Wednesday, September 21, 2005

PRESS ADVISORY - Three Cities Against the Wall announces final artists' roster, catalog pub date 21 Sep

“THREE CITIES” FINALIZES ROSTER OF ARTISTS, ANNOUNCES CATALOG PUBLICATION DATE Art exhibition to showcase work of Palestinian, Israeli, and American artists opposed to Israel's “Separation Wall”
NEW YORK - Organizers of Three Cities Against the Wall have finalized the list of artists participating in the show, the first of its kind in which Palestinian, Israeli, and American artists will be appearing together. The show, featuring 64 artists, many of them internationally known, will open on Nov. 9 in Ramallah, Palestine; Tel Aviv, Israel; and New York City. It will run for four weeks in all three cities.

A complete list of artist participating in Three Cities Against the Wall appears below. The show brings together brings together 64 painters, sculptors, film/videomakers, photographers, installation and graphic artists. Some artists from each of the three communities are also available to speak about the show, their work, and their opposition to the “Separation Wall” that Israel is building in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Please contact Eric Laursen, above, to arrange interviews.

A full-color catalog of Three Cities Against the Wall, including essays by writers, critics, and activists from all three communities, is to be be published by Vox Pop Press in November. Please contact alex@voxpopnet.net for information and to receive review copies, or call Vox Pop at (718) 940-2084. Writers contributing essays to the catalog of Three Cities Against the Wall include:

* Terry Boulata is headmistress of a primary school in Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem in the West Bank. She is a founder of he Palestinian Campaign for Freedom and Peace and a leading anti-Wall activist.

* Grace Paley, fiction writer, poet, and lifelong peace activist, is the author of the celebrated short story collections The Little Disturbances of Man (1959), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974), and Later the Same Day (1985) as well as three collections of poetry.

* Steven Zunes is an associate professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. He also serves as senior policy analyst and Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus project.

In New York, Three Cities Against the Wall is organized through ABC No Rio, a community center for the arts on the Lower East Side, by a committee of artists and activists; in Ramallah, through Gallery Barakat; and in Tel Aviv, by a group of artists and activists associated with the Israeli Coalition Against the Wall, Ta'ayush, and Anarchists Against the Wall.

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ARTISTS' ROSTER

From New York:

* Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, award-winning journalist, political activist, and now cartoonist, is currently on death row in Pennsylvania. He has written three books, Live from Death Row, Death Blossoms, and We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party, and has produced radio commentaries for National Public Radio and the Pacifica Radio Network.

* Yacoub Al-Kurd's architectural ceramic mosaic projects include the exterior mosaics on the Alezariah Village Mosque and the Shufat Mosque in Jerusalem. He has exhibited in Palestine and internationally since 1991, and his residencies have included the Arkansas Children's Museum, Little Rock, and Studio Im Hochhaus, Berlin. He teaches at the Arts and Crafts Center in Abu Ghosh, West Bank.

* Terry Berkowitz has created installations and video that deal with political and social issues since 1975. Works include “A Rock and a Hard Place” (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1992), which explored the lives of Palestinians under occupation; “Backseat” (Sculpture Center, New York, 1994), which investigated rape; and “Chant for the Unsettled” (Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 1996), which concerned forced expulsion. In 1997, a public action, “The Same Land/La Misma Tierra,” was executed in the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Creative Artists Public Service Program grant, and two Jerome Foundation production grants and is a Fulbright Scholar.

* Christopher Cardinale has created large-scale murals both individually and in collaboration and has participated in solo and two-person shows in New Mexico, New York, Mexico, Italy, and Greece. He contributes frequently to World War 3 Illustrated. Other work has appeared in the New York Times, Time, and the New York Press.

* Orly Dahan is an Israeli artist now living and working in Paris. Her work has appeared in exhibitions including “Mois de la photo” and “Nuit blanche” at Hypegallery palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Festival du cinéma d'art et d'essai, Marseille; the 48th Salon d'art contemporain, Montrouge; and Les Rencontres d'Arles. She is a member of Mémoire de l'avenir, an association that allows Palestinian, French, and Israeli artists to create dialogue between people and promote better arts education in Paris schools.

