“On Borrowed Time in Gaza: Art in Confinement”
Drawings and Paintings by Palestinian, Gaza based artists: Majdal Nateel, Maisara Baroud, Maha Daya, Mohammed Alhaj, Rufida Sehwail, Ganem Alden
Mónica Reyes Gallery
602 East Hastings (at Princess), Vancouver
Wednesday November 24 to Saturday November 27, 2021.
Hours: 12 to 5pm
Closing reception and walkthrough: Saturday November 27 at 1:00pm
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/614336096368315
Art in Confinement evokes perseverance, humanism, and creativity in dark times. The exhibition represents expressions from life in Gaza by six Palestinian artists, whose works defy a brutal Israeli blockade imposed on over two million Palestinians. Crossing states’ boundaries and aerial spaces to reach Turtle Island, the works affirm Palestinian hope, persistence, endurance, and love of art and life. The two hundred drawings and paintings are a testament of the power of art, the power of imagination under bombardment, and aspiration for a just and peaceful life in a forsaken world.
Making art in Gaza is an act of survival, refusal, and resistance to unendurable conditions inflicted on Palestinians in the largest collective prison on earth. Deprivation of the Palestinian artists in Gaza from their right to freedom of movement, their right to connect with the rest of the art community and the public in colonized Palestine and beyond has not stopped them from making art. Despite Israel’s prohibition of art material and supplies from entering Gaza, or prohibiting art from exiting Gaza, artists continue to create engaging art, representing their experiences in confinement, isolation, and deprivation of basic human rights.
100% of the sales of the artworks, ranging in price from $50 to $1500 will be going to the artists and art therapy programs for children in Gaza. This exhibition is a call for support of Palestinian artists who live and work under extreme conditions in Gaza.