November 11, 2019

Let There Be Spaces In Your Togetherness

by Nailah Taman | in Art

Mizna partners with SooVAC to present Let There Be Spaces in Your Togetherness, a juried group exhibition by local and national artists from the Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) region or of SWANA descent. Featured image–Nervous System by Katayoun Amjadi. Image courtesy of the artist.

OPENING RECEPTION– Saturday, December 7, 6–9pm
ON VIEW– December 7, 2019–January 9, 2020

EXHIBITING ARTISTS– Sarah Abdel-Jelil, Lamia Abukhadra, Hend al Mansour, Samer Saim Aldhr, Bilal Alkatout, Katayoun Amjadi, Céline Aziza Kaldas Anderson, Amanda Assaley, Qais Assali, Leila Awadallah, Noura Ballout, Melissa Chimera, Rama Duwaji, Ghazal Ghazi, Nabil Harb, Essma Imady, Luma Jasim, Ifrah Mansour, Walid Mohanna, Zeinab Saab, Gazelle Samizay, Kiki Salem, Mahya Shamai and Nailah Taman.

TOURING– This exhibition and will tour with a selection of films from Mizna’s Arab Film Fest to St. Cloud State University and New York Mills Cultural Center. More details and dates forthcoming.

Let There Be Spaces in Your Togetherness is a quote by Khalil Gibran, famed Arab American poet of the early 1900s. While SWANA communities are scattered around the globe due to legacies of colonization and migration, Mizna serves as a critical platform and gathering space for Arab and Muslim creatives. In this exhibition at Soo Visual Arts Center, Mizna showcases the perspectives, practices, and artworks of a new generation of US-based SWANA creatives as we look toward another two decades of cultivating rich spaces. Spaces in which, in Gibran’s words, “the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow,” spaces in which the diversity and artistry of our community is celebrated and sustained. Let There Be Spaces in Your Togetherness was juried by Essma Imady, Hend Al Mansour, and Lamia Abukhadra, three Arab artists based in the Twin Cities. The jurors will show works alongside the works of the selected artists, anchoring the exhibition.

About the Jurors

Essma Imady is an installation and film artist based in the Twin Cities. She grew up in Damascus, Syria, and was dislocated to Minnesota in 2011. Her practice addresses the political aspects of the personal, the formation of identities, and the complicated relationship between vision and knowledge. Her most recent exhibits include the MAEP program at MIA and curating a performance night at the Walker.
Hend al Mansour: At first glance, Hend Al-Mansour’s work appears traditionally Islamic, but sustained engagement reveals subversive messages that critique gender injustice. She is best known for her stylized figures printed within colorful geometric design backgrounds. Inspired by women’s traditional artistic media in the Arab world, her shrine-like installations highlight powerful women in contemporary life and history.
Lamia Abukhadra is a Palestinian American artist. Her interdisciplinary research based practice challenges harmful dominant narratives which perpetuate the settler colonial imagination as well as acts of violence and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and its diasporic spaces. Lamia is a 2018–2019 Jerome Emerging Printmaking Resident at Highpoint Center for Printmaking and a 2019–2020 Home Workspace Program Fellow at Ashkal Alwan. 

About Soo Visual Arts Center

Soo Visual Arts Center (SooVAC) is a nonprofit art space that connects our community with fresh, under-represented and provocative art. SooVAC envisions a dynamic community in which artists and audiences challenge each other in an environment where art is integral to everyday life.
Soo Visual Arts Center’s programming is made possible in part by the generous support of our Members and Best Buy Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Minnesota State Arts Board, Target, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, NEA ARTWORKS and with assistance from Propel Nonprofits. This activity is made possible by the voters on Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.