Anisa Ashkar
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (April 2025) |
Anisa Ashkar | |
|---|---|
 Art lovers make art: Anisa Ashkar's "Show" performance at the entrance to the Nelly Amen Gallery. | |
| Born | 1979 Acre, Palestine |
| Occupation | Contemporary Artist |
| Language | Arabic |
| Education | Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl College |
| Website | |
| www | |
Anisa Ashkar (born 1979) is a Palestinian contemporary and interdisciplinary artist with a focus in performance, photography, painting, and drawing. She has made shedding cultural constructions and fighting categorizations – such as feminine and masculine, Palestinian and Israeli – a focal point of her work.[1][2] Much of her work is influenced through her life experience as a woman, Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab.
Early life and career influences
[edit]Being born into occupation, a powerful aspect of her life and stimulated her desire for to create art. An early art form she adopted during her collegiate-career at Beit Berl, where she began studying art, was Arabic calligraphy drawn upon her face with make-up.[3][2][1][2] The reason she chose to use this art method was to embrace her Arab identity within a city, Tel Aviv, that saw her as French or Brazilian.[3][1] She turned her face into a canvas to enshrine her Arab identity in an Israeli-majority environment which did not read or speak Arabic.[2][4]
About fourteen years after she left college, she began working as an artist between her hometown of Acre and Tel Aviv/Jaffa. Within this space, she began again to be mistaken as other ethnic groups, thus prompting the renewal of the calligraphy make up medium. She recalled, "It's to remind myself that I am Arab, because I am constantly in Jewish or foreign space."[3] Much of her work is influenced by her place in society and the labels she embodies: women, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian.
Career and works
[edit]Ashkar's methodology within her works, the message she is trying to pass along, is to create a discussion within the society that humans cling upon. She would go on to state, "As an artist, I try to challenge the way we, women, Arabs, artists, experience our personal and professional existence. These starting points allow me to use art to explore the specific ways in which the definition of femininity has taken shape in different societies around the world...In my works I also raise questions related to the essence of art itself and the boundaries between the work and the artist, using my body and face as a canvas, which I decorate with Arabic calligraphy, as a symbol of folk and social customs in the Arab tradition." Much of her work resembles religious and cultural pieces within her truth and realm.[4]
For over twenty years, Ashkar has been using her face as a canvas, writing daily sentences and phrases upon her skin – visible to all, while not understood by all. She does this as a piece of art, yes, but she also is trying to encourage conversations about her Palestinian-Arab identity.[2][1][3]
Within the realm of her works, Ashkar has been creating various works for more than two decade in mediums such as: painting, installation, performance, and photography stemming from her personal-life's journey. In an example of one of most famous canvases, Ashkar's face is bestowed with calligraphy, an art medium she began using at the age of nine.[3] While the language itself may be difficult to read and may be in a language which the viewer does not understand, she aspires to bridge the shape and content by making herself the artwork and the canvas.[4] Ashkar demonstrates a creative and imaginative way of using language as an art medium – whether spoken or written. An especially profound example of her uses of language would be her performance in 2004, titled "Barbur 24000," which is named after her childhood home in Acre. In this performance, Ashkar can be observed aggressively and compulsively within a bath of milk. While scrubbing herself, her canvas, she recites Muslim purity rituals in Arabic, which are then translated into Hebrew for the Israeli audience by Aharon Barnea.[5][6]
Yet another example of using her Arab identity within an Israeli-dominant space, she chooses to confront racial stereotypes. In her "E-Alina" performance at the Bat-Yam Museum in 2010, Ashkar begins to brew black coffee- a highly prominent feature of many Arab societies. Within the pot, she uses cardamom, hoping to elicit a sensory overload upon the audience. She then splashes the coffee onto the walls of the gallery, forming a "dark waterfall which clings to the white wall, creating what looked like dark-skinned body tissue."[1] She would also paint and cover male and female performers with the black coffee liquid and grounds. Following this, she invited engagement with the audience to drink the coffee. With the visuals, the smells, the tastes, the audience's engagement, Ashkar hoped to create though surrounding Arabism and femininity.[1][6]
