Ekhtilal by Asad Azi

Ekhtilal by Asad Azi: The project launched by Zawyeh Gallery, ‘Posters for Gaza’ aims to shed light on the ethnic cleansing and horrific massacres inflicted on the Gaza Strip demanding cease fire and the recognition of Palestinian rights to live freely on their land with dignity.

Representing a long tradition in Palestinian history, political posters were produced extensively in the