Meet the Artists from the "Map" Show: Part 2

“THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY”
PARALLEL PATHS—PALESTINIANS, NATIVE AMERICANS, IRISH

September 6 through October 18, 2013
Opening Reception, September 6, 6-8pm

*“The Map is Not the Territory” was coined by philosopher/scientist Alfred Korzybski


Meet the artists from the "Map" Show

©Najat El Khairy, 2013

Out of over 100 submissions by artists from around the world to create original work for “The Map is Not the Territory”, opening at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery Al-Quds on September 6,   39 artists were juried in to the show.  

Among them is Claudia Borgna, who makes the thought-provoking comment in her artist statement for the show: “Whichever nationality, race, or belief, I am still tied in the same cosmic string of molecules: humanity trapped inside a spasm of drops bleeding across territories.”

Claudia Borgna graduated from Genoa University (Italy) in Foreign Literature in 1998, and received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from London Metropolitan University (UK) in 2005. Since then she has led a nomadic life, exhibiting nationally and internationally and attending fellowship residency programs. She is a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, and the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award, as well as the Pritzker Foundation Endowed Fellowship Award.  In 2010, she was voted the “Public Speaks” winner of the Broomhill National Sculpture Prize (UK), short-listed for the BBC2 documentary: “School of Saatchi,” and for the British Women Artists Prize. Borgna’s artificial landscapes are the materialization of an ongoing observation and questioning of how “plastic” and natural realms interact with one another and thereby come to create new ephemeral orders. Her flimsy constructions are only intended for the moment: apt to collapse and subject to change. http://www.claudiaborgna.com/

Najat El Khairy, found the inspiration for her piece in Switzerland. “In 2011, on a random stroll with my three-year-old grandson on Sankt Alban-Rheinweg Street along the Rhine in Basel, Switzerland, I encountered a rock formation nestled neatly on the river bank. I was mesmerized by its shape, contouring the borders of my native land. Enthusiastically I said: 'Look it’s Palestine!’ This print began as a piece of porcelain, hand painted, using enamel for raised work, brush and special paint requiring several firings in the kiln. The raised work is used to give a special luminous effect, depth, and radiance to the Rock, which symbolizes the land I long for, that lives forever within me. Unfortunately this map is not a territory.”

Najat El Khairy is a porcelain artist of Palestinian origin.  After attending French private schools in    Cairo and completing a BA in English Literature at King Saud University in Riyadh, she became captivated with all forms of art expression and has studied music, ballet, painting, embroidery, stained glass, pottery, and silk painting.  In 1988, she moved with her family to Montreal, Canada, where she focuses on porcelain painting. She utilizes a variety of proprietary painting techniques developed over her career. Every piece is hand-painted, unique, and original requiring critical, meticulous precision, with strict attention to detail. After painting, the porcelain undergoes several high-temperature kiln firings. 

Hani Zurob is a Palestinian exile working in Paris. He was born in the Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, and received his Bachelors of Fine Arts at the University of Al-Najah, Naplouse-Palestine. In 2009 he became the first Arab artist to win the Bourse Renoir prize, allowing him to work in Renoir's atelier in Essoyes, France. He has exhibited his work throughout France and in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Romania, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain, among others. He is the subject of Between Exits: Paintings by Hani Zurob, written by Kamal Boullata and released by London’s Black Dog Publishing in 2012. http://www.hanizurob.com 

He talks about the three paintings in this show, part of his series called Flying Lessons:                    “ "The idea for this project occurred when my son Qoudsi began learning to speak. When I accompanied him and his mother to Charles De Gaulle airport in 2009, he surprised me with the question, 'Daddy, why don't you come with us to Jerusalem?' I hold an identity card from Gaza. It would be hard for him to grasp that I will never be able to travel with them. “

Next:  some Native Americans

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