Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy

Examines formal and thematic relationships across bodies of work by artist Samia Halaby.

Samia Halaby is widely recognized as a pioneer in twentieth-century abstraction and computer-generated art and as a leading scholar of Palestinian art. In the last twenty years, Halaby has expanded her practice to larger, more ambitious paintings and canvas-based assemblages. As an early practitioner of digital art, she taught herself programming languages and generated “kinetic paintings” of colorful shapes, sounds, and textures on a late 1980s Amiga computer. Throughout the 1990s, she developed a custom PC program that can generate moving shapes with live keyboard commands. These kinetic paintings and performances, which Halaby has archived as digital video files, have been little studied and not yet exhibited. Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy will bring together approximately thirty-five of Halaby’s paintings, prints, and drawings in the first-ever American survey of her work, and features Halaby’s writing about her artistic practice.
 

Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy will bring together approximately thirty-five of Halaby’s paintings, prints, and drawings in the first-ever American survey of her work. Rather than presenting a chronological development of her artistic approach to abstraction, the exhibition catalogue will examine formal and thematic relationships across bodies of work, considering simultaneously the influence of her time spent in the Midwest, her years of teaching, and her analytic approach to generating forms, both on canvas and in computer code. Halaby’s current explorations in large-scale painting will be explored alongside her earliest forays into abstraction, with examples of her prolific drawing practice permeating throughout. Significantly, her kinetic paintings will demonstrate the development of abstract forms into moving compositions of colour and texture. Halaby’s current explorations in large-scale painting will be explored alongside her earliest forays into abstraction, with examples of her prolific drawing practice permeating throughout. Significantly, her kinetic paintings will demonstrate the development of abstract forms into moving compositions of colour and texture. Samia Halaby (b. 1936) is widely recognized as a pioneer in twentieth-century abstraction and computer-generated art. She is a leading scholar on Palestinian art. In the last twenty years, Halaby has expanded her practice to larger, more ambitious paintings and canvas-based assemblages. She is an early practitioner of digital art, teaching herself programming languages and generating “kinetic paintings” of colourful shapes, sounds, and textures on a late 1980s Amiga computer. Throughout the 1990s, she developed a custom PC program that can generate moving shapes with live keyboard commands. With musicians Kevin Nathaniel Hylton and Hasan Bakr, she formed the Kinetic Painting Group and performed around the United States and in the Middle East. These kinetic paintings and performances, which Halaby has archived as digital video files, have been little studied and not yet exhibited.