Born in 1971, in the village of Tarshiha in the Galilee, Palestine, Rana Bishara is a Palestinian interdisciplinary artist. Her body of work spans across painting, photography, graphic design,...
RANA BISHARA, Palestine (1971)
Bio
Born in 1971, in the village of Tarshiha in the Galilee, Palestine, Rana Bishara is a Palestinian interdisciplinary artist. Her body of work spans across painting, photography, graphic design, sculpture, installation art, and performance. She received a BA degree in Fine Arts, Women’s Studies and Philosophy, from Haifa University in 1993. In 2003 she completed her MA in Fine Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, USA.
Bishara’s art revolves around the ongoing occupation of Palestine and the consequent political conflict. She sheds light on the cultural annihilation and human rights abuse exercised in the occupied territories of Palestine, yet, overlooked in the mainstream media. Based on collective memory and storytelling, she explores notions of identity, displacement, and loss. Symbolic materials and imagery are central in Bishara’s body of work. Though highly political, her art is provoking and poetic. It reflects the irreversible trauma, distress, and emotions common to the Palestinian experience.
One of her most important themes is the cactus plant. Known as Sabra in Arabic, which means patience, cacti are symbolic of resilience; they also mark the locations of villages and serve as fences. The artist collects them from the fields outside the villages, dries them, paints on them, and uses them in her installations. She even dips them in chocolate. Inspired by the shape of the prickly pear cactus leaf, she produces paintings with colorful abstracted depictions. Bishara, not only tests the environmental resilience of cacti but exploits their artistic potential.
In her sculptural production and installation art, the artist’s choice of material ranges from wood, glass, steel, to ephemeral products such as zaatar – thyme, bread, and chocolate. Bishara shows photographs silk screened on glass in the unusual medium of chocolate in a series of political and historical photographs knowns as Blindfolded History. To revive the notion of home, Bishara produced symbolic ‘homeless’ pillows using traditional folkloric fabric and others that promote resistance such as the kufiyah. Bishara’s art, in both its applied and conceptual manifestations, defines the Palestinians identity.
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CV
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2008
Bread and Salt – Women workshop, Palestinian Art Court, Al-Hoash, Palestine
Visions, Palestinian Art Court, Al-Hoash, Palestine
2007
Rana Bishara - Homage to Palestine, Galerie municipale Julio Gonzalez, Arcueil, France
2004
Creation, Xanadu Art Gallery, New York, United States of America
Bergen Hall Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, United States of America
2000
Voyage of the Returnees, The Arts & Crafts Village Gallery, Gaza, Palestine
1999
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine
Nazareth Cultural Center, Nazareth, Palestine
1996
Rathhaus, Aarau, Switzerland
Jules Gloor Gallery, Aarau, Switzerland
1993
First Solo Exhibition, Nazareth, Occupied Palestine
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019
Intimate Terrains :Representations of a Disappearing Landscape, The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Palestinian territories
J’attends la pluie, Mix'art Myrys, Toulouse, France
2018
Live in Palestine, A Space Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2008
Memory Triptych, Palestinian Art Court, Al-hoach, Palestine
2006
Made in Palestine,The Bridge Gallery, New York, United States of America
Paranoia, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, United Kingdom
2005
Visit Palestine: A Voyage Through Contemporary Art, 4 Walls Gallery, Amman, Jordan
Ten Artist Ten Years, Aarau, Switzerland
Made in Palestine, T.W. Wood Art Gallery & Art Center, Montpelier, France
The Subject of Palestine, SomArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, California, United States of America
2003
Made in Palestine, Station Art Museum, Houston Texas, United States of America
2002
Williamsburg Bridges Palestine – The Face of Palestinian Humanity through Art Culture, Williamsburg Art & Historic Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America
Palestinian Artist Today, WUK Projektraum, Vienna, Austria
2001
Entity – Palestinian Women Artists, Nazareth Cultural Center, Nazareth, Occupied Palestine
1999
Palestinian Artists Today, Drammen Museum of Art and Cultural History, Drammen, Norway
Darat Al-Funun Gallery, Amman, Jordan
Gateway, The National Gallery of fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
50 Years of Creativity, Nazareth Cultural Center, Nazareth, Occupied Palestine
1998
Al-Wasiti Art Center, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
Ami Stienetz Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Occupied Palestine
Umm Al-Fahm City Gallery, Umm Al-Fahm, Palestine
Palestinian Art, Royal Academy of Art, Stockholm, Sweden
Home, Anadeel Gallery, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
1997
The Scream of the Wadi, Installation, Haifa, Occupied Palestine
1995
Wohin?, One year Touring Exhibition, Muenster, Telgte, Kassel, Oldenburg, Duesseldorf Fellbach and Cologne, Germany
1995
The Artist Museum, Lodz, Poland
1994
From Galilee to Jerusalem, Al-Wasiti Art Center, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
Collections
Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
The National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
Darat Al-Funun, Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan
Qupty’s Family Private Collection for Contemporary Palestinian Art, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
Pamela and Ramsey Khalidi’s Private Collection, Savannah, United States of America
Hala Al Kayali private collection, New York, United States of America
Art Omi International Arts Center, New York, United States of America
The Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, United States of America
Press
ThisWeekinPalestine_2014.pdf
DottyCommies_2003.pdf
ec872a07-1890-45a3-89a5-29d57f23f24bSotalIraq.pdf
الفنانة رنا بشارة_ تحكي قصة زرقاوات الجبل.pdf
جريدة الايام ... صحيفة فلسطينية يومية سياسية مستقلة.pdf
رنا بشارة... بورتريه بألياف الصبّار.pdf
بسيسو يفتتح معرض زرقاوات الجبل للفنانة رنا بشارة.pdf
Arab48_Dr.Malihah Messelmani.pdf
Rana Bishara Catalog.pdf
Arab48.pdf
رنا بشارة_ مقاومة بالفن - كافيه شو.pdf
Art-Net_1999.pdf
الحياة - رنا بشارة تواجه جدار الفصل العنصري بالتجهيز الفني.pdf
Art, Activism, and the Presence of Memory in Palestine_ Interview with Palestinian Artist Rana Bishara — borderlines.pdf
Palestinian Artist Rana Bishara.pdf
Jadaliyya - غزة في أعمال الفنانة الفلسطينية رنا بشارة.pdf
RANA BISHARA Artwork
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