Mohamad Hafez
محمد حافظ
Born
Damascus, Syria
NationalitySyrian-American
EducationDamascus University Iowa State University
Websitemohamadhafez.com

Mohamad Hafez (Arabic: محمد حافظ; born 1984) is a Syrian-American artist and architect living in the United States. His work primarily explores around the stories and dislocation of Syrian refugees.[1][2]

Early life

Hafez was born in 1984 in Syria.[3] He emigrated to the United States in 2003,[4] on a visa to study architecture at the University of Iowa. [5]

Work

Hafez is best known for his miniature diorama works, which depict daily life in Syria, which he has been creating since 2004.[6][7] His 2017 work Unpacked: Refugee Baggage is a series of miniature dioramas based on interviews that conducted with refugees from the Syrian war.[8] It is intended to humanize the refugee subjects.[9]

In 2021, The New Yorker produced a short film on Hafez's work, directed by Jimmy Goldblum and titled A Broken House.[10][1] The film later aired on the PBS series POV during the POV Shorts installment "Where I'm From."[11]

Selected solo exhibitions

  • 2016 Refugees: Stories of Life's Dreams and Scars - Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut[12][13]
  • 2016 Unsettled Nostalgia - The Harts Gallery, New Milford, Connecticut[14][15]
  • 2016 Desperate Cargo - Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut[16]
  • 2016 Sea Garbage - The Athenaeum, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
  • 2017 Tomorrow, when Things Have Calmed Down - Hopkins School, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 2017 Facades - NHLC, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 2017 HOMELAND inSECURITY - Lanoue Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 2017 Critical Refuge - Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 2017 UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage - Art Space, New Haven, Connecticut[17][18]
  • 2017 Desperate Cargo - Greenwich Academy, Greenwich, Connecticut
  • 2017 UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage - UNICEF House, New York City, New York
  • 2018 Damascene Memories - Higgins Gallery, Clark University Worcester, Massachusetts
  • 2018 Collateral Damage - Fairfield Art Museum, Walsh Gallery, Fairfield, Connecticut
  • 2018 UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage - Christian Petersen Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
  • 2019 HOMELAND inSECURITY - Cullis Wade Depot Art Gallery, Mississippi State University, Mississippi
  • 2019 UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage - The Juilliard School, New York City, New York
  • 2019 HOMELAND inSECURITY - Westover School, Middlebury, Connecticut
  • 2019 UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage - Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, Illinois
  • 2019 UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage - Cullis Wade Depot Art Gallery, Mississippi State University, Mississippi
  • 2019 Retrospective - Miossi Gallery at Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, California[19]

Selected group exhibitions

  • 2018 Syria, Then and Now: Stories from Refugees a century apart - Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York[20][21]

References

  1. 1 2 "A Syrian Artist Remakes the Home He Cannot Visit". The New Yorker. August 18, 2021.
  2. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 - Art of Now, Dreaming of Damascus". BBC.
  3. ↑ "Mohamad Hafez's Complex Models of Syrian Devastation". Art21 Magazine.
  4. ↑ "Mohamad Hafez: how he uses artwork to celebrate Syria's past". the Guardian. 20 November 2018.
  5. ↑ Khan, Aina. "'I start by looking at dramatic photos of destruction'". www.aljazeera.com.
  6. ↑ "Watching The War For His Native Syria, Artist Mohamad Hafez Sculpts Models Of A Ravaged Homeland". www.wbur.org.
  7. ↑ Halpern, Jake. "An Artist's Obsession with the Ruins of His Homeland".
  8. ↑ Cole, Diane. "Artist Creates Tiny Houses from the memories of Refugees". Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  9. ↑ Babaee, Mohamadreza (2020). "Performing (In)visible Bodies in Unpacked: Refugee Baggage". Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. 34 (2): 53–70. doi:10.1353/dtc.2020.0008. S2CID 220495008.
  10. ↑ "'A Broken House': Syrian artist Mohamad Hafez is the focus of new short documentary". The National.
  11. ↑ New Hampshire PBS. "POV Shorts: Where I'm From" (program description).
  12. ↑ Lopez, Natalina. "Exhibit gives refugee crisis a human face". yaledailynews.com.
  13. ↑ "Refugee Stories Come to Life in "UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage"". Yatzer. 15 October 2018.
  14. ↑ "Unsettled Nostalgia, a Solo Exhibition by Syrian Artist Mohamad Hafez". Islamic Arts Magazine.
  15. ↑ Ambery, N. F. (12 February 2016). "New Haven's Mohamad Hafez, a Syrian refugee, tells story through art". New Haven Register.
  16. ↑ DUNNE, SUSAN. "Syrian Refugees' Suffering Reflected In Real Art Ways Exhibits". courant.com.
  17. ↑ "UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage". Center for Design and Material Culture. 1 June 2020.
  18. ↑ "Unpacked: Refugee Baggage". Unpacked: Refugee Baggage. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  19. ↑ Martin, Malea. "Mohamad Hafez's Retrospective exhibit asks viewers to find the 'common denominator' in our lived experiences". New Times San Luis Obispo.
  20. ↑ "Edge Of Arabia - Contemporary art and creative movements from the Arab World". edgeofarabia.com. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  21. ↑ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org.
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