EXHIBITIONS & ARTIST TALKS

“ARD: TO BELONG TO LAND”
GOLA GALLERY, MILAN, 2025

Since 1946, 5.9 million Palestinians have been forced to leave their homeland. The creation of the state of Israel by British and French colonial forces, resulting in the infamous Nakba of 1948 (‘catastrophe’) The mass expulsion of Palestinian people from their homeland across generations raises the question of a Palestinian’s relationship to the land and also brings into contest the daily realities of Palestinians who have steadfastly remained on their land.

‘Ard: To Belong to Land centres on the idea of a homeland, the daily life of its people, and the spirit of kinfolk that make it home. How does land stay clinging to a people once they depart, forced to resettle up to thousands of miles away, in diaspora? How do locals in Palestine render their role within the landscape, the earth they are made from, within which they are seen as a threat by occupying forces?

‘Ard (أرض) is Arabic for land, earth, or ground. To Belong to أرض inverts the colonial or possessive notion of owning land – instead, it expresses reciprocity, care, and rootedness.This show connects not only the diaspora to their homeland, but also Palestinians to the soil beneath their feet. highlighting the role of the natural environment, landscapes, people and their animal friends, and daily resistance to occupation, the work presented by these eight artists, from across the diaspora and Palestine, questions how the Palestinian people are a product of the land that they nurture, steward, and have to fight for daily.

“SOMEWHERE BETWEEN HERE & THERE”
Photoville, NEW YORK, 2025

Somewhere between here and there, I began a visual diary of sorts while simultaneously documenting my community. My parents were born in Palestine, I was born in America and we seemed to exist somewhere in the middle.

Through a blend of autobiographical and community reporting, this work examines collaboration and agency in storytelling while reclaiming the beauty of our narrative. This is a celebration of my culture, a way to preserve our stories and our joy, actively archiving our existence in the face of erasure while anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic sentiments are on the rise.

My project explores themes of collective memory, cultural identity and the uniquely intergenerational components of the decades-long struggle for Palestinian liberation.

Lately, I’ve been ricocheting between time and space—childhood memories from the West Bank appear in my dreams, hateful chants in the streets of New York transport me back to Haifa during a tumultuous summer in 2014. This year’s Eid Al-Fitr— even more tragic than the previous year’s Eid against the backdrop of the ongoing and escalating violence in Gaza and the West Bank—left me with a truly haunting sense of déjà vu.

This collection of photographs were made over the last two decades in neighborhoods as near as Crown Heights and as distant as my aunts’ balcony overlooking our village in the West Bank. Presented in a rough replica of my parents’ family room (and a nod to the hopefully familiar environment of a traditional Palestinian home), the disjointed and non-linear arrangement of work offers a glimpse into the often isolating and fragmented experience of navigating the Palestinian diaspora currently (and constantly) in mourning.

“Meet the artist“
the center of photography for woodstock, 2024

An artist talk, presented along with Arlene Mejorado, during our time as Artists in Residence at CPW.

“waiting to be alive again”
Photoville, 2024

Through interviews and medium format film, I set out to capture a comprehensive and intimate portrait of local burlesque performers during the first winter of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic. I wanted to provided a glimpse into this community’s uniquely profound collective loss when the lights went out on stages across the world.

I approached The New York Times and they paired me with writer Julia Carmel. Together, we conducted interviews followed by photoshoots of a dozen burlesque performers in the venues where they had tantalized fans in a past life. In the hauntingly empty spaces, they posed and danced for no audience beyond my camera.

Among those we interviewed and photographed was one of my closest friends, Veronica Viper.

Having a front row seat to Veronica’s grief led me to this project. She and the others we spoke with were candid in sharing struggles with mental health, weight gain, a missing sex drive, a diminished income, a loss of community.

Some lost a sense of self.

I wanted to make something that was intimately honest and beautiful at a time when I, like many, struggled to get through the dark days of 2020.

Veronica told us she was “Waiting to be alive again.”

So were we.

“WHAT WE SEE: WOMEN & NONBINARY PERSPECTIVES THROUGH THE LENS”
INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY, NEW YORK CITY, 2023

Sara Ickow, Exhibitions & Special Projects for Women Photograph and Senior Manager of Exhibitions and Collections at ICP, leading a conversation with Women Photograph founder Daniella Zalcman and photographers Nina Berman and Kholood Eid centered on the new publication as well as the importance of representation resources within the field.

“#Womenmatter” group dysturb exhibition
La Gaîté Lyrique, paris, 2023

#WomenMatter celebrates the strength, resilience, and struggles of women for freedom, integrity, and the respect of their identity around the world. This exhibition travels to encounter different perspectives, cultures, fights, and sisterhoods, inviting us to reflect on the condition, aspirations, and rights of women in the contemporary world.

The exhibited photographers include Eve Arnold, Olivia Arthur, Edu Bayer, Myriam Boulos, Anna Boyazis, Dean Bradshaw, Sabiha Çimen, Bieke Depoorter, Agnès Dherbeys, Kholood Eid, Maika Elan, Alessandro Grassani, Ania Gruca, Julia Gunther, Robin Hammond, Nanna Heitmann, Karolin Klüppel, Susan Meiselas, Cristina de Middel, Inge Morath, Jim Naughten, Benjamin Petit, Lua Ribera, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Chloé Sharrock, Nicole Sobecki, Gaia Squarci, Ilona Szwarc, Newsha Tavakolian, Anastasia Taylor-Lind, Pierre Terdjman, and contributors from the APP.

This exhibition has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Agence Française de Développement, Magnum Photos, ProPlan, Le Cadre d'Or, E-Center, and La Gaîté Lyrique.