Zena El Khalil

Zena El Khalil (born 1976)[1] is a Lebanese artist, writer, and activist.

Zena El Khalil
Born1976
London, England
NationalityLebanese
Alma materSchool of Visual Arts, American University of Beirut
Websitehttp://www.zenaelkhalil.com/

Biography

El Khalil attained her undergraduate degree from the American University in Beirut. In 2002 El Khalil received her Masters of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York.[2]

El Khalil works in a variety of formats ranging from painting, installation, performance, mixed media, writing, video, and collage. Themes that are central to her work include issues of violence as well as gender using materials found throughout Beirut. Photocopied images of militiamen and women, civilians and family members are embellished with plastic flowers, glitter, strings of lights, keffiyehs, plastic toy soldiers, toy AK-47s, arabesques, beads, fabrics, and other objects. She has had solo exhibitions in London, Munich, and Beirut. El Khalil currently lives and works in Beirut.

During the July War in Lebanon, El Khalil immediately began maintaining beirutupdate from her apartment in Beirut. Her blog was a personal account of the siege on Beirut that lasted for 33 days and its impact on her and the people around her.[3] It quickly received international attention and was highly publicized on news portals such as CNN and the BBC. Excerpts were published in daily papers, including The Guardian and Der Spiegel Online. Her writing was also included in the anthology Lebanon, Lebanon published by Saqi Books. In the aftermath of that war, Zena El Khalil curated with Sandra Dagher Nafas Beirut, a multimedia exhibition including 40 artists testimonies of the war.[4]

In 2008 El Khalil also completed her first novel, Beirut, I Love You.[5][6][7] The book is a memoir about El Khalil's life from 1994 to the present and specifically focuses on growing up in Beirut during a period of immense turmoil. There are also rumors that the book is going to be made into a film.[8][9]

Work

Solo exhibitions
  • 2017 "Sacred Catastrophe: Healing Lebanon" - Beit Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon[10][11][12][13][14]
  • 2008 "Maybe One Day Beirut Will Love Me Back." – The Flawless Gallery, Berardi-Sagharchi Projects London, UK[15][16]
  • 2006 "I Love You." – Espace SD, Beirut, Lebanon[17]
  • 2004 "Wahad Areese, Please!" ("A Husband, Please!") - Le Laboratoire, Espace SD, Beirut, Lebanon[18]
  • 2003 "of love and war..." – Signature Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria[19]

Selected group exhibitions
  • 2013 "Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World" Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan[20]
  • 2013 "Art13 London" - Olympia Grand Hall, London, UK[21][22][23]
  • 2012 "Art is the Answer!" Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium[24][25]
  • 2008 "But, I Can't Let Go" Galerie Tanit, Munich, Germany[26]
  • 2007 "The Resilient Landscape" – Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney Australia[27]
  • "More Than Light Could Bear" – Art Lounge, Beirut, Lebanon
  • "Ana "Njassa Al Fan" ("I Pear Art") – Dialogpunkt Deutsch, Tripoli, Lebanon
  • 2006 "Pure Pop" – Art Lounge, Beirut, Lebanon
  • "Nafas Beirut" – Espace SD Beirut, Lebanon
  • "Imagining Ourselves" – International Museum of Women, San Francisco, USA

References
  1. "Zena el Khalil". New York Review Books. Archived from the original on 25 February 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  2. "Web Exhibition: Zena el Khalil". MOCA, London. 2021. Archived from the original on 25 February 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  3. Sinno, Nadine (Spring 2014). "Five Troops for Every Tree: Lamenting Green Carnage in Contemporary Arab Women's War Diaries". Arab Studies Quarterly. 36 (2): 107–127. doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.36.2.0107.
  4. "Nafas Beirut". Xanadu Art. 2006. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. Degli Esposti, Emanuelle. "An artist of Beirut: Zena el Khalil". The Arab Review. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  6. El Khalil, Zena (2009). Beirut, I love you. London: Saqi. ISBN 978-0-86356-415-4.
  7. Hout, Syrine (Spring 2017). "Artistic Fallout from the July 2006 War: Momentum, Mediation, and Mediatization". Arab Studies Quarterly. 39 (2): 793–814. doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.39.2.0793.
  8. "Zena el khalil – Beirut, I Love You". www.zenaelkhalil.com. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
  9. Murphy, Maureen Clare (25 October 2012). "Zena el Khalil's critically praised 'Beirut, I Love You' now available as e-book". The Electronic Intifada. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  10. Cornwell, Tim (9 October 2017). "Beirut's Museum of Memory opens first exhibition—minus a director or board of governors". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  11. Stoughton, India (20 September 2017). "Zena El Khalil on how her exhibition at Lebanon's first museum will lead to forgiveness, compassion and love". The National. Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  12. Schwab, Katharine (5 October 2017). "This Lebanese Artist Paints With The Ashes Of Civil War". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  13. "Zena El Khalil's passionate exhibit at Beit Beirut Museum". Egypt Today. 20 September 2017. Archived from the original on 1 March 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  14. Collier, Lizzy Vartanian (20 November 2017). "Zena El Khalil: Healing Beirut". Ash Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  15. "Zena el Khalil (Lebanese, b. 1976) - Don't Call Me Baby". Christie's. 17 April 2013. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023. Exhibited: London, The Flawless gallery, Maybe one day Beirut will love me back..., October 2008 (illustrated in colour, pp. 22-23).
  16. El Khalil, Zena. "Maybe one Day Beirut Will Love Me Back". AbeBooks (Sale page for exhibit catalog). Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023. Published to accompany an exhibition of the same name that occured [sic] between October 4th and October 19th 2008 at the Flawless Gallery, London
  17. Colette, Khalaf (12 May 2006). "Le Beyrouth aigre-doux de Zena el-Khalil, jusqu'au 27 mai" [The bittersweet Beirut of Zena el-Khalil, until May 27]. L'Orient-Le Jour (in French). Archived from the original on 1 March 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  18. "Alumni Exhibitions" (PDF). Visual Arts Journal. School of Visual Arts. 13 (1): 45. Spring 2005. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  19. "El-Khalil, Lebanese National, Opens Solo Exhibition". ThisDay News - Biafra Nigeria World. 27 April 2003. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  20. Kuhl, Christopher (21 February 2013). "Beyond Stereotypes: Art and the New Arab Reality". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 24 August 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  21. Mann, Nicola (May 2013). "All the fun of the fair". Afterimage. 40 (6): 2–3. doi:10.1525/aft.2013.40.6.2.
  22. Kamien, Allison (1 March 2013). "Spotlight on Art13 London". Artnet. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  23. Westall, Mark (25 January 2013). "20 Art Projects at Art13 London". FAD Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  24. Quilty, Jim (16 March 2012). "To better understand East East, through the West". McClatchy-Tribune Business News – via ProQuest.
  25. "Art is the Answer!". Villa Empain. Boghossian Foundation. 2012. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  26. "Past Exhibition at Galerie Tanit - Zena el Khalil 'But I can't let go' and Lamia Ziadé 'Hotel war' [2008]". Artnet.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  27. George, Phillip; MacNeill, David; Sabsabi, Khaled, eds. (2007). The resilient landscape: exhibition catalogue (Library record for exhibit catalog). Paddington, N.S.W: Ivan Dougherty Gallery. ISBN 978-0-7334-2574-5. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
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