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| REMEMBERING BAGHDAD An Evening of Iraqi Music, with Yair Dalal, Omar Bashir & Erez Mounk Saturday, May 1st, 2010, 7:00 p.m. Yair Dalal, born in 1955; is a composer, violinist, oud player and singer; he is probably the most prolific Israeli ethnic musician and plays an important role in shaping the global world music scene. Omar Bashir is the son of late influential oud player Munir Bashir (1930-1997), Bashir has taught choir singing and music theory for the music department at Baghdad's University of Sciences. Master Percussionist Erez Mounk plays Middle Eastern percussion such as the darbuka, rikk, and various frame drums. He performs and records in Israel, Europe, the United States and Japan. Read Artists' Profiles |
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 SWEET DATES IN BASRAA new novel by Jessica Jiji Book signing and Reception,with live Middle Eastern music ThursdayApril 29th, 2010 “In this story of love and search for identity,Jessica Jiji succeeds fully in capturing passions, depth of feeling, and strong relationships beyond ethnic and religious differences.” – Naim Kattan, author of Farewell Babylon |
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| WHITE MASKS Elias Khoury’s remarkable novel of the Lebanese civil war Book signing and Reception Thursday, April 15th, 2010 “No Lebanese writer has been more successful than Khoury in telling the story of Lebanon…Khoury is one of the most innovative novelists in the Arab world.” – Washington Post Book World View Invitation  |
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| Iraqi Mosaic: New Works by Iraqi Artists March 7th through March 28th, 2009 Iraqi Mosaic will feature paintings and silkscreens by Thamer Dawood...born in Baghdad 1966, received his diploma from the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad in 1986...practiced the art of painting,...with deep understanding of colors and lines, and also his knowledge of the history of general art, particularly contemporary Iraqi plastic modern art. Read Full Press Release |
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| Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun December 12, 7:00 pm, Presentation and book signing with Wafaa Bilal Bilal lived alone in a prison cell-sized room in the line of fire of a remote-controlled paintball gun and a camera that connected him to internet viewers around the world. Read Full Press Release |
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| UNSEENAMERICA:
Arab Women in Brooklyn A project of Bread and Roses 1199SEIU September 10th, 2008 / Performance and Exhibition Heather Raffo, playwright and actress, will read from her play "Nine Parts of Desire." Begun as a 12 week photography workshop taught as part of UNSEENAMERICA, a nation-wide, community-based arts and social justice program. Run by Bread and Roses, a 29-year old organization dedicated to bringing cultural experiences to the disenfranchised, the program transforms ordinary people into artists with cameras, encouraging them to document and describe their worlds through photography and original texts. Read Full Press Release |
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| IMAGE ‘N WORDS SARÉ - Oils and Etchings NORA ARMANI - Poems and Scribblings September 6th and 7th, 2008 / Performance and Exhibition One paints, the other writes; one comes from Armenia, the other from the Diaspora (Egypt); one designs sets, the other acts. They meet in 1991 on the set of the first independent feature film to be shot in Armenia following the country’s independence after break up of the Soviet Union. Their meeting generates a first collaboration in 1993 at the Gallerie Les Cents in Paris where they are both living at the time and experiencing rootless-ness while searching for their ‘selves’. One searched through shapes and colors, the other with letters and punctuations. Read Full Press Release |
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| Oil on Landscape: Art From Wartime Contemporaries of Baghdad May 24th through June 21st, 2008 The scope of the exhibition includes works on Iraqi refugees, the children of war, genocide, and an Iraqi perspective on Shock and Awe. Artists include; Mohammed [Hussein] al Hamdany, Khudayer al Shakarji, Sadik Jaffar, Ahmed Nousaife, Sat’aar Darweesh Read Full Press Release |
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| PIECE PROCESS: EVERY WALL SHALL FALL March 1 - 29th, 2008 These artists, both Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Arab, men and women, are committed to exhibiting together in order to explore the Israel-Palestine conflict and the possibility of peace. Participating artists include Granite Amit, Doris Bittar, Rajie Cook, Abdelali Dahrouch, Joyce Dallal, Hanah Diab, Michele Feder-Nadoff, John Halaka, Kanaan Kanaan, John Pitman-Weber, Jenny Polak and Amie Potsic. Read Full Press Release |
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| My Roof in Ruins, I Drown in Light: Recent paintings by Osama Khatlan February 2 - 23rd, 2008 "The expression of experience becomes possible with an organic link to disclose the values of color, line, form and material that create a total human understanding. A spectator is to be believed. I want to think that my paintings contain a clear reflection of the overriding human passions that unfold with increasing assurance." Read Full Press Release |
