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Samia Halaby

Lifetime Achievement – 2024

Samia Halaby, born in Jerusalem in 1936, is a pioneering Palestinian-American artist and scholar based in New York. Forced to leave her homeland in 1948, she settled with her family in Cincinnati in 1951. Educated in the Midwest, Halaby emerged as a leading figure in abstract expressionism, blending American art movements with Arabic visual influences.

Her work focuses on movement and space, drawing inspiration from natural phenomena and urban life, and her explorations in the 1980s led her to create shaped canvases, three-dimensional mobiles, and innovative computer-generated visuals.In the late 1980s, Halaby developed kinetic paintings using an Amiga computer, integrating code and sound to push digital media into new artistic realms. Her career, spanning over six decades, has been marked by artistic innovation and an enduring commitment to abstraction. An independent scholar, she has documented Palestinian art and contributed significantly to art history and pedagogy, notably as the first full-time female associate professor at the Yale School of Art.

Beyond her art, Halaby is a dedicated advocate, organizing around issues of class, race, and Palestinian rights since the 1970s, cementing her legacy in both the art world and social justice movements.