Published: 19 March 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
FATMA SHANAN IS a woman of many contradictions. The 33-year-old Israeli Druze artist draws her inspiration from the aesthetics and traditions of her minority group’s culture but does not wish to be recognized as a Druze artist.
She only paints women but won't acknowledge her art has a feminist artistic expression. She is the first to admit her work is acutely personal but refuses to delve into private or political issues in conversation, claiming her art speaks for itself.
In Israel, Shanan’s star is already on the rise. She is courted by commercial art galleries and big artistic institutions alike. Her works have been on display in two of the country’s largest museums: The Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, where oeuvres crafted by Shanan were showcased in a 2017 solo exhibition that won many accolades.
But when she is not embraced by the cultural mainstream, Shanan lives and creates in rather unglamorous surroundings — the northern village of Julis, a tiny and scenic Druze regional council that boasts fewer than 7,000 residents.
FULL STORY Meet the Israeli Druze artist taking the art world by storm (Haaretz)
Image: Fatma Shanan, "Self-Portrait on Parquet" (2019). Courtesy of the artist and Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin (Jens Ziehe)
