b. 1936 Jerusalem, Palestine; lives and works New York, U.S.

Samia Halaby is an artist whose work sits at the intersection of abstract painting, theory and technology. Educated in the 1950s in the American Midwest, at a time when abstract expressionism was popular, her work is clearly in line with American art movements she evolved with, yet it is consciously enriched by the history of broader global practices of pictorial expression. Her oeuvre is characterised by global and Arabic visual language across expanded painting and early computer technologies. Interested in the study of textures, surfaces, and colours of her surroundings, she considers the effect of light on the objects around her, and continuously investigates how the human eye records the world. The matter of how we see our surrounding while moving and conversely the fluidity of perception is of importance to Halaby’s ongoing theoretical research.

In the mid-1980s, her time as a visiting artist at the University of Hawaii marks a turning point in her exploration of motion and by the mid 1980’s Halaby was teaching herself coding. It is in this moment, in 1986, that she begins programming kinetic paintings on an amiga computer. These experimentations with computer-generated visuals naturally evolve into the Kinetic Painting Program, through which she transforms the keyboard of her PC into a live digital painting instrument.

Recent solo exhibitions include Eye Witness, MSU Broad Art Museum, Michigan, (2024); Fragments of time - paintings & digital works, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg (2024); Lasting Impressions: Samia Halaby, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2023); Documentary Drawings of the Kafr Qasem Massacre, Birzeit University Museum, Ramallah, Palestine (2017). Recent group shows include Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern, London, (2024); Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960-1991, MUDAM, Luxembourg City (2024); Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2024); Small World, Taipei Biennial, Taipei (2023); Natasha, Singapore Biennale 2022, Singapore (2022); Grand Opening, Palestine Museum, Woodbridge, Connecticut (2019); This Sea is Mine, 3rd Qalandiya International Biennial, Palestine (2016); Seeing Through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi (2014).

For further information about this artist please click here.

For Samia Halaby's entry on Asia Art Archive's website please click here.