ABOUT THE ARTIST
ASEEL SAWALHA
Creating art of found books + print matter using traditional Arabic craft techniques. Based in NYC.
Cultural Anthropology professor and emerging visual artist. Both teaching and art work are informed by ethnographic fieldwork research: projects with Bedouin tribes, urbanites in post-war Lebanon, New York City women artists, and the art scene in Jordan. Mixed-media art work takes the form of flat, relief, and standing pieces, hybrid restructurings of found books and print matter modified by hand rolling and quilling, weaving, and paint, which mesh forms from modern and post-modern visual arts with techniques from traditional Arabic handicrafts.
EDUCATION
The Art Students’ League, New York Mixed Media Workshops. 2008-21
with Mariano Del Rosario and Deborah Winiarski
Spring Street Studio, New York Drawing 2006
with Minerva Durham
Graduate Center, City University of New York. Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology 2002
Yarmouk University, Jordan M.A. in Anthropology 1991
Yarmouk University, Jordan BA in English 1987
CLIENTS
“Reflexive 1.” Mary Quinn & Andrew Wilson (private collection).
“Sentence 1.” Jo Ann Halberstadter (private collection).
“Beirut Embroidered.” Senaa Odeh (private collection).
“Diacritical.” Anonymous buyer (2014 auction).
“Scape 2.” Hugo Benevides (private collection).
“Vocabulary.” Molly Doane (private collector).
EXHIBITIONS
2019 Art Students’ League Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Annual Show. New York City
2018 Art Students’ League Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Annual Show. New York City
2017 Art Students’ League Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Annual Show. New York City
2014 Shirin Gallery. Alwan Paddle 8 Benefit Auction. New York City
2014 Pace University Birnbaum Library. Handmade/Homemade. New York City
2013 Art Students’ League Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Annual Show. New York City
2010 Art Students’ League Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Red Dot Show. New York
2009 Millennium Dance Company. Benefit Auction. Harlem, New York City
2009 Art Students’ League Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Annual Show. New York City
SELECT COLLEGE TEACHING
“Art Worlds.” Co-taught with sociologist Mikey McGee. Fordham University, 2015-2020
“Anthropology of Art.” Fordham University, 2014
“Introduction to Anthropology. ” Fordham University, Pace University, NYU, 1994-2020
“People and Cultures of the Middle East.” Pace University, 2006-2010
PRESS
2017 Anthology chapter. “Art and Culture Reshaping the Urban Landscape in Amman, Jordan,” Pp. 64-83 In Beyond the Square: Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings. Edited by Deen Sharp and Clair Panneta. New York: Urban Research.
2016 Invited lecture. “An Anthropological Gaze at Art,” American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR), Amman, Jordan.
2012 Invited lecture. “Framing Pictures: Women Fomenting the Art Scene in Amman.” Middle East Studies and Anthropology meeting, University of Texas/Austin.
2010 Book. Reconstructing Beirut: Memory and Space in an Arab City. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
2009 Panel talk. “Spaces and Publics in a New York Women’s Art Gallery.” American Anthropological Association meeting, Philadelphia.
2006 Panel talk. “Arab Women Visual Artists in America.” World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies conference (WOCMES-2), Amman, Jordan.