The Middle East Institute's Arts and Culture Center is pleased to host an art talk with renowned Palestinian artist and photographer Rula Halawani, whose work is featured in MEI's current exhibition More Than Your Eyes Can See.
Halawani is one of the Middle East region's most established photographers, garnering a special mention in the Washington Post review of MEI's current photography exhibit. Halawani will be in conversation with the exhibition curator Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah about her evolving practice, the themes driving her vision, as well as her role in nurturing a new generation of Palestinian multimedia artists and what this means to the up and coming Palestinian art scene.
More Than Your Eyes Can See features the work of 15 photographers from the Arab world and its diaspora exploring a wide range of topics from the devastating effects of climate change to notions of public space, identity and LGBTQ+ communities. The exhibition is organized in partnership with Tribe, a non-profit publication and platform focused on documenting photography, film and video from the Arab world.
You can visit the exhibition Monday through Friday from 10am-5pm. Please make a timed appointment to visit the MEI Gallery (1763 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036). The exhibition is also available to view online on MEI's Arts and Culture page. The exhibition will run through Thursday, November 17, 2022.
Speakers
Rula Halawani
Palestinian Photographer and Educator
Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah
Director of Programs, Qatar America Institute for Culture
Detailed Speaker Biographies
Rula Halawani
Rula Halawani a native of occupied East Jerusalem, began her artistic career by registering the difficulties of living under a protracted political conflict. Halawani’s early works capture the many aspects of this reality. After several years of photographing the stark imagery that defines the everyday lives of Palestinians, Halawani increasingly focused on the spatial implications of the occupation by documenting its built environments and structures that serve as one of its central mechanisms. Her photographs are housed in international collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Nadour Collection, Germany; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The British Museum; London, The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others.
Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah
Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah is an arts administrator, exhibition producer, curator and researcher working in Washington, D.C., whose work in the arts has spanned exhibition development, communications and cultural heritage protection. She has managed, produced or curated more than 20 exhibitions nationally with museums, galleries and other partners. Jadallah is the Director of Programs at the Qatar America Institute for Culture. She was the inaugural Managing Director at Washington Studio School and has previously held senior-level positions at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Art Fraud Insights and International Arts and Artists in addition to her work as an independent art consultant. For more information, you can visit her website at http://lailajadallah.com.
Photo By Rula Halawani