In a final example of her Palestinian identity being exhibited within her works, her 2003 performance titled "Finlat Beit Jalla." In this artwork, Ashkar covers a gallery with Goldband margarine – an Israeli staple-packaged in Israeli national colors. She is using glasses borrowed, causing her vision to be impaired and blurry. Her reasoning for using the glasses during the performance was as follows: "I wanted to understand how they see the world – as men, as Jews, as authority figures. But I couldn’t see properly with their prescription glasses; my sight has become all blurry, while trying to augment the soft, slippery, margarine on the gallery walls. I am not all that they are. I’m me – a woman, a Palestinian, an artist."[1] She finally splashes feminine substances around the gallery, the male performers, and upon herself. She hoped to detail the nuances of a Muslim-Palestinian living within a Jewish-Israeli world. She conflates a mixture of her women-identity and Palestinian-identity.[1][4][6]
Education
[edit]- Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl College: 2001–2004[8]
- Studies art, The Western Galilee College: 1998–2000[8]
Residencies
[edit]- Institut Français, La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France: 2019[9]
- Guest Atelier, Kunsthuas Düsseldorf, Germany: 2008[9]
Professioanl art instruction experience
[edit]- “Artist Encounters – Sal Tarbut”, special program by Israel's Ministry of Culture: 2004–2014
- Shenkar – Engineering, Design, Art, Ramat Gan, Israel: 2011–2013
- Minshar School of Art, Tel Aviv: 2010–2012
- Special project guide, Tel Aviv Museum of Art: 2005–2010[9]
Awards, prizes, and scholarships
[edit]- Artist in Community Award, Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture: 2017
- Landau Prize for Arts and Sciences Artist in Community Award, Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture: 2016
- Ministry of Culture and Sports Prize for the Arts: 2015
- Young Artist Award, Israel Ministry of Education and Culture: 2007
- Artistic-Teacher Award, Israel Ministry of Education and Culture: 2006
- Artistic-Teacher Award, Israel Ministry of Education and Culture: 2005
- Artistic Excellence Award, Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl College: 2004[8][9]
Exhibitions
[edit]Solo exhibitions
[edit]- 2018 “Homeland to the poor and patriotism to whom!", Oranim Academic College
- 2017 “Black Gold”, The Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures, Beer Sheva “Golden Surface”, Walled Off Hotel Gallery, Bethlehem
- 2016 “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”, The Lobby – Art Space, Tel Aviv
- 2015 “Proba 2”, Gabirol Gallery, Tel Aviv “Take Care”, The Municipal Gallery, Kfar Saba, Israel
- 2014 "Jouissance", N&N Aman Gallery, Tel Aviv
- 2013 "New Works", Mane House, Tel Aviv
- 2012 "Anisa, Not All is Black", Beeri Gallery, Kibbutz Beeri, Israel
- 2011 "Save the Date: Today", Figyres International Festival, Spain "Save the Date: Afternoon", Haifa Museum of Art, Israel "Save the Date: Tonight", Performance Biennale, Bamat Meizag, Tel Aviv
- 2010 "Zift", N&N Aman Gallery, Tel Aviv
- 2009 "Mashkhara", Fresh Paint 2 – Art Fair, Tel Aviv, sponsor: Outset Contemporary Art Fund
- 2008 "Al Adham (The Black Horse)", Artists House, Tel Aviv
- 2007 "In a Twinkling of an Eye", Space Art Track 7, Athens
- 2006 "I Have Returned, Jaffa", Yaffa, Jaffa, Israel "Hakol Katuv (All is Written)", Mishkanot Sha'ananim, Jerusalem
- 2004 "Me and Klee Paint", Beit Berl College, Kalmaniya, Israel "Ummi", Seraya – Arab-Jewish Theater, Jaffa, Israel "The Frogwoman", Bamat Meizag – Performance Art Platform, Tel Aviv "Untitled (Barbur 24000)", Acre Theater
- 2003 "Barbur Aswad", Hagar Art Gallery, Jaffa, Israel[8]
Group exhibitions
[edit]- 2017 “Art School: Hamidrasha Faculty of Arts at Seventy”, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
- 2016 “The Winners: Ministry of Culture and Sport Prizes for 2015”, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art “Traces VI: The Return of Paper / Reflections on Drawing”, Artists' House, Jerusalem “The Identity of the Palestinian Artist”, Umm El-Fahem Gallery
- 2015 “Covers”, Kupferman's House, Lohamei HaGeta'ot, Israel “Art Sale for Torture Survivors Program”, The Lobby Art Space, Tel Aviv “Houses beyond the Hyphen”, Zochrot, Jaffa, Israel "Still, Dead", The Lobby Art Space, Tel Aviv "Porcelain: The White Gold of Europe", Haifa Museum of Art, Israel "Art Book Fair", Artport, Tel Aviv
- 2014 "Chicago Triangle", Haifa Museum of Art, Israel "Manifestations of Letter", Umm El-Fahem Gallery, Israel "Zaz Festival", Tel Aviv "Ode to a Woman", Office in Tel Aviv Gallery "Lebensraum", Artists House, Tel Aviv "Profile is Aggression Too", Minus 1 Gallery, Tel Aviv
