VCUarts Qatar Launches Online Lecture Series “Decolonizing Art Narratives: Arab Women Artists Today”

The lecture series will ask how Arab women artists can revisit and rethink existing narratives in contemporary art, and will explore issues of gender, politics, colonialism, culture, and identity.

It will feature acclaimed artists Bahia Shehab, Lamia Joreige, Nadia Ayari, Sama Alshaibi, Ala Younis, Alia Ali, Iman Issa, Youmna Chlala, Monira Al-Qadiri, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Ghada Khunji, Abeer Al-Kuwari, Noor Abuissa, and Diana Al Hadid.

The conversations will be moderated by Basma Hamdy, Fawz Kabra, Holiday Powers, Regine Basha, Rola Khayyat, Madra Belal, Maysaa AlMumin, and Amal Zeyad Ali.

The first part of the lecture series will take place from February 17 to April 5, with the second part taking place in the Fall from August 25 to November 17.

The first lecture will be by Bahia Shehab, an artist, designer, art historian, and Professor of Design at The American University in Cairo whose work is concerned with identity and preserving cultural heritage. It will take place on February 17 at 8pm Doha time. For more information and to register to attend, please go to https://vcu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bay25k3jQke84KUQMaV5Cw

The other lectures will be by: 

• Nadia Ayari, a Tunisian painter living and working in New York whose work focuses on political landscapes. It will take place on March 17 at 8pm.
• Sama Alshaibi: Sama’s practice examines the mechanisms of fragmentation in the aftermath of war and exile. It will take place on March 24 at 8pm.
• Ala Younis: Younis is a research-based artist and curator based in Amman. Younis initiates journeys in archives and narratives and reinterprets collective experiences that have collapsed into personal ones. It will take place on March 31 at 8pm.
• Alia Ali: Ali, a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multi-media artist whose work reflects on the politics of contested notions of linguistics, identity, borders, universality, colonization, mental/physical confinement, and the inherent dualism that exists in each of them. It will take place on April 5 at 8pm.

The lectures are free and open to the public. Online registration is required. 

For more information and to register to attend, visit, Arab Women Artists Today

The department of Painting + Printmaking is a vibrant community centered on both practice and research. Students build skills in painting, drawing and printmaking but are also given opportunities to participate in an expanded field that includes socially engaged practices, creative coding, video, performance and more.

The program offers both BFA and MFA degrees in addition to interdisciplinary models of education in partnership with other areas across the university. Alumni from this program have gone on to careers as artists, teachers, gallerists, curators, arts administrators and master printers.

The lecture series is curated by Professor Rola Khayyat and Dr. Aissa Deebi.

Image Credit: GAM Bahia Shehab ICI Paris ©aruallan 2017