* Ronit Davrat, an Israeli artist now living in Italy, founded Ehad Haam 90, an experimental contemporary art gallery in Tel Aviv and cofounded Zeit U Za'tar, a museum in Italy addressing the Palestinian catastrophe. She has shown work addressing the Occupation in many group exhibitions including the Biennale of Young Artists at the Haifa Museum and exhibits at the Kibbutz Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Portogruaro, Venice; Grand Palais, Paris; and Pinta Gallery, Milan. Her solo exhibitions include: Gallery of the City of Siena; Radius Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Cité des Arts, Paris; and Pinta Gallery, Milan.

* Eric Drooker is a painter and graphic novelist. His paintings frequently appear on the covers of the New Yorker and many other magazines. His published books include Flood! A Novel in Pictures (American Book Award, 1994), Illuminated Poems (with Allen Ginsberg), and Blood Song: A Silent Ballad.

* Mike Estabrook's work, which encompasses video, painting, drawing, and photography, approaches political topics through a deconstruction of the conventions of their representation. His work has been shown at a wide variety of venues including White Box Gallery, ABC No Rio, the Queens Museum, the Dumbo Short Film Festival, all in New York City, and Prenelle Gallery in London. He is a recipient of the Leopold Schepp Foundation Award.

* Kate Evans is a British activist and cartoonist. As part of her work in defense of the environment, she authored Copse: The Cartoon Book of Tree Protesting, and Funny Weather We're Having at the Moment: Everything You Didn't Want to Know About Climate Change But Probably Should Find Out.

* Danielle Sara Frank spent six months in the West Bank in 2003, documenting the effects of the Occupation and engaging in nonviolent direct action with solidarity groups and Palestinian people. Her sculpture and video work has been exhibited in North America, Europe, and Asia.

* Leon Golub, who died last year, was one of the most accomplished American figurative painters of the second half of the 20th century. He was also a leading political artist, known for his “Assassins” series (1972-73) commenting on the Vietnam War. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Tate Gallery (London), among others.

* Susan Greene is an artist and clinical psychologist. In 1989, with three other American Jewish women artists, she co-founded the Break the Silence Mural Project, the goal of which is to bring the images and stories of Palestinians back to the US to raise awareness and inspire action. For more than two decades, Break the Silence has painted murals in Palestine and exhibited documentation from this work in the US. Greene's work has been included in numerous surveys of muralism. She directs the learning center at the San Francisco Art Institute.

* Brian Higbee is the founder of Associated Artists for Propaganda Research, a member of Art Codex, a member of the Pavilion of the American Resistance, and director of the Lost Estate of Ed “Johnson” Shepard. He has recently exhibited at the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, New York; ABC No Rio in New York City; and the Islip Art Museum on Long Island, New York. He has received two grants from the Puffin Foundation.

* Suzanne Klotz, painter and multimedia artist, has shown internationally in more than 300 exhibitions. Her work is in collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Palestine Costume Archive Museum. She has mounted multicultural collaborative exhibitions in Australia, West Africa, Mexico, Taiwan, the US, and in Palestine and Israel as a guest artist of Mishkenot Sha'ananim, a nongovernmental cultural center in Jerusalem. Her 2004 awards included a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship and a Puffin Foundation grant in support of a collaborative project about the Wall with Yacoub Al-Kurd. One of her most recent works is a digital 'zine, A Pocket Guide to the Other Holy Land.

* Tom Lewis was a founding member of Artists Against the War during the Vietnam War and served a three-year prison term during that period for destroying draft files. He teaches nontoxic printmaking at Anna Maria College and the Worcester Art Museum. His work is in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Art Museum and the Peace Museum. He has won prizes at the Fitzburg Museum of Art and the Peal Museum, among others.

* Alice Hailey Proskauer studied painting at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston and the Art Students League in New York. Her work has been exhibited frequently in New York City and also in Buenos Aires.

* Fawzia Reda has designed costumes and sets for the American University in Cairo; the Egyptian Opera and Ballet House; La Scala, Milan; and Theatre in the Round, Minneapolis. She is the founding and creative director of Cultural Connexion, a US-based nonprofit organization with affiliates in Jerusalem and Paris that promotes Arabic arts and culture and fosters dialogue in the West with Arab communities. She has received grants from the Rockefeller and Henry Luce Foundations.

* Joe Sacco is a cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for Palestine (National Book Award, 1996), a comic book that combines the techniques of eyewitness reporting and comics storytelling. Sacco has contributed work to a wide range of comics magazines including Drawn & Quarterly, Prime Cuts, Real Stuff, Buzzard, and R. Crumb's Weirdo. His recent work includes Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 (2002).

