Thursday, May 9, 6:00 PM EDT - in person at the MEI Art Gallery, 1763 N St, NW, Washington DC
EXHIBITION OPENING - Louder Than Hearts - Women Photographers from the Arab World and Iran
The Middle East Institute's Arts & Culture Center in partnership with Tribe magazine cordially invites you to the opening night reception for Louder Than Hearts, a photo exhibition exploring the work of ten women photographers from the Arab World and Iran who capture the resilience, creativity and humanity of women in the region, often in the face of great adversity.
The evening will feature a talk with curator and award-wining photographer Rania Matar, herself a participating artist, on the exhibition vision, the works on display, as well as her own practice. Matar will lead a gallery tour at 7:00pm.
Louder Than Hearts reveals the role of both the photographers and their protagonists as trailblazers and catalysts for change in their communities, providing a portrait of women in the Middle East as voices of peace, courage, and hope. The leading Egyptian, Iranian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Saudi and Yemeni photographers explore the diversity of experiences and personal narratives told by women across a vast geographic area.
6:15 pm: Art Talk / 7:00 pm: Curator Tour / Refreshments served
The exhibition is made possible with the generous support of MEI Board of Governors member and professional photographer Anne B. Keiser.
The exhibition is on view M-F from 10:00am - 5:00pm through October 4, 2024, at the MEI Art Gallery. Walk-ins are welcome, or you can schedule an appointment online. The MEI Gallery is free and open to the public.
Participating artists: Rehaf Al Batniji, Tasneem Alsultan, Thana Faroq, Tanya Habjouqa, Shiva Khademi, Heba Khalifa, Safaa Khatib, Rania Matar, Newsha Tavakolian, Carmen Yahchouchi
The title is adopted from a poetry collection on love and loss by Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck.
About The Curator - Born and raised in Lebanon, Rania Matar moved to the U.S. in 1984. As a Lebanese-born Palestinian/American artist and mother, Matar's cross-cultural experience and personal narrative inform her photography. Her work captures intimate moments that transcend borders and cultures and explores themes of personal & collective identity through photos of women in the US and the Middle East. Matar’s work has been widely exhibited in museums worldwide including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Carnegie Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and more. Her photography is in the permanent collections of several museums.