The MEI Art Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, Arab Pop Art: Between East and West, featuring the work of fourteen artists from the Arab world and its diaspora, drawing on global pop culture to express a vibrant, evolving, and cosmopolitan Arab identity.
Arab Pop Art: Between East and West explores the evolution of an art movement that blends Arab cultural motifs and symbols with the visual language of Western Pop art. Emerging in the 1960s, Arab pop art exploded with the rise of social media and new digital technologies in the 2000s. Today, Arab pop artists harness creativity, satire, and a savvy awareness of street culture to comment on social and political issues in the Middle East, while also challenging regional stereotypes.
Featuring 14 artists from the Arab world and its diaspora, the exhibition explores the emergence of Arab Pop art as a bold fusion of cultural identity and global visual language that highlights a vibrant, evolving, and cosmopolitan Arab identity. The 35 works on display blend everyday symbols, regional motifs, and cultural commentary with striking imagery reminiscent of Western pop art icons like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. The result is a show that challenges norms and informs new perspectives on art, identity, and culture in the Middle East.
Lead sponsorship by the Open Mind Project, additional support provided by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Washington, D.C.
Participating Artists
Yusef Alahmad (Saudi Arabia/US), Chant Avedissian (Egypt), Marwan Chamaa (Lebanon/US), Yasmine Nasser Diaz (Yemen/US), Rasha Eleyan (Palestine/UK), Hassan Hajjaj (Morocco), Tony Khawam (Syria/US), Mous Lamrabat (Morocco), Ilyes Messaoudi (Tunisia), Qarm Qart (Egypt/Italy), Rana Salam (Lebanon), Water With Water (Nathan Ross Davis & Sarah Elawad, Qatar), Helen Zughaib (Lebanon/US).
About the Curators
Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah is an arts administrator, curator, and researcher whose focus is on contemporary art of diasporic artists, particularly from West Asia and North Africa. Her work has spanned exhibition development, cultural diplomacy, policy, and organizational leadership, to produce more than 40 exhibitions and international programs with partners in the U.S., Europe, and Qatar. Jadallah is currently serving as the Manager of Arts and Culture for the City of Frederick, where she is developing and implementing the city’s first comprehensive arts and culture strategic plan, overseeing the city’s public art and cultural programs, and art collection.
Lyne Sneige is the Director of the Arts & Culture Center at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington, D.C., where she directs and manages the MEI Art Gallery and its related programming. With her long experience in programming and her wide network in the Middle East region, Sneige has developed innovative and impactful programming at the intersection of arts, society, and policy and helped forge several partnerships to include D.C.-based galleries, museums, educational institutions, and European cultural centers and embassies.