Nuha BalaaMy early attempts at painting started at a young age and focused on three of my favorite subjects: the human face, the still life, and landscapes. My formal training, however lead me to a degree in interior design from the Lebanese University in Beirut. After receiving my degree, I worked for four years as a designer and consultant. In 1984, I moved to the United States with my family.

Descent: an installation by Joyce DallalJoyce Dallal's breathtaking installation Descent—made of hundreds of paper airplanes printed with the articles of the Geneva Conventions—will be featured in an exhibition entitled "Flight" at the United Nations in New York, Jan 16-Feb 20, 2009, along with African artist Samuel Komlan Olou's installation "Ese." The show will be in the North East Gallery of the Visitors Lobby, entrance is on First Avenue at East 46th Street.

The exhibition presents two installations connected by the theme of war and its impact on human beings. Dallal's piece focuses on the texts of the Geneva Conventions and Sam Komlan Olou's on the theme of migration. Descent was first installed last summer at the Barnsdall Art Gallery in C.O.L.A. 2007/2008, prompting the essay below by Doris Bittar.

I have been known to collect postcards of a particular variety. The typical postcard in my collection is made of paper, measures five and a half inches long by three and a half inches wide, and dates around the first few decades of the twentieth century. All of my postcards depict women of colonial North Africa and the Middle East.

Tuareg—A Photographic Compilation by Elizabeth Sunday

The 4th Annual God Loves Beauty Festival, Nov. 12-20, 2008

No Borders: by Anna-Marie Lopez de LeonThis eclectic event benefitting Doctors Without Borders includes a silent art auction with work by dozens of contributing artists including Anna-Marie Lopez de Leon, and performances by the Middle Eastern-jazz fusion group Saffron Parade Arabesque Band, Tehran’s heavy metal band TarantisT, belly dancers, deejays and much more. Pic Vicious and Killsonic will perform later in the soirée.

Artist Mounir FatmiA multimedia artist born in Tangier, Morocco who divides his time between Paris and Tangier, Mounir Fatmi constructs visual spaces and linguistic games that aim to free the viewer from his/her preconceptions of politics and religion, and allow them to contemplate these and other subjects in new ways. His videos, installations, drawings, paintings and sculptures bring to light our doubts, fears and desires, directly addressing the current events of our world. Sometimes his work serves to both explicate the origins and symptoms of global issues as well as speak to those whose lives are affected by specific events.
An evocative work critical of corporal punishment

Doris BittarDoris Bittar was born in Baghdad, Iraq of Lebanese parentage and her early childhood was spent in the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon. Her memories of Lebanon are rich with pattern, from Oriental rugs to her mother's embroidery. Her family immigrated to New York where eventually she studied Fine Arts. In the United States, Bittar's observations both coincided and clashed with the portrayal of the "exotic Orient" and the various images of Arabs, Jews and Europeans. The cross-pollination between these cultures has created a hybridized tangle of perception that is played out in her paintings. Her multi-media artworks combine specific cultural narratives, Islamic patterns, Arabic calligraphy and intertwine them with European and Western cultural traditions.

Kinda HibrawiKinda Hibrawi's artwork is a passionate journey of femininity, spirituality and cultural convergence. Of Syrian descent, she grew up between Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and the United States. Her formative years in the Middle East gave her the opportunity to study the power of the Arabic language in all of its art forms. Through her studies she began to expand on the ancient tradition of Arabic Calligraphy by giving it a modern twist. As an Arab American, she felt the need for her artwork to reflect the richness of the Middle East coupled with Western diversity.

Artist Statement

My current series explores the marriage and divorce of line and texture and the tension between their polarities. It evolved over a nine month period, through play and experimentation on canvas using acrylic and oil paints. After a two year, total absence from art, I relocated my studio and began this series working in a different way. My eariler work had been autobiographical and narrative dealing mainly with issues of gender, ethnicity and nationality. This series is about beauty and is particular in its Islamic and Indian art influence. Here, the two cultures I grew up with, Middle Eastern and Western, merge. Warm color, arabesque and oriental motifs coincide with distant, cool color abstract.