Born in Jerusalem and based in New York City since the 1970s, Samia Halaby is widely recognised as one of the most important figures in contemporary Arab art. Rooted in a lifelong investigation of abstraction, her practice is grounded in continuous experimentation, drawing from sources as varied as Islamic architecture, Russian Constructivism and Abstract Expressionism. Refusing the binary of East and West or nationalist and universalist discourses,
Halaby's abstract compositions are rooted in a deep engagement with movement, rhythm, and visual perception, often inspired by natural forms, urban landscapes, and the geometry of traditional Islamic art.
She coined the term "Arabic abstraction" challenging western hierarchies to reclaim aesthetic forms historically dismissed as decorative, advocating for their conceptual and structural complexity as a visual language grounded in social struggle. Drawing inspiration from early modernist movements and the logic of natural systems, her paintings explore how visual structures can evoke dynamic, optical, emotional, and social forces. In the 1980s, she became one of the earliest artists to experiment with digital media, developing computer-generated visual performances that reflected her interest in the intersections of technology, abstraction, and sound.
