Samia Halaby

ISEA Bio(s) Available:

• ISEA96:

  Born in Jerusalem in 1936, Samia A. Halaby was eleven when her family was evicted by Zionist terrorism from their home in Palestine. They were denied their right to return thus losing all to Israeli looting and to home and land confiscation. After living in Beirut for over three years, Halaby immigrated with her family to the USA. In 1963, she graduated from Indiana University with a Masters of Fine Arts in painting. She taught painting, drawing, and some art history for a period of 17 years at American universities. In 1982, she left education and devoted her time to painting and writing.

  Samia A. Halaby is a painter in oil and acrylic and has produced a body of work which spans over four decades. Her painting theories are based on history and on radical invention in art. In this spirit, she learnt programming and produced a video of digital art in 1991. Halaby’s paintings are exhibited and collected internationally. Among her museum credits are the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Abu Dhabi, and the Institute du Monde Arab. She was the first artist to be invited to participate in the Havana Biennial from North America.

  Halaby was consultant for the distinguished museum exhibition titled Made in Palestine and has written many articles on art and a book titled Liberation Art of Palestine. Halaby has written many articles on art and one book titled Liberation Art of Palestine. A monograph is published on her work titled Samia with an introduction by Inea Bushnaq, and published by Fine Arts Publishing of Beirut. A second book on her work was published by Ayyam Publications, Damascus, containing over 430 color reproduction in 384 pages and introduced by Maymanah Farhat. This book is available for download as a pdg in its entirety at http://www.ayyamgallery.com/#/artists/samia-halaby/

Website:

• http://www.art.net/Studios/Visual/Samia/samia.html

Last Known Location:

• United States of America