Ramallah Art Fair

The first edition of Ramallah Art Fair displays an array of inspiring artworks, emerging and renowned artists who explore a variety of subjects stemming from the Palestinian context. Artworks on display are immersed in the politics of the place that cannot be separated from the life of any Palestinian. Some of the artists tackle the Palestinian landscape under occupation; Khaled Hourani, for example, displays a picturesque landscape interrupted by the intruding structure of the Israeli separation wall, while Karim Abu Shakra paints Palestinian indigenous wild plants in pots, suggesting the domestication of these plants and alluding to how the revolutionary life of Palestinians has become domesticated over the years. Fouad Agbaria, on the other hand, focuses on the olive tree, using mainly black and golden colors to reflect the unappreciated holiness of the olive tree subject to the continuous brutality of the occupation. Durar Bacri paints hills and streams that are uninterrupted by elements of occupation.  Tayseer Barakat’s small abstract wooden frames seem to reflect his yearning for the sandy beaches of Gaza while Mohammad Khalil, who lives away from the Palestinian coast and cannot access it, draws scenes of the wild wavy Mediterranean Sea and rocky beaches with wide strokes of his brush.  Rawan Khalilieh’s ink-on-paper artworks depict scenery of rocky landscapes, yet one can see in these stones at the same time a group of bodies in motion or entangled together. Sliman Mansour and Wadea Khaled focus on the old city of Jerusalem with its rooftops, old houses, and holy sites. In a different spirit, Yazan Abu Salameh draws the landscape of everyday life under occupation with a heavy presence of military structures, yet one can find tiny colored windows of hope in his greyish paintings. Fayez Sirsawi tackles scenes from demonstrations portraying them from the opposite side.