Asad Azi Archives

Asad Azi

Artist Biography

Asad Azi was born in Shafa Amr in 1955. In his youth he began to create figurative sculptures influenced by the art of the Near East. He studied in a high school in Kiryat Ata. In the 1970s he published three books of poetry. In the second half of the decade he studied art at the University of Haifa. During this period he worked primarily in stone sculpture. After finishing his studies he went to study in Carrara, Italy and later to Nigeria. In 1981 he moved to Tel Aviv. He was one of the founders of the group “Rega” [Moment]. In 1982 he was involved in the strike by the Druze population in the Golan Heights and was one of the implementers of the first festival of “The Center for the Palestinian Heritage” in Taibe. In 1986 he represented Palestine in the Venice Biennale.

From the 1980s on, Asad Azi has worked primarily in the medium of painting. His figurative works deal primarily with the concept of self-identity in the expressive style. In his work he combines images and connections from the history of European art with folkloristic images taken from Druze society. Azi has published many articles and studies in the local Arabic newspapers and has received several awards. He has set up more than 17 solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 50 collective exhibitions locally and internationally. He currently lives and teaches art in Yaffa.

Blending cultural and historical references, media and techniques, Asad Azi’s intricate works reflect a search for his own identity, as well as that of his community. At the same time, he advocates a humanistic and universal culture. Asad Azi chose to expand the span of his work by allying the West to his own culture. The result is a complex and intense body of work that blends references, media and techniques, where every line and shape has meaning. In his intricate, richly colored and multi-layered works, Azi investigates the mundane and the dramatic, the secular and the sacred. Using traces from the past, like photographs and objects, the artist reveals the forgotten history of people and places. Azi’s works are sometimes presented in pairs, regardless of their date of creation. The works dialogue with one another, addressing questions and references, pointing the viewer to the multiple layers and references. While initially they have a pleasant, almost decorative appearance, the artist in fact juxtaposes Middle Eastern and European references and patterns to tell us significant stories that ultimately relate to universal issues: identity, love, death, spirituality.

Asad Azi Palestinian Artist Asad Azi Palestinian Artist

Asad Azi, Camel, 1991, mixed media on canvas, 105 x 60 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled, 1998, oil on canvas, 80 x 50 cm

: Asad Azi, Camel, 1991, mixed media on canvas, 105 x 60 cm

: Asad Azi, Narkis, 2014, mixed media on canvas, 98 x 158 cm

: Asad Azi, Nostalgia, 2008, mixed media on canvas, 98 x 136 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (1993), mixed media on canvas, 70 x 50 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (1994), mixed media on canvas, 80 x 60 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2019), mixed media on canvas, 100 x 105 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2009), acrylic on paper, 70 x 100 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2004), oil on paper, 100 x 60 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2009), oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (1999), mixed media on canvas, 70 x 70 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), mixed media on canvas, 80 x 50 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), mixed media on canvas, 70 x 90 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), mixed media on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 42 x 33 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 37 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 65 x 45 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), mixed media on canvas, 55 x 48 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 37 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 40 x 33 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 40 x 33 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 40 x 34 cm

: Asad Azi, Untitled (2020), acrylic on canvas, 40 x 35 cm

Art Fairs and Exhibitions featuring Asad Azi

Narratives Palestinian Art Collective

June 14 – June 28, 2015
Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah

Further Information:

Works available by Asad Azi via Artsy
For inquiries and questions contact us

Narratives Palestinian Art Collective

/ Asad Azi (Exhibition), Mohammad Khalil (Exhibition), Nabil Anani (Exhibition), Sliman Mansour (Exhibition), Tayseer Barakat (Exhibition) / Asad Azi, Exhibition, Mohammad Khalil, Nabil Anani, Narratives, Sliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat /

Narratives Palestinian Art Collective Narratives Palestinian Art Collective

Palestinian Art Collective Sliman Mansour

NARRATIVES
PALESTINIAN ART COLLECTIVE

14 - 28 JUNE 2015

In the modern media-saturated, globalized world, it is part of the human experience to have an image bank in our minds and memories, both private and personal, as well as public and collectively shared. Without such images and the means to interpret them, we would be in a state of continuous amnesia, a condition in which we would struggle to find meaning and purpose.

All societies and ethnic and culturally-connected groups share image banks of histories, stories, and symbols – their narratives. Palestine is no exception. Indeed, its image bank is richer and fuller than many and is shared and familiar across generations and the scattered and broken geography; the collective credit in this bank is rich and equitably distributed. Few explanations are needed as the collective suffering and awareness in examples of such images are mutually understood.

Artists have mined this rich source of images in their personal and idiosyncratic visual languages and continue to do so as they extend the boundaries and possibilities of media and meaning. The land and physical body may be subject to restrictions, but the imagination can be a place and space of freedom and possibility.

Visual artists, in whatever medium they choose to use as a vehicle for their ideas, are uniquely placed in this regard. The images in the paintings, drawings, and sculptures in this exhibition explore the historical legacies and traditions which are being slowly erased, the pleasures but also some of the horrors of Palestinian life, the contradiction of experiencing pain and hope in the same measure, the divisions and separations. Dancing can be a form of uplifting freedom for the body, but there is also a macabre dance that takes place between the occupier and the occupied, the oppressor and the oppressed. Iconic images of the voices of Palestine’s soul and its conscience, such as the poet Mahmoud Darwish (in Mohammed Saleh’s paintings), are instantly recognized. A shared visual library of images echoes through many of these works: the women in traditional dress, the fruits of labor on the land, the old village houses, mothers protecting their children, and birds in flight. But ghostly presences also seem to haunt many of these works. The images that spoke of steadfastness, defiance, and freedom, as well as the natural riches of the land, have been encroached by others: a blinkered carthorse pulling a heavy load (Sliman Mansour) and images of walls and checkpoints (Nabil Anani) which are now also iconic and similarly recognized by everyone. A collective bank of images and voices across time and distance, reflecting Palestinian life and its unique narrative in all its forms.

Narratives Palestinian Art Collective Narratives Palestinian Art Collective