Qamariya, University of Bir Zeit, Palestine

2003, September Darat al-Funun, Abdel Hamid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan

2003, Artists have a Different Opinion, Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Centre, Gaza, Palestine 2003, 2x12, Arts and Crafts Village, Gaza, Palestine

 

PROJECTS / PERFORMANCES

2014, Live performance of Al Baseera #18, Live Art Window, Dubai, UAE

2014, Between Past and Present; A dialogue of Conceptual Photos, Public Art Project, Alserkal, Dubai, UAE

2014, We Used to Fly on Water, Installation project, 21,39 Jeddah Arts, Athr Gallery, Jeddah, KSA

2003, Performance Départ, music and Arabic calligraphy, French Cultural Centre, Gaza, Palestine 


BIENNIALS

2019, Eyes East Bound, Cairo Biennale 13, Egypt

2017, The Absence of Paths, Tunisian Pavilion, 57th Biennale di Venezia, Italy

2014, A View From Inside, FotoFest Houston Biennial Houston, USA 

 

ART FAIRS

2024, Abu Dhabi Art, UAE
2023, Abu Dhabi Art, UAE
2022, Art Dubai, UAE
2021, Beyond (Abu Dhabi Art comission) and Maraya Art Centre booth, Abu Dhabi Art

2018, Art Berlin, Everlasting presence of an Excluded Memory, Tabari Artspace, Berlin

2016, The Armory Show, Athr Gallery, New York

2012, 2013, 2014, Art Dubai, Athr, Dubai

2012, 2014, Artissima, Present Future, Athr Gallery, Torino, Italy

2014, Paris Photo, Athr Gallery Paris, France

2013, 2014, Abu Dhabi Art, Athr Gallery, Abu Dhabi, UAE

2014, FIAC, Athr Gallery, Paris, France

2014, START, Saachi Gallery, Athr Gallery, London

2013, Art International Istanbul, Athr Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey

2012, Art13, Athr Gallery, London, UK

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2013, City international des arts, Al Mansouria Foundation

2012, Satellite, Dubai UAE

2011, The Delfina Foundation and A.M. Qattan Foundation, London, UK

2010, The Mosaic Rooms, AM. Qattan Foundation London, UK

2008, Young Artist of the Year, AM. Qattan Foundation, Palestine Darat Al Funun, Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan

2006, Five-month training internship in visual art, scholarship awarded by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Academy of Fine Arts, Rome, Italy

2001, Darat al-Funun, Abdel Hamid Shoman Foundation (Amman, Jordan) selected by Khalil Al-Sakakini Cultural Centre, Ramallah, Palestine 

 

SELECTED PRESS

2021, Architectural Digest Middle East, This Palestinian Artist Is Crafting A Visual Reclamation Of His Homeland, UAE

2020, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, His Excellency Zaki Nusseibeh Reveals His Extensive MENASA Art Collection, UAE

2020, GQ MIddle East, Palestinian Artist Hazem Harb Is Reframing Memories, UAE

2020, Gulf News, Palestinian Hazem Harb brings his heritage alive through art, UAE

2019, Wall Street International, Hazem Harb in Sabsay Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

2019, Tribe Photo Magazine, Hazem Harb: New Histories Collaging Palestine's Past

2019, MOJEH Magazine, Bridging Borders

2018, Harper's Bazaar, Palestine Through Three Eyes

2018, The National, Palestinian artist Hazem Harb Leads Nomadic Existence

2012, Contemporary Art Practices, Volume X Hazem Harb, By Jareh Das

2012, Rolling Stone Magazine Hazem Harb Documents Plight of his Native Gaza

2012, Al Arabiya News (broadcast) Hazem Harb, Portraying suffering of Palestinians at the Gaza crossing

2004, BBC (broadcast) Hazem Harb, Art imitates life in Gaza By Alan Johnston BBC correspondent in Gaza 

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2022, The Art of the Emirates II, Motivate Media Group
2020, Cities Under Quarantine, The Mailbox Project
2015, Contemporary Art from the Middle East: Regional Interactions with Global Art Discourses (International Library of Modern and Contemporary Art by Hamid Keshmirshekan (Editor)

2015, Common Grounds Paperback by Chris Dercon (Author), Markus Miessen (Author), Nat Muller (Author)

 

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
CAP Kuwait

Ithra Collection
LACMA, Los Angeles, US
The British Museum, London, UK

The Oriental Museum, Durham University, UK
Centre George Pompidou, Paris
Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE

HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa AL Nayhan
SPM, Salsali Private Museum, Dubai, UAE 

AM. Qattan Foundation, London, UK
Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen