Mounira Al Solh
- Mounira Al Solh
- Work
Art Institute Chicago, 2018
Mounira Al Solh (b.1978, Lebanon) studied painting at the Lebanese University, Beirut from 1997 to 2001, and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam from 2003 to 2006. She was also Research Resident at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam in 2007 and 2008.
She is a visual artist embracing inter alia video and video installations, painting and drawing, embroidery, and performative gestures. Irony and self-reflectivity are central strategies for her work, which explores feminist issues, tracks patterns of micro-history, is socially engaged, and can be political and escapist all at once.
In 2008, Al Solh started a NOA Magazine, a performative gesture co-edited with collaborators such as Fadi El Tofeili and Mona Abu Rayyan, and Jacques Aswad (NOA III).
She has had solo exhibitions at Mathaf, Qatar (2018); Art Institute Chicago (2018); ALT, Istanbul (2016); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2014); Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow (2013); Art in General, New York (2012); and Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam (2011). As well as group exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020), Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2020), C’arré d’Art Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes (2018); documenta 14, Athens & Kassel (2017); 56th Venice Biennial (2015); New Museum, New York (2014); Homeworks, Beirut (2013); House of Art, Munich (2010); and the 11th International Istanbul Biennial (2009).
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Selected Solo Exhibitions |
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| 2019 | Positions #5, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands The Mother of David and Goliath, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
| 2018 | Artist’s Rooms, Jameel Arts Center, Dubai, UAE I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous, The Art Institute Chicago |
| 2016 | I Want to Be a Party, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg, Germany I Strongly Believe in Our Right to Be Frivolous, Alt Art Space, Istanbul, Turkey |
| 2014 | All Mother Tongues are Difficult, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon Now Eat My Script, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany |
| 2012 | The Sea Is A Stereo, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Dinosaurs, Art in General, New York, USA |
| 2011 | Mounira Al Solh, René Daniëls and Bassam Ramlawi, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 2010 | The Sea Is A Stereo, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisboa, Portugal Exhibition No. 17, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
| 2008 | Rijksakademie, Open Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 2005 | Squatted Vitrine, Squat Deluxe, Rotterdam, Netherlands |
| 2003 | 150 Watts, Fennel Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
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Selected Group Exhibitions |
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| 2019 | gohyang: home, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea Social Movement, If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 2018 | Close: Drawn Portraits, The Drawing Room, London, UK Vanishing Point, Carré d’Art - Museum of Contemporary Art Nîmes, France Strange Days: Memories of the Future, The Store X, London The Line Up: The Power of Drawing Central Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands Acts of Translation, Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman, Jordan Beirut, Beyrut, Beyrouth, Beyrout, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway; Ystad Konstmuseum, Ystad, Sweden; Listasafn Islands, Iceland Whose land have I lit on now? - contemplation on the notions of hospitality, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany |
| 2017 | Contemporary and Future Mediterranean Memories, Fondazione Sambucca, Palermo, Italy Home Beirut. Sounding the Neighbours, MAXXI, Rome From Ear to Ear, Nottingham Contemporary, UK 2017 Asian Art Biennial: Negotiating the Future for Changing the Society and Fashioning the Future, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan Action!, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland Suspended Territories - Artists from the Middle East and North Africa, Marta Herford, Germany dOCUMENTA 14, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, Athens dOCUMENTA 14, Hansa Häuser, Kassel, Germany The Restless Earth, La Triennale di Milano, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Italy My future is in my past and my past is my present, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Netherlands Graphic Witness, Drawing Room, London, UK Art and Alphabet, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany A World Not Ours, La Kunsthalle - Center d'Art Contemporain Mullhouse, France |
| 2016 | The Measure of our Traveling Feet, Marres Maastricht, Netherlands Everything in Nature has a Lyrical Essence, a tragic fate, a comic existence, Art Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria Land Without Land, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany We Refugees - Of the Right to Have Rights, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany |
| 2015 | Gallery Gallery 3010, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy In Search Of Matisse, Henie Onstad Art Enter (HOK), Høvikodden, Norway A 1000 Times No, E-Werk, Freiburg, Germany The Abraaj Group Art Prize, Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE |
| 2014 | Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York, USA Drowning and swallowing this text, LACE, Los Angeles, USA I scarcely have the right to use this ghostly verb, Parsons, The New School New York, USA Neighbors, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey 5th Biennial Marrakech, Marrakech, Morocco |
| 2013 | Dear Art, Calvert 22 Foundation, London, UK Homeworks 6, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon |
| 2012 | Arab Express: The Latest Art form the Arab World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Our Work Is Never Over, Matadero Madrid, Contemporary Art Center, Madrid, Spain Tactics For Now And Now, Bucharest Biennial 5, Pavilion Unicredit, Bucharest, Romania The Ungovernables, New Museum Triennial, New Museum, New York, USA Dinosaurs, Art in General, New York, USA Dear Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova and Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Slovenia -o-l-o-g-y, Amstel 41, Amsterdam, Netherlands De Menocchio, Nous savons beaucoup de choses, Bétonsalon, Paris, France |
| 2011 | I Decided Not to Save the World, Tate Modern, London, UK in collaboration with SALT Istanbul, Turkey A Rock and a Hard Place, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennial of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece The Sea Is A Stereo, Viborg Kunsthal, Denmark Beirut, project space, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria |
| 2010 | Manifesta 8, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Region of Murcia, Spain in Dialogue with Northern Africa The Future of Tradition, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany Accident, KunstBunker, forum for contemporary art, Nuremberg, Germany Heat Wave, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York, USA Witty Lo-Fi Works with Knotty Thoughts, Montevideo (NIMK), Amsterdam, Netherlands I’m Not Here. An Exhibition Without Francis Alÿs, De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands Volkskrant Prize, Stedelijk Museum Scheidam, Netherlands Categorical Imperatives, The Guild Art Gallery, New York, USA and Mumbai, India |
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Works in Public Collections: |
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| Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Pinakotheek, Munich; Saradar Art Collection, Beirut; Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis | |
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Education |
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| 2001 | Lebanese University, BFA in Painting, Beirut, Lebanon |
| 2006 | Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Fine Arts, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 2007/08 | Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Research Resident, Amsterdam, Netherlands |