Samia Halaby in 1959. First few months as graduate student at Michigan State University. Courtesy the artist
“I always wanted to be an abstract painter, that was in my heart always.” – Samia Halaby
Artland’s Lost (and Found) Artist Series focuses on artists who were originally omitted from the mainstream art canon or largely invisible for most of their careers. This week, Samia Halaby takes centre stage. The Palestinian artist has been living and working in New York since the 1970s, developing a bold language of abstraction and pioneering computer-based kinetic art in the 1980s. With a prolific career mostly spent under the radar, today Halaby’s work is part of prestigious institutions around the world.
