Al-Studio Founders

By choosing the name "Al-Studio" as a metaphor, we are looking for a symbolism inspired by the phenomenon of individual studios, that represented a spatial and intellectual space for artists, who in turn created a strong connection with their studios as a primary space for their various artistic practices throughout history until the present day. The artists often intend to evoke the issues and ideas that they experience in the external environment and address them in their own private studios.

From our own perspective, by launching “Al-Studio” initiative we seek to create a state that reflects our vision, which essentially aims to transform the idea of the studio from an individual space for the artist into a collective space that is based on the principle of neighboring between individuals, motivated by the exchange of knowledge and experience, and gaining the ability to learn on one hand, and teach others on the other side. Hence, this act of transformation makes Al-Studio an available space for members of the community and its issues together within a flexible learning process, that is free and liberated, and that is open to employing the tools of visual arts for research and expression, that vary from one individual to another according to their interests, and personal preferences.

Rafat Asad is a Palestinian artist born in Nablus in 1974. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from Al Najah University in 1998, with a focus on painting. Although a painter first and foremost, Asad is a multi-disciplinary artist, who produces light and sound installations, as well as video art and performances. Taking abstract painting as his point of departure, his work has evolved to focus on the Palestinian landscape through a minimalist style. Asad is also the co-founder and artistic director of Al-Mahatta Gallery, chair of the board of directors of the Balata Cultural Forum and a member of the Palestinian Artists’ League. He currently lives and works in Ramallah.
landscape is a main source of inspiration. He works by memorising visual imagery, charging his memory with hundreds of views that he later uses for his art projects and paintings: “I paint what I see, I paint what I know”. The process of painting becomes an emotional act of reminiscence, where he constantly returns to the places he gazed.
Rafat’s artistic process is also politically charged. As a Palestinian artist, he understands the symbolic weight that landscape carries: “Because of the many concrete and metal barriers that prevent visual communication or physical access, Palestinians tend to be disconnected from their environmental and natural surroundings.” Rafat then utilises his personal experiences and knowledge to work, research and create images that speak of the surroundings in which he lives and exists. Through a visual exploration, he presents nature in Palestine in its problematic and realistic form, examining the way in which humans, and the occupation in particular, affect the landscape through exploitation and tampering.

Bashar Khalaf was born in Ramallah in 1991. He obtained his BA in fine arts from Al-Quds University in 2013. His work The Shadow of the Shadow received first prize in the Young Artist of the Year Award organized by A. M. Qattan Foundation in Ramallah in 2014. This award supported the development of his work and marked the beginning of his professional career.

Khalaf currently works as a trainer and teacher in visual arts with several institutions and cultural centers. He received the Ismail Shamout Award in 2015 and the State Order of Honor for Young Artists from the Palestinian Ministry of Culture in 2018.

He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including an exhibition in Bonn, Germany (2013); Suspended Accounts, as part of the Young Artist of the Year Award, presented in Ramallah (2014) and London (2016); the group exhibition of Ismail Shamout Award artists in Bethlehem (2015); Supermarket Stockholm Independent Art Fair in Sweden (2015); Perspectives at Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah (2015); the opening exhibition of Gallery One in Ramallah (2015); Sensorial Immunity at Gallery One in Ramallah (2017); and an exhibition on the life and work of Ismail Shamout in Ramallah (2017). His first solo exhibition was held at Gallery One in Ramallah in 2016. He lives in Ramallah.