Ruba Salameh

Ruba Salameh is a Palestinian Artist residing in Berlin

Ruba Salameh is a visual artist who was born in Nazareth in 1985. She obtained both B.A (2006-10) and M.F.A in Fine Arts at Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design in Jerusalem (2012-2014). She works with a variety of mediums including painting, video and installation.

Through her work Ruba Salameh questions notions of land, geographies, displacement, nationalism and in-between temporalities, in an attempt at contemplating various scenarios of the daily life which in many cases lead to a state of dystopia, using cynicism and irony as tools for political suspension points.

Recently, she has been working as a lecturer in the History of Art painting and practical classic painting at the Arab College in Haifa in addition to conducting short term workshops at Bezalel Academy. Ruba is currently working on a research film about the Palestinian cultural scene that appeared in Haifa in the last two years, and its complex relation to self-organization / autonomy and how it is operating within the constantly changing environment.

She participated in several exhibitions including “Limitless” at The walled Off Hotel, Bethlehem, 2019 curated by Rana Anani; Contemporary Arabesque, Museum of Islamic Art, Jerusalem, 2018; SRINAGAR BIENNALE, Basel, 2018; and “Ghost Dance” Group Exhibition curated by Fadwa Naamna, Haifa, 2017; Tensegrity, Dubai, 2020.

In her recent artwork series titled “Tensegrity”, Ruba Salameh breaks the rules or rather breaks free from the authority of the art form. Salameh builds concrete structures of abstract arrangements compromised of geometrical shapes using cold pastel colors and distributing the shapes carefully and minimally on the canvas. Yet, this monotonous harmony is disrupted suddenly and in a rather unexpected way. Salameh discretely introduces hordes of small chaotic ants crawling about in curiosity, assembling around the shapes as if trying to jointly carry them away. They gather in the corners as if stuck in search for their nest or are scattering around in conflicting paths.Ruba Salameh is a Palestinian Artist residing in Berlin. Her work is represented by Zawyeh Gallery, Dubai