Diana al-Hadid

Diana Al-Hadid (Arabic: ديانا الحديد‎; born 1981) is a Syrian-born American[1][2] contemporary artist who creates sculptures, installations, and drawings using various common materials, including wood, plaster, wax, paint, cardboard, plaster, and charcoal, among others.[2] She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York with her husband Jon Lott and son August.[3]

Diana al-Hadid
Born
Diana al-Hadid

1981 (age 38–39)
Aleppo, Syria
NationalityArab-American
Education
Known forsculpture, installation
Websitedianaalhadid.com

Early life and education

Al-Hadid was born in Aleppo, Syria.[4][5] At the age of five, she emigrated with her family to North Canton, Ohio.[6] She speaks both Arabic and English. Al-Hadid grew up creating art with her grandmother and from a young age, she was enamored with the relationship between space and perspective.[7] At the age of 11, Al-Hadid decided that she wanted to be an artist.[8]

Al-Hadid attended Glen Oak High School in Canton, Ohio.[2]

In 2003, Al-Hadid received a BA in art history and a BFA in sculpture from Kent State University in Ohio.[6] While attending Kent State, Al-Hadid's artwork focused on the similarities and differences between her Arab and American cultural backgrounds.[9] In 2005, she received an MFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond,[6][10] where she began experimenting with materials such as polystyrene, fiberglass, and plaster.

She would continue to use these and other industrial materials in her future works.[9] In 2007, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture where she completed an artist residency.[11] At the time, she was one of the only, if not the only, female Arab-Americans attending these schools.[2]

After all her education she moved to Brooklyn, New York where she still currently resides with her husband and son.[3]

Works

Al-Hadid is a Muslim and female artist, which can present challenges in the culture of today. She uses her art and non-Western concepts to help bridge her Western life to her Middle Eastern upbringing.[2]

Al-Hadid's body of work consists mainly of large scale sculptures, including bronze sculptures, and drawings.[2]

Al-Hadid utilizes many of the same ideas and techniques in both her two-dimensional work as well as her three-dimensional work including abstraction and the interaction of visual and physical stability.[2]

Fool's Gold, 2014, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, wood, plaster, cement, gold leaf

Sculpture

Gregory Volk describes Al-Hadid's work in an articulate manner by saying, "They are imbued with potent, world-shaping forces, including regeneration and entropy, growth and decay."[2]

An incomplete list of her sculptures includes Tomorrow's Superstition (2008), Actor (2009), Trace of a Fictional Third (2011), At the Vanishing Point (2012), and Divided Line (2012).[2]

An incomplete list of her bronze sculptures includes In Mortal Repose (2011), Missed Mark (2010), Stage Fright (2010), and Graphite on Leak (2010).[2]

Construction

Al-Hadid makes sculptures from simple materials such as cardboard, expanded polystyrene, plaster, and wax;[1] some are built in parts so that they can be assembled and disassembled.[4] She often uses ornamentation in many of her sculptures, which is a tie to Middle Eastern cultures.[7] Al-Hadid ties her Syrian heritage in with many of her works, one in particular being, The Gradual Approach of My Disintegration.[5] In this work she pairs sandals with the Aleppo Citadel, which is a Muslim holy site, to create a work that showcases the culture of Syria visually and briefly.[9] Although many of her works have a tie and direct message linked to her Middle Eastern heritage, the materials she uses in her sculptures are a tie to her American upbringing.[5]

Al-Hadid's early work focused on creating contrast through scale.[12] She began incorporating partial figuration into her sculptures with works such as Actor (2009).[2] The sculpture In Mortal Repose (2011) is her first use of bronze.[2] Al-Hadid creates visually stimulating sculptures with a variety of materials. Her sculptures are meticulously created with eccentric patterns and melded parts. Her sculptures show a potential to fall at any moment but are truly quite stable.[7] Al-Hadid uses materials such as cardboard, plywood, plaster, and resin to create sculptures that appear to be breaking or even melting.[7] In her bronze sculptures, she manages to manipulate the material in a way that looks as if it is dripping.[2] Her sculptures, though not truly moving, have a sense of movement about them that causes the viewer to want to view her work at every possible angle.[2] Through her sculptures, she focuses on the relationship between a person’s mind as well as their physical being. Many of her sculptures allow the audience to walk among the different parts of the sculpture.[1]

Al-Hadid is successful at combining the use of human forms, architectural elements, and landscapes in a manner that allows them to bleed into one another, making it difficult for the viewer to decipher what is what.[2] Al-Hadid's works are primarily monochromatic and best known for their resemblance to ancient ruins and their unique drip structures.[2][12] Al-Hadid works with the concept of the pedestal, and her work has also evolved to the point where she intentionally uses and includes the pedestals that her pieces are displayed on as actual parts of the sculptures, and incorporating and redesigning this traditional gallery space structure into works such as At the Vanishing Point (2012).[2] Manipulation of gravity and the illusion of instability are also key concepts in her sculptures.[12][2]

