SAMIA HALABY, Abstract in Motion
SAMIA HALABY
Abstract in Motion
Sfeir-Semler Downtown, Beirut
August 21 - January 2, 2025
beirut
pt 5
Her interest in light and color—ranging from the painting of the Italian Renaissance to the Impressionists, whom she discovered during her travels—is connected to her engagement with reality and a sense of identity. One only needs to consider the evocative titles of some of her works, such as I found me growing in an old olive tree (2005) or For Niihau from Palestine (1985). She does not depict nature, but expresses its energy, its transformation—and evokes her Palestinian roots when she refers to olive trees. She asserts a political dimension of art when drawing connections between Native Hawaiians and Palestine.
Her recent paintings, featured in the exhibition and resonating with the parallel exhibition The Shade, invite us to reimagine the world—to go beyond obscured spaces, as suggested by the titles of the works”.