Shareef Sarhan

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Shareef Sarhan
Born
Wael Shareef Sarhan

(1976-11-25) 25 November 1976 (age 48)
Gaza City, Palestine
Occupation(s)Photographer, photojournalist, visual artist, designer
Years active1998–present
Known forPhotography, installation art, sculpture, multimedia art

Shareef Sarhan (born 1976) is a Palestinian photographer, multidisciplinary visual artist, and designer. He is a founding member of Shababeek for Contemporary Art (Windows From Gaza); and has published two books, Gaza War (2007), and Gaza Lives (2012).

Contents

Early life

Shareef Sarhan was born on 25 November 1976, in Gaza City, Palestine. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Sarhan was enrolled in the Darat al Funun (English: Dara Academy of Jordanian Arts) summer academy that was hosted from 1999 to 2003, with Marwan Kassab-Bachi (1934–2016) serving as the director. [3] [5] He graduated in 2001 from the International Correspondence School (ICS) of Scranton, Pennsylvania, US. [3]

Career

The Lighthouse of Gaza (2016) by Sarhan Gaza Sea Port 18.jpg
The Lighthouse of Gaza (2016) by Sarhan

Sarhan began photography work in 1998, and mostly worked as a freelance photographer for international organizations. [6] He has taken photographs of closed off areas within Palestine, and of the ongoing conflict. [7]

Some of his notable visual artwork include The Lighthouse of Gaza  [ ar ] (2016), a public sculpture and installation; Clutter re-Making (2018), a sculptural installation; and Soldiers and the Concrete Base, multimedia (2019–2021).

In the summer of 2014, and during the course of the 51 days of Israeli offensive against Gaza, Sarhan created a series of 51 photographs related to the event. [8] Sarhan started visiting factories and workshops in Gaza in 2017 to collected discarded materials such as aluminum. [6] He would take the discarded materials and created art in the form of Arabic letters in bright colors. [6]

Sarhan is one of the founding member of Shababeek for Contemporary Art (Windows From Gaza), located on the Gaza Strip. [6] [5] [9] Shababeek grew to some 250 members in 2019. [9] The Shababeek for Contemporary Art building was located across from the Al-Shifa Hospital, and in April 2024 during the ongoing Gaza war, the building was destroyed by Israel. [9] It was the last contemporary artist space in Gaza at the time. [9]

Sarhan won the Bronze Award (2010) at the Festival of Arab Photographers Europe in Berlin, Germany. [4] [3] He is a member of the Palestinian Artists Association. [6]

Sarhan was featured in a Deutsche Welle (DW) documentary titled, Preserving Gaza's Photographic History (2020), directed by Tania Krämer. [7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ de Vet, Annelys (2007). Subjective Atlas of Palestine (أطلس فلسطين الذاتي). 010 Publishers. p. 149. ISBN   978-90-6450-648-2 – via Google Books.
  2. ↑ "Gaza Lives! New Art Exhibit by Shareef Sarhan". Salem-News.Com. 16 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Shareef Sarhan". Imago Mundi Collection. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Shababek for Contemporary Art: The Art Scene During Ongoing War". The Palestinian Museum. 6 August 2024. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
  5. 1 2 "Shareef Sarhan". Shababek from Gaza. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Abu Rezk, Hani (26 June 2017). "Gaza artist turns waste into art". Al-Monitor . Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  7. 1 2 Krämer, Tania (13 August 2020). "New documentary: Gaza in black-and-white photos". Deutsche Welle (DW). Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "Artist Talk: Shareef Sarhan". Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation. 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Nayyar, Rhea (4 April 2024). "Gaza's Last Contemporary Art Space Destroyed by Israel". Hyperallergic . Retrieved 22 May 2025.
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