Nabil Anani: Palestine, Land and People

Nabil Anani is one of the most prominent Palestinian artists working today. A painter, ceramicist and sculptor, he has built an impressive catalogue of outstanding, innovative and unique art over the past five decades, pioneering the use of local media such as leather, henna, natural dyes, papier-m ch , wood, beads and copper.

Considered by many as a key founder of the contemporary Palestinian art movement, Anani's development as an artist has run in parallel with major events in recent Palestinian history. His work reflects the lived Palestinian experience, exhibiting distinctive responses to issues of exile, dislocation, conflict, memory and loss. Anani's artistic vision restores and celebrates a denied and often-forgotten reality, his work re-igniting memory.

Bringing together more than 150 of Nabil Anani's works, this monograph also includes contributions from acclaimed Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti as well as from leading Middle Eastern art historians, Rana Anani, Lara Khaldi, Bashir Makhoul, Nada Shabout, Housni Alkhateeb Shehadeh and Tina Sherwell.

Nabil Anani (b.1943, Latroun, Palestine) graduated in Fine Art from Alexandra University, Egypt, in 1969. Anani held his first exhibition in Jerusalem in 1972 and has since exhibited widely in solo and group shows in Europe, North America, the Middle East, North Africa and Japan. Anani was awarded (by Yasser Arafat) the first Palestinian National Prize for Visual Art in 1997 and became the head of the League of Palestinian Artists in 1998. Anani played a key role in the establishment of the first International Academy of Fine Art in Palestine. He lives in Ramallah, Palestine. Nada Shabout is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of North Texas. She has published numerous articles on contemporary Arab art and is the founding director of the Modern Art Iraq Archive. Tina Sherwell is the Director of Academic Programmes at the International Academy of Art Palestine in Jerusalem. She has worked extensively as a curator and critic with a focus on contemporary Palestinian art. Bashir Makhoul is a Palestinian artist and the newly-appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts in the UK.