biography.

c.

d,

a.

With more than a decade of engagement in the SWANA region, Walid Al Wawi, a Jordanian Palestinian-native, is an artist and cultural practitioner passionate about the dismantlement of political connotation in the contemporary Arab identity as well as the deinstitutionalisation of art research in local and international discourse through alternative methodologies of education, and cultural practices.

Al Wawi works in painting, performance, video and installation. He received critical acclaim for his academic and purest approach to objects and physical documentation that dialogue with the political and cultural identity of the Palestinian body in diaspora, it’s implication on the post colonialist dream of pan Arabism and vice versa, he has been welcomed by leading institutes and spaces such as Darat Al Funun, Jameel Arts Center, The Tate Exchange, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art South Korea, FIAC Art Fair and many more.

His most recent undertaking is the founding of the regionally pioneering grassroots initiative Samt, for Arts and Research, through which he envision a democratisation of art accessibility and pushing the boundaries of the physically confined white space to a more contemporary and digital approach; opening the receptivity of art and discourse from Southwestern Asia and North Africa to an international audience from all regions with no Geo-political restrictions on humans or art.

Residencies

2017, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

Exhibitions, Fairs & International contributions

2022, Verbal History, Public Art Fund, New York

2022, He-athen, Mathaf, Qatar

2019, EOUP, Art Jameel, Dubai
2019, Qala, Darat Al Funun, Amman
2018, We Shall Be Monsters, Qattan Art Foundation, Ramallah
2017, May God Teach You English, MMCA, Seoul
2017, The Rationaliser .b, XX Bienal, Santa Cruz
2017, Dialectic, Tate Exchange, London
2017, Portrait Patriot, Momentum, Berlin
2016, Flood System, Art16, London
2016, Iteration, Satalite, Dubai
2016, The Rationaliser, Fe Alharaka Baraka, Maraya Art Center, Dubai
2014, The Grasshopper, FIAC In Process, Paris
2014, Modifiation and tragedy, Turning point, Tashkeel, Dubai
2013, Hiding , INCUBARTE, Spain
2013, Flood System, Maraya Art Center, Abudhabi Art , Dubai
2012, Place the dots, Funoon, Art Dubai, Dubai

Curation

Qala 0.89003 at Darat Al Funun, The Lab
Qala 0.89002 at Gray Noise, Alserkal Avenue
Qala 0.89001 at Satellite, Alserkal Avenue
Flag Continent at TATE exchange

Awards & Honours

2018, 10 Finalists, YAYA 2018, Qattan Art Foundation
2016, 50 Finalists, Sovereign Art Prize
2013, Kunooz Art Prize, Ayyam Gallery
2013, 50 Shortlisted, Emergant International Artist
2011, First Place in Fine Arts, Shikha Manal YAA

Collections

2016, Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan
2016, Maraya Art Center