* Nicole Schulman, cartoonist and graphic artist, is a frequent contributor to and occasional editor of World War 3 Illustrated. Her comics and illustrations have appeared in such publications as the New York Times and the Progressive, and she is the co-editor of Wobblies: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World (2005). Her work has been exhibited across the US as well as in Europe and South Korea and is in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.

* Nancy Spero has concentrated on social and political themes in her work, producing the War Series, 1966-70; the Codex Artaud, 1971-72; and Torture of Women, 1974-76. Since 1974, she has focused exclusively on images of women. Solo exhibitions include the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City; the University of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; and a major retrospective at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 2004. Spero and her husband Leon Golub were jointly awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize in 1995. Spero's mosaic “Artemis, Acrobats, Divas, and Dancers” can be seen at the Lincoln Center subway station in New York.

* Seth Tobocman started the radical comic book World War 3 Illustrated with Peter Kuper in 1979 and has been involved in publishing the magazine ever since. His illustrations have been published in the New York Times, the Shadow, and many other periodicals. His work has been exhibited at Exit Art and ABC No Rio in New York among other spaces. He is the author of three books of his artwork: You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive (Soft Skull Press), War in the Neighborhood (Autonomedia), and Portraits of Israelis and Palestinians (Soft Skull Press). He teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons Institute of Design in New York.

From Ramallah:

* Khalil Abu Arafeh, architect and cartoonist, has had solo exhibitions in Baltimore and in Oslo, Norway. He has published two books on “forbidden cartoons” and a children's storybook and is an editorial cartoonist for Al-Quds daily newspaper.

* Iman Abu Hmeid, participated in the group installations “Read 1” in Belgium and “Read 2&3” in Biala, Italy, in 2003. She was a finalist in the A.M. Qatan Foundation competition for young artists with her installation “Paper Kite.”

* Jawad Almalhi, has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and held several solo exhibitions in Jerusalem and Paris. He has been awarded residencies in the UK, Sweden, and France.

* Ibrahim Almuzayan's solo exhibitions and installations include “Optical Section of the Rose Stone” at Tell Alfukhar Theatre in Akka in 1993 in association with the late poet Husein Albarghouti, and “Call them Icons” at the Rashad Alshawa Center in Gaza in association with the poet Muhamad Alqaisi in 1998. He created several installation on Gaza Beach in 2001, including “Nets on Gaza Beach,” “Dinner in Honour of Her Majesty,”and “When Earth Is Rocked With Her Last Convulsion.”

* Nabil Anani, head of the League of Palestinian Artists since 1996, is co-author of several books about Palestinian art and culture. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and has held many solo exhibitions in Palestine.

* Asad Azi's group exhibitions include “Arab Painters in Israel” in Akka in1984, Haifa Contemporary Arts Museum in 1986, and the 48th Venice Biennale in 1986. His solo shows include the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem (1987), the Nazareth Municipal Cultural Center (1991), and “Bypass Your Limits” at the Ashdod Museum in 1996.

* Tayseer Barakat, director of Zyriab Gallery in Ramallah, is a leading member of the “New Vision” group of Palestinian artists who use local media such as straw, clay, henna, and leather in their work. He participated in the 1996 Sao Paulo Biennial and in the French Palestinian Spring Exhibit at the Paris Institut du Monde Arabe.

* Maysara Baroud graduated from Al-Najah University in Nablus in 1998 and has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.

* Aamer Dirbas, an art teacher in Jaffa, has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and has been featured in one solo exhibition in Jerusalem.

* Hanadi Hijazi, an art teacher in the Hebron schools, graduated from Al-Najah University and has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.

* Hanan Hirzallah works in the Art Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.

* Khaled Hourani is manager of the Plastic Arts Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. He has participated in international workshops and residencies in Geneva, Switzerland and Alexandria, Egypt as well as the Braziers Workshop (Braziers College, Oxford) and the Spike Island center (Bristol), and has curated Palestinian participants in many international exhibitions.

* Ahmad Kanaan, sculptor, has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Israel and abroad as well as international sculpture workshops in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the UK, Poland, and Germany.

* Yusef Katalo is a photographer and graphic designer who has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.