- 2013 "Centrifuge", The Nathan Cummings Foundation in association with Artis, New YorK "Voices From the Interior: Palestinian Women Artists", Mana Contemporary Gallery, in collaboration with Umm El-Fahem Gallery, New Jersey "Effervescence", Nahum Gutman Museum of Art, Tel Aviv "Sal Zriha", Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center, Tel Aviv "Visual Scripts", Wilfried Israel Museum, HaZore'a Kibbutz, Israel "Eye Territory", The Diaghilev, Tel Aviv "We Connected", The Israeli Children's Museum, Holon, Israel "Galilee Colors" a Contemporary Art Fair, Hatzor Haglilit, Israel "Rosa Luxemburg, Yona the prophetess, Queen Lear", Haifa Museum, Israel
- 2012 "Memugadarot – Feminist Art and Theory", Gerstein Gallery, Tel Aviv "Spring", MECA Contemporary Gallery, New Jersey "Home/Place", Umm El-Fahem Gallery, Israel "Bread and Roses 7", Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv "Memory and Immigration", Umm El-Fahem Gallery, Israel
- 2011 "Boydem Art Festival", Tel Aviv "The Gordon Show", Loving Art. Making Art Festival, Tel Aviv "According to Foreign Sources", Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel "Bread and Roses 6", Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv
- 2010 "Island" an ongoing performance project, Bat Yam Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel "Stroll", Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv "Bread and Roses 5", Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv "Estrangements", Hakita Gallery, Sapir College, Sderot, Israel
- 2009 "Women Creating Changes" (traveling exhibition), Museum of Modern Art Tallinn, Estonia "Bread and Roses 4", Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv "Art Factory – The Launch", Art Factory, Bat Yam, Israel "Home", Apart.Art Gallery, Tel Aviv Sotheby's Israeli and International Art Auction, New York "Jennifer Bar Lev Hosting Anisa Ashkar", Tel Aviv Open Studious Festival "Environmental Sensitivity", Menashe Forests Festival, Israel "Black", the House of Culture and Art, Nazareth "Bart.Art", P8 Gallery, Tel Aviv "Female Artists in Tel Aviv", Gallery 101, Tel Aviv "Musrara Photography Festival", Jerusalem "Compact Duo", Hankin Gallery, Holon, Israel Wessling Gallery, Wessling and Munich, Germany Beit Hagefen the Arab-Jewish Center, Haifa, Israel Le Violon Bleu Gallery, London
- 2008 "Van Gogh in Tel Aviv", Rubin Museum, Tel Aviv "Skin", Kastiel Gallery, Tel Aviv "Occupied Space", Qattan Foundation, London "Bread and Roses 3", Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv "Gallery Collection", N&N Aman Gallery, Tel Aviv "Winners 2007", Haifa Museum of Art, Israel "Al Asbach (The White Horse)", Essel Museum, Vienna, Austria "Feminine Voice", Miskanot Ha'amanim, Holon, Israel "Language and Gender", Artneuland Gallery, Berlin "Afternoon", Andreas Brüning Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
- 2007 "Passing the Batonette", Haifa Museum of Art, Israel “Islands”, Instituto Italiano di Coltura, Haifa, Israel "The Other Sea", Artists House, Jerusalem "Portrait", Artneuland Gallery, Berlin "This isn't Israeli Art", Tmuna Theater, Tel Aviv "Embroiders, Embroidery and Calligraphy in Israeli contemporary art", Ben Gurion University, Israel
- 2006 "Partners", Holiday of the Holidays Festival, Haifa "Identity of the Inner Monster", MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland "5th Reading Art Fair", Tel Aviv "Urban or Rural", Beit Hagefen the Arab-Jewish Center, Haifa "Black Coffee", Beit Hagefen the Arab-Jewish Center, Haifa, Israel Apolonea, Strasbourg, France
- 2005 "Still the Palm Trees Are Green", Kodra, Salonica, Greece "X Territory", the Municipal Gallery, Rehovot, Israel "Play-Ground", Beit Hagefen the Arab-Jewish Center, Haifa "Autobiography", Beit Berl College, Kalmaniya, Israel
- 2004 "Light & Shade", Beit Hagefen the Arab-Jewish Center, Haifa "Connected Vessels", The Acco Festival of Alternative Theater, Acre, Israel "Last Dance", Omanut Haaretz Festival, Power Station Compound, Tel Aviv
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h Dekel, Tal (2007). "Subversive Uses of Perception: The Case of Palestinian Artist Anisa Ashkar". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 40 (2): 300–308.
- ^ a b c d e "Anisa Ashkar – Discover Israeli Art on Artsource.online!". Artsource.online. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
- ^ a b c d e Hackl, Andres (2022), The Invisible Palestinians : The Hidden Struggle for Inclusion in Jewish Tel Aviv, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp. xii–xiv
- ^ a b c d "Anisa Ashkar". Tel Aviv Artists' Studios. 2022.
- ^ Bernard, Joy (10 September 2020). "Letting the Sunshine In: A Conversation with Artist Anisa Ashkar". Art Source.
- ^ a b c d "Portfolio". Anisa Ashkar. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
- ^ "Selected Works". Anisa Ashkar. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
- ^ a b c d "Anisa Ashkar". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
- ^ a b c d "CV". Anisa Ashkar. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
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