Draft:Samar Hussaini
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Comment: Please delete unsourced sections of early life. See, MOS:BIRTHDATE .Also, please refer to MOS:ROLEBIO for a better lead. Astra Travasso (talk) 20:41, 15 June 2025 (UTC)
Samar Hussaini (born July 13, 1970[citation needed] in the United States) is a Palestinian-American contemporary artist whose work explores cultural identity, resilience, and memory. She is known for mixed-media paintings and sculptural dress forms that reinterpret traditional Palestinian embroidery.
Hussaini earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Art History from the University of Maryland in 1993, followed by a Master’s degree in Communication Design from Pratt Institute in New York City in 2001.
Early Life and Education
[edit]Samar Hussaini was born and raised in the United States and spent summers with her family in Jerusalem. She comes from a prominent Palestinian family deeply rooted in cultural, academic, and political life. Her grandfather, Dr. Ishaq Musa al-Husseini[1], was a renowned Palestinian scholar, author, and public intellectual whose writings on Arab thought and education contributed significantly to the region’s intellectual history.
Her father, Hatem Ishaq Husseini, an academic and president of Al-Quds University. He was known for his work as a scholor and for his advocacy for Palestinian self-determination. Through his writing and public speaking, he highlighted the impact of war and exile on Palestinian identity and was a formative influence on Samar’s understanding of justice, resilience, and narrative.
Her mother, Lama Hussaini, was a highly accomplished private banker and one of the top professionals in her field, recognized for her leadership and success in a male-dominated industry. Lama’s strength, discipline, and pride in cultural heritage played a key role in shaping Samar’s creative vision.
These early influences—rooted in intellectual legacy, cultural pride, and cross-cultural experience—would later become central to Hussaini’s artistic practice.
She studied studio art and art history at the University of Maryland, where she received her B.A. degree in 1993. That same year, she completed an artist residency and held a solo exhibition at Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan, a leading contemporary arts institution in the Arab world. The experience deepened her engagement with cultural memory and the role of art in preserving identity.
In 2001, she earned an M.S. in communication design from Pratt Institute in New York City, where she expanded her skills in visual storytelling and interdisciplinary design. Her educational background laid the foundation for a practice that merges fine art, textile traditions, and contemporary cultural expression.
Career
[edit]A multimedia artist, Hussaini is known for her innovative use of layered materials—combining painting, textile, embroidery, and image transfer techniques—to explore themes of cultural identity, resilience, and memory. She is especially famous for her sculptural dress forms inspired by the traditional Palestinian thobe, which reimagine heritage garments as vessels of cultural storytelling and contemporary expression.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the 59th Venice Biennale[2] in 2022 as part of the exhibition From Palestine with Art. She has shown at institutions and galleries such as Alfa Art Gallery, Leonovich Gallery, and the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition. In 2023, her work was also included in From Palestine with Art in London, UK.
Hussaini has received several awards and distinctions for her work. These include the Innovative Fine Art Award from the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, First Place in the Mirror to the World exhibition at Alfa Art Gallery, and Best in Show at the Maplewood Art Walk. Earlier in her career, she also received industry recognition for her work in advertising and design, including Gold and Silver DTC Advertising Awards and a One Show RX honor for excellence in communication design.
Her art is featured in the 2025 Foxtrot Films documentary WAR PAINT – WOMEN AT WAR, a feature-length film exploring the work of women artists responding to conflict. She is also included in the forthcoming book Narrative Threads: Palestinian Embroidery in Contemporary Art (Saqi Books, 2025), which examines the evolving role of tatreez in global visual culture.
In addition to her studio work, Hussaini serves as Exhibition Chair of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA)[3], where she curates and organizes exhibitions that support and elevate the work of women artists across disciplines.
Her work has been covered in publications such as MERP Magazine #313 (Winter 2024)[4], Architectural Digest Middle East[5], Phoebe Journal[6], Jersey City Times[7], New Jersey Arts[8] NJ.com[9], and Bold Journey. Through both her art and curatorial practice, Hussaini contributes to broader dialogues around cultural preservation, displacement, and visibility in contemporary art.
External links
[edit]- ^ "Ishaq Musa al-Husseini - Writers and Novelists (1904 - 1990)". Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question – palquest. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ "Official Collateral Event | From Palestine With Art | Palazzo Mora | My Art Guides". My Art Guides | Your Compass in the Art World. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ adelaide. "Committee Chairs – National Association of Women Artists, Inc. | NAWA". Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ Hannun, Marya (2025-01-29). "A Note on the Cover Image". MERIP. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ Ghali, Maghie (2023-10-31). "13 Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About". AD Middle East. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ Literature, Phoebe (2024-08-20). "Samar Hussaini - phoebe". Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ McCall, Tris (2025-05-09). "A Reinvigorated Art Fair 14C Returns". Jersey City Times. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ McCALL, TRIS (2025-04-22). "Six (more) things to see on second annual Garden State Art Weekend". NJArts.net. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
- ^ NJ.com, Karim Shamsi-Basha | NJ Advance Media for (2025-02-26). "Palestinian artist showcases cultural identity in new exhibit". nj. Retrieved 2025-06-15.