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| OFFERING RECONCILIATION 135 Israeli and Palestinian artists received clay bowls under the theme of "Offering Reconciliation." October 4th –18th, 2007 From this point forth they each embarked on a personal path, to each their own interpretation and narrative of reconciliation and all the values that stem from it - coexistence, pain, loss, rift and fusion. Each artist presents his own unique reconciliation piece as a means of hope. The exhibit was conceived and organized by The Parents Circle – Families Forum, an organization of Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families working for reconciliation and peace. Read Full Press Release |
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| BABYLONINAN WOMEN Four Californian Artists with Roots in Iraq Curated by and includes artist Lidia Shaddow, with Halla Ayla, Joyce Dallal and Doris Bittar. September 6th through September 27th, 2007 “This exhibition grew from a personal search for artistic representation of the Arab culture in Los Angeles, separate from the news and the negative stigma that resonates from the word ‘Arab’. A view that focused on the beauty and the richness of that and echoes my upbringing. Being born to an Iraqi father in Israel of the early sixties was not something to be proud of, however, my Babylonian roots were not even an issue upon emigrating to America. Between shame and denial of ones cultural identity lays a strong need to reunite with it. In the search for that familiar voice I found these three exceptional artists.” - Curator Read Full Press Release |
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Contemporary Iraqi Art - 2007 Spring / Summer Exhibition Hana Mal-Allah Ismail Khayat Qasim Sabti Mohammed Al Shammarey Hayder Ali Nazar Yahya Naziha Rashid Amar Dawod Esam Pasha Ghassam Ghayeb Farah Nosh Oded Halahmy More information: see Artists on Exhibit |
| IRAQ: Contemporary Viewpoints November 7th through December 9th, 2006 The artists represented offer assorted portrayals of life in Iraq, ranging from fond memories represented in painting and sculpture to contemporary photography that addresses the reality of life in a state of chaos. Farah Nosh / Canada Yuri Kozyrev / Russia Tyler Hicks / Sao Paulo, Brazil Naziha Rashid / Baghdad, Iraq Osama Khatlan / Diwaniya, Iraq Ismail Khayat / Kurdistan (Mountainous region of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria) Oded Halahmy / Baghdad, Iraq / Israel / Canada / New York Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| The Anfal Memory Series: A series of masks created by Ismail Khayat September 9th through October 21st, 2006 This will be Ismail Khayat’s first solo exhibition in the United States. With the Anfal Memory series, Ismail Khayat, the former head of Kurdistan’s Art Department of the Ministry of Culture Art, honors the 182,000 Kurds who were killed by order of Saddam Hussein. Painted in watercolor and India ink, the masks are boldly expressive and colorful, yet stand as memorials created by an artist who escaped the terrible genocide. Khayat was born in Khanaken, Kurdistan in 1944, and has been a member of the Iraqi Artist Association since 1965 and the Iraqi Artist Syndicate since 1970. After teaching art in Sulaymania ..... read more.... Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| Summer Group Show: Iraqi Art Today June 14 to September 4, 2006 The exhibiting artists have not only survived wars and years of oppression, but their art reflects the irrepressible spirit of rebirth and the resilience of the creative spirit. Largely abstract, these paintings stand as tactile and visible testament to the most admirable traits of resilience and rebirth. Although none of the artists display an overtly political message, independent exhibition curator Peter Hastings Falk says that viewers will discover an underlying social edginess at the soul of what is largely sophisticated abstraction. Artists: Ghassan Muhsin, Hana Malallah, Esam Pasha, Mohammed Al-Shammarey, Hayder Ali, Qasim Sabt, Ghassan Gayeb, Nazar Yahya, Delair Shaker Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| The Pomegranate Gallery presents Safaafir Friday, June 16th, 2006 7:00 p.m. The Pomegranate Gallery and the Foundation for the Arts are proud to present a performance by Safaafir in celebration of their first CD release, featuring: Amir El Saffar: santur and vocals Dena El Saffar: joza, violin and vocals Tim Moore: percussion and vocals Johnny Farraj: riqq and vocals Press Release(WORD DOC) |
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| Samuel Shimon reads from “An Iraqi in Paris” May 25th, 2006 The Pomegranate Gallery hosts a book signing and reading by the Iraqi poet,novelist and journalist, Samuel Shimon. Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| Out of Iraq: Meditations on the Homeland Curated by Leila Kubba May 11 through June 8, 2006 Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| Location / Dislocation:
Contemporary Work with Middle Eastern Roots March 30th through May 6th, 2006 Curated by Karen Shasha Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| Yair Dalal in Baghdad-Yaffo-New York, A Musical Journey Saturday April 8, 2006 at 7:00 p.m Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| From Baghdad to New York: Part II of the Iraqi Phoenix Group Tuesday, February 28th through Tuesday, March 26th, 2006. Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| The Pomegranate Gallery presents a book signing party for Hadani Ditmars’ new book, Dancing In The No-Fly Zone: A Woman’s Journey Through Iraq Friday, February 3, 2006 at 6:30 pm. Press Release (WORD DOC) |
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| From Baghdad to New York: Part I of the Iraqi Phoenix Group The Art Gallery as Cultural Ambassador: America’s First View of Artists from Baghdad The first gallery in America to specialize in works by artists of the Middle East will open January 19th in SoHo at the Pomegranate Gallery Thursday, January 19th through February 22nd, 2006 Press Release (WORD DOC) |