Inspiration

Al-Hadid draws inspiration for her artworks from a multitude of varying sources, including, but not limited to, architecture, Syrian water clocks, black holes, the particle accelerator, and Italian Renaissance paintings, successfully taking the perspectives and viewpoints of two-dimensional works and transforming them into three-dimensional.[2] One of the specific architectural structures that Al-Hadid has drawn inspiration from includes the Chartes Cathedral.[13] Al-Hadid is intentional about the titles of her sculptures, naming them in ways that allude to her inspiration.[14]

Al-Hadid often draws inspiration for her human forms from the figures in art history, be she transforms them in ways so that they are not recognizable, and she often does away with the practice of making her forms idealized.[2] Certain works are directly connected to specific Italian Renaissance paintings, such as At the Vanishing Point (2012), which takes inspiration from a sixteenth-century fresco,[2] and her piece Divided Line (2012), which draws directly from Raphael's Christ's Charge to Peter (1515).[2] By utilizing her knowledge of both Western culture and non-Western culture, Al-Hadid is able to make visual connections in reference to the architectural styles of the Western and Islamic worlds.[14] She often alludes to the existence of different architectural elements including different styles of archways, flying buttresses, towers, and columns.[14]

Al-Hadid's works are poetic causing the viewers to stop and reflect on what it is she is trying to say through her work. It is hard to decipher whether her sculptures are being built up or torn down.[15] Her sculptures often pose the question of nature versus the man-made, and whether man is taking over nature, or if nature is taking over the man-made with the slow, but continuous destruction of man-made structures.[14]

All the Stops, 2007, wood, fiberglass, steel, plaster, cardboard, pigment

Drawings

Al-Hadid also creates various drawings using similar sources of inspiration that she uses for her sculptures.[14] Not only are these drawings inspired by the same sources, they are also created in a similar manner as her sculptures as she creates them in a manner of "building up" the material but adding layers upon layers of material, often in vertical movements up and down the canvas, but these drawings are not preliminary sketches of her sculptures.[14][2] She often composes her drawings using conté, pastel, acrylic, and Xerox-transfer techniques, among other materials.[14] Unlike her sculptures, almost all of Al-Hadid's drawings are not given titles.[14]

Notable pieces

At the Vanishing Point (2012)

In accordance with its title, Al-Hadid's sculpture embraces perspective effects originally used in two-dimensional artworks.[16] At the Vanishing Point specifically draws from Jacopo Pontormo's fresco The Visitation (1515),[2] re-imagining the architectural structures of the work in three dimensions, with significant alterations. Al-Hadid uses four pedestals as a part of the sculpture, one of several elements that lead the viewer's eye into the interior of the structure, where the vanishing point parallels are most effective.[2] The sculpture, like many of Al-Hadid's works, is primarily monochromatic but does contain traces of blues and of metallic silver (from aluminum foil).[2]

Phantom Limb (2014)

First displayed at the Vienna Secession in 2014 and later the central artwork of exhibitions at both The Art Gallery at New York University Abu Dhabi[16] and the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University,[17] Phantom Limb displays the phenomenon of phantom limb syndrome through the maimed torso at the top of the work and the detached leg resting on a pedestal below the figure.[16] The sculpture incorporates Al-Hadid's typical features of drips and manipulation of pedestals, while the separated statue brings additional meaning to the work.[18]

Tomorrow's Superstitions (2008)

This piece, in particular, draws from Pieter Brueghel the Elder's painting Tower of Babel (1563). This piece takes an architectural structure and takes it apart placing the broken pieces onto areas that they would not normally appear.[2] These sculptures melt and break apart recognizable imagery into an aesthetic creation that energizes the space it is in.

Collections and exhibitions

Al-Hadid has been exhibited in various galleries and museums across the globe. She has been exhibited as both a solo artist and in group exhibitions. There are also several galleries and museums that have various pieces of Al-Hadid's in their permanent collection.[7]

It is important to note that this is not a comprehensive list of exhibitions and collections that Al-Hadid is, and has been, a part of.

Al-Hadid has an extensive list of solo exhibitions and has been continually showing each year, often multiple times a year, since her first solo exhibition, which dated back to 2007, the same year she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.[7] She is still a solo exhibiting artist and is scheduled to have a solo show in Nashville, beginning in May 2019.[19]

The number and variation in the locations of her solo exhibitions has been a driving force in her popularity and global recognition.[7]

Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions
  • 2018: Arsenal Contemporary, Eye to Eye: An Exhibition Benefiting Sanctuary for Families, New York, NY, January 25 – February 25, 2018.[23][2]
  • 2017: Post-Election, Hudson, NY. September Gallery, co-curated by Kristen Dodge and Kate Gilmore, January 28 – March 5.[23][2]
  • 2016: Culture City of East Asia 2016, Diana Al-Hadid: The Unicorn Escapes, Nara, Japan. Toshodaiji Temple, September 3 – October 23.[23][2]
  • 2015: In and Out of Time, Mumbai, India. Galerie Isa, curated by Jane Neal, December 9 – February 3, 2016.[23][2]
  • 2014: #IN.TER.FER.EN.CE, Dubai, UAE. The Farjam Foundation, September 14 – December 31.[23][2]
  • 2013: 10 under 40, Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul ’74, curated by Isabella Icoz, October 31 – January 4.[23][2]
  • 2012: Jack Helgesen Family Collection: ARCIHTECTONS, Tønsberg, Norway. Haugar Art Museum, May 16 – September 30.[23][2]
  • 2011: Printed Histories: 15 years of Exit Art portfolios 1995 – 2011, New York, NY. Exit Art, December 16 – January 31, 2012.[23][2]
  • 2010: IT AIN’T FAIR 2010, Miami, FL. OHWOW, Art Basel Miami Beach, exhibition design by Rafael de Cárdenas, December 2 – December 5.[23][2]
  • 2009: Disorientation II, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Minaret Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Island, curated by Jack Persekian, November 21 – February 20.[23][2]
  • 2008: The Station 2008, Miami, FL. Midblock East, curated by Shamim M. Momin and Nate Lowman, December 3 – December 7.[23][2]
  • 2007: Blood Meridian, Berlin, Germany. Galerie Michael Janssen, curated by David Hunt, Galerie Michael Janssen, April 27 – May 26.[23][2]
  • 2006: AIM 26, Bronx, NY. Bronx Museum, co-curated by Lydia Yee and Erin Salazar, March 23 – July 2.[23][2]

Collections
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References
  1. "Diana Al-Hadid - Artist's Profile - The Saatchi Gallery". www.saatchigallery.com. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
  2. Al-Hadid, Diana (2013). Diana Al-Hadid. Eden, Xandra, Volk, Gregory., Weatherspoon Art Museum., SCAD Museum of Art., Savannah College of Art and Design. Greensboro, N.C.: Weatherspoon Art Museum. ISBN 9783775735087. OCLC 840402017.
  3. La Gorce, Tammy (June 8, 2018). "How the Sculptor Diana Al-Hadid Spends Her Sundays". New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  4. "Diana al-Hadid". Art 21 | New York Close Up.
  5. Jungerberg, Tom; Smith, Anna; Borsh, Colleen (November 2012). "Diana Al-Hadid: Identity and Heritage". Art Education. 65 (6): 25–32. doi:10.1080/00043125.2012.11519197. ISSN 0004-3125.
  6. Litt, Steven (27 November 2013). "The Akron Art Museum salutes Diana Al-Hadid, a Kent State grad in search of art world success - on her own terms". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland.com. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  7. Al-Hadid, Diana; Volk, Gregory; Eden, Xandra; Savannah College of Art and Design; SCAD Museum of Art (2013). Diana Al-Hadid. ISBN 9783775735087. OCLC 881400967.
  8. Cashdan, Marina (September 2014). "Austria Bound". Surface (111): 60.
  9. Jungerberg, Tom; Smith, Anna; Borsh, Colleen (November 2012). "Diana Al-Hadid: Identity and Heritage". Art Education. 65 (6): 25–32. doi:10.1080/00043125.2012.11519197. ISSN 0004-3125.
  10. "Diana Al-Hadid | artnet". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  11. Pollack, Barbara (November 2012). "Diana Al-Hadid Makes a Sculpture". ARTnews.
  12. Kukielski, Tina, ed. (2018). "Scale, Mass, and Gravity". Being an artist : artist interviews with Art21. New York, NY: Art 21, Inc. pp. 195–198. ISBN 9780692096734. OCLC 1050766982.
  13. Unveiled : new art from the Middle East. Saatchi Gallery. [London]: Booth-Clibborn Editions. 2009. ISBN 9781861543134. OCLC 301895316.CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. Editors, Phaidon (2018-03-09). Vitamin D2 : new perspectives in drawing. Rattemeyer, Christian,, Phaidon Press. London. ISBN 978-0714876443. OCLC 1007070344.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  15. "Hammer Projects: Diana Al-Hadid - Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  16. Rider, Alistair (2016), "The Skin Is a Screen", in Alison, Maya (ed.), Diana Al-Hadid: Phantom Limb, NYUAD Gallery, hdl:10023/8381
  17. "Exhibitions - Diana Al-Hadid". www.dianaalhadid.com. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
  18. "Phantom Limb - Work - Diana Al-Hadid". www.dianaalhadid.com. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
  19. "Hammer Projects: Diana Al-Hadid - Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  20. "Diana Al-Hadid Falcon's Fortress at Marianne Boesky Gallery". Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  21. "Diana Al-Hadid at Marianne Boesky Gallery". Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  22. "CV - Diana Al-Hadid". www.dianaalhadid.com. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  23. "CV - Diana Al-Hadid". www.dianaalhadid.com. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  24. "Permanent Collection | deCordova". decordova.org. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  25. "Collection". whitney.org. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  26. "Search the Collection | The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston". www.mfah.org. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  27. "C-Collection - - Matthias Camenzind | art | gallery | painting | photography | video art | Haifa Museum of Art | Liechtenstein". www.c-collection.org. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
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