Rania Matar, a Lebanese-born American of Palestinian roots, moved to the United States in 1984. Originally trained as an architect at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Cornell University,...
RANIA MATAR, Lebanon (1964)
Bio
Rania Matar, a Lebanese-born American of Palestinian roots, moved to the United States in 1984. Originally trained as an architect at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Cornell University, she later shifted her focus to photography, studying at the New England School of Photography and the Maine Photographic Workshops. Matar's diverse cultural experiences and background deeply inform her photography, which explores themes of identity, womanhood, and gender, often through portraits of women in the U.S. and the Middle East.
Since 2009, Matar has taught photography workshops for teenage girls in Lebanon’s refugee camps and is currently a faculty member at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her work has been widely exhibited in prestigious venues worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. She has created several notable photographic series, such as SHE, L'Enfant Femme, Unspoken Conversations, Women Coming of Age, and Invisible Children. These series explore the intersections of national identity, gender, and the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Matar's photography has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2022 Leica Women Foto Project Award and a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship. Her publications, such as Ordinary Lives (2009), A Girl and Her Room (2012), L'Enfant-Femme (2016), and SHE
(2021), have been acclaimed as some of the best photo books of their respective years.
This is a short biography. The full version, along with research, CV and sources will be posted soon. Stay tuned and visit us often or become a member to be notified of our updates.
CV
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023
Rania Matar: SHE, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Rania Matar: Oceans at My Door, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA
2022
Rania Matar: She, Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, United States
2021
Rania Matar - She, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, United States
2020
Breaking the Frame: Women Artists from the Harn Collections, Harn Museum of Art Gainesville, Florida, USA
2019
Rania Matar - She, Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, United States
2018
Rania Matar - She, Galerie Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon
In Her Image: Photographs by Rania Matar, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, United States
2017
Rania Matar, Galerie Eulenspiegel GmbH, Basel, Switzerland
In Her Image: Photographs by Rania Matar, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, United States
Rania Matar: Becoming, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, California, USA
2016
Rania Matar - Invisible Children, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, United States
2014
Rania Matar - Ordinary Lives, Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, United State
2013
Rania Matar L’enfant Femme, Carroll and Sons, Boston, United States
2012
Rania Matar, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, Lebanon
Rania Matar - Girls in Between: Portraits of Identity, Photographic Resource Center (PRC), Boston, United States
Rania Matar: A Girl and Her Room, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
2011
Rania Matar - A Girl And Her Room, Mosaic Rooms, London, United Kingdom
2009
Rania Matar - Ordinary Lives, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, Lebanon
2007
Rania Matar, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, United States
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Riveting: Women Artists from the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Collection, The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, USA
Women Reflecting Women, Sanji Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
From Palestine With Art, P21 Gallery, Fitzrovia, London, UK
Picturesque Summer, Obscura Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Summer ‘24, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Louder Than Hearts, MEI Art Gallery, Middle East Institute, Washington D.C., USA
Shades of Compassion, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, Texas, USA
2023
Coups de Cœur, Galerie Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon
Unfinished Business, Newport Art Museum, Newport, USA
In Focus: Artists At Work, National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) Downtown, Washington D.C., USA
2022
At the Threshold, Gold Montclair, Montclair, New Jersey, USA
Portrait of a Lady, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels, Belgium
Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, USA
Paper Trail: 50 Years Collective Exhibition, Galerie Tanit, Munich, Germany
15 Years, Crossed Perspectives, Galerie Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon
A Decade of Collecting, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, USA
Conflict and Remembrance, Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island, USA
2021
In Her View, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
2020
ONLINE: Intersect Aspen, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
ONLINE: Rania Matar and Arne Svenson: Clear Boundaries, Robert Klein Gallery at Ars Libri, Massachusetts, USA
Summer '20, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
ONLINE: Sanctuary, Robert Klein Gallery, South End, Boston, USA
Just Kids, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Call & Response, Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island, USA
2019
She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
The Female Lens, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York, USA
Live Dangerously, National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), Washington D.C., USA
2018
Rania Matar & Bongchull Shin: Two Shows, Galerie Tanit, Munich, Germany
Féminités Plurielles, Galerie Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon
Rania Matar & Malena Mazza: Discrezioni e Provocazioni, Vision Quest, Genova, Italy
Bridging Division: Empathy and Humanity, The Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Summer '18, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Care and Feeding: The Art of Parenthood, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, California, USA
Un œil ouvert sur le monde arabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2017
Summer '17, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Aftermath: The Fallout of War - America and the Middle East, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida, USA
Instantanés d’Orient, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels, Belgium
2016
She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), Washington D.C., USA
Mortal Things: Portraits Look Back and Forth, Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Aftermath: The Fallout of War—America and the Middle East, Harn Museum of Art, Florida, USA
2015
Rania Matar and Reinhard Voss, Galerie Eulenspiegel GmbH, Basel, Switzerland
Gordon Parks & Rania Matar: Exposure, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA
2014
A Selection of Photographs from Life Magazine, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, USA
The Middle East Revealed: A Female Perspective, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, USA
2013
She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
2008
Contrapuntal Lines: Rania Matar and Buthina Abu Milhem, Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, USA
RANIA MATAR Artwork
RANIA MATAR, Lebanon, 2021
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