DEARBORN — “Reflections: An Exhibition of Contemporary Arab American Art” is set to open in January to showcase the work of first generation Arab Americans is being prepared at Henry Ford Community College, curated by well-known local artist and professor Hashim Al-Tawil.

“The Bleu Line” by artist May Abutaam

The exhibit, at the Sisson Gallery in the college’s MacKenzie Fine Arts Center, 5101 Evergreen Road in Dearborn, will feature artists from Michigan, New York, Washington state and California. The opening reception will be a 6 p.m. on Wednesday, January 21, 2009. The show will continue through March 6, 2009. It is open and free to the public.
Al-Tawil said the exhibit will serve as a multicultural exposure bringing artists and people together, “strengthening their human binds in a pluralistic and harmonious cultural confluence.”

“Inspiration,” by Imad Hassan

“This art exhibit showcases recent works by Arab American artists who employ and reflect on the diversity of Arab and Middle Eastern visual cultures blended in their individual styles and techniques,” Al-Tawil said. “The show is a tribute, celebration, and acknowledgement of the richness of these diverse cultures and their potential exchange and contribution to the wider picture of modern American art.”
He said the art to be showcased serves as a testimony to experiences of the artists as immigrants, refugees and expatriates of troubled homelands.

“These works carry in them the living memory of two worlds,” Al-Tawil said, “the former country with all the memories, childhood, atrocities, displacement, destruction, and the horror of war, and the new homeland country with all the dreams and hopes for a better life and future.”

The exhibition includes work from the late professor Sari Khoury, recognized for his contributions to the development of modern Arab American art. It also introduces young emerging artists.

The exhibition is also celebration of the 70th anniversary of Henry Ford Community College, Al-Tawil said, and its continued service to the community, especially with its latest initiative of establishing the Arab Cultural Studies Program.”

“‘Reflections’ is a visual salute to this important milestone in the educational history of Henry Ford Community College.”

The exhibit is sponsored by HFCC and supported by the Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC).

For more information, please contact Dr. Hashim Al-Tawil at 313.845.6489 or at hal-tawil@hfcc.edu.

Contributing artists:

Sari Khoury • Hashim Al-Tawil • Mamoun Sakkal • Abdulhussein Twaij • Joseph Namy • Imad Hassan

May Abutaam • Mohamed Bazzi • Sabah Yousef • Salam Jamil • Hayder Yasiri • Ahmed Mizel