* Sliman Mansour was one of the first Palestinian artists to move away from painting and start experimenting with non-traditional materials such as mud. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Israel, Japan, Russia, Norway, the US, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Egypt, where he won the grand prize at the 1998 Cairo Biennial for his works I Ismail. He is director and a co-founder of the Al-Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem.

* Hisham Muhsen, head of the Art Department at Al-Quds University, has participated in many exhibitions in Palestine and abroad, including 35 Artists/35 Years of Occupation.

* Muhammad Musallam, a graduate of Al-Najah University in Nablus, has made several solo exhibitions in Palestine and participated in many group shows in Palestine and abroad.

* Husni Radwan, a graphic designer in Ramallah, has participated in many group exhibitions and held several solo shows in Palestine and abroad.

* Khalil Rayyan, a bronze sculptor and art teacher in Tamra, Galilee, has participated in many group exhibitions in Israel, Palestine, and abroad and held seven solo exhibitions in Jerusalem and Galilee.

* Samir Salameh has taught art in Damascus and Paris and worked in the Art Division of UNESCO in Paris. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and held several solo exhibitions in the Arab world and abroad.

* Ariej Zahdeh is an art instructor at the Polytechnic University in Hebron. She has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and Egypt.

From Tel Aviv:

* Tal Adler, conceptual artist, has had group and solo shows in Israel and throughout Europe. Artists Without Walls, video of (art) action, is a group of Israeli and Palestinian artists who have come together to create a permanent forum for dialogue between individuals engaged in all fields of art and culture.

* Lary Avramsson, painter, is an organizer of Three Cities Against the Wall in Tel Aviv.

* Yael Bartana, video and installation artist, this year was awarded the Dorothea von Stetten-Kunstpreis, Kunstmuseum Bonn and is a nominee for the Prix de Rome.

* Adva Drori, performance and installation artist, has created numerous projects in Israel and received several prizes including the 2003 Yehoshua Rabinovitch Fund, Tel Aviv Minicipality.

* Emanuel Faychevitz, a painter, digital and mixed media artist, and watercolorist, has exhibited at the Tal Esther Gallery in Tel Aviv as well as in Berlin and Stockholm.

* Ravit Gat and Moshe (Chicko) Gerstel, installation.

* Dan Geva, graffiti book.

* Dudu Geva, animator, cartoonist, painter, and social satirist, died early this year. One of Israel's best-known illustrators, he has been called “the godfather and inspiration for all Israeli alternative comics.” A cartoonist for the newspapers Ha'aretz, Ma'ariv, and Ha'ir, his masterpiece, “Mighty Sha'anan Against the Son of Godzilla,” a comicbook parody of science fiction literature and much else, appeared in 1993.

* Hagar Goren, sound installation. Her latest work includes “Bagcheck & Bodysearch,” a video installation that treats the excesses in penetration of privacy during security and medical inspections.

* Hadas Kedar, video art.

* Shula Keshet, adapted photography, in 2003 launched an ongoing series of exhibitions in which her own installation art fuses with the work of individuals from Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African Jewish), Ethiopian, and Arab communities in Israel.

* Dana Levi, photography.

* David Reev, painting

* Roee Rosen, multimedia artist, is one of a group of artists who address the political by constructing new “historical” figures and identities. His work was featured in the Jewish Museum's controversial show, “Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art,” in 2002. Another recent creation is “Justine Frank,” a Belgian-Jewish, lesbian artist of the first half of the 20th century. Her fictive life and her entire oeuvre of painting (created by Rosen) stand for an outsider position that was doomed to failure between the Holocaust and Zionism.

* Amitai Sandy, posters, co-published the influential Israeli alternative comix magazine Penguins' Perversions for four years. He is a member of the Dimona comix group, which publishes collective anthologies, participates in European comic festivals and is featured in several exhibitions.

* Shual, Net art.

* Meirav Shaul, painting, is an illustrator and comics artist. She has published three comics books with the Israeli comics group Dimona. Her work has also appeared in the French comics anthology Ferraille Illustre, the Scandinavian anthology Glump, and the German Jungle World and in Israeli newspapers and magazines and on album covers.

* Naama Tzabar, sculpture.

* Carmela Volk, adapted photography.

* Nevet Itzhak and Lior Friedman, video art.

* Naama Yuria, adapted photography.

THREE CITIES AGAINST THE WALL http://www.abcnorio.org/againstthewall/ Contact: Eric Laursen, (917) 806-6452, laursene@earthlink.net

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