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
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
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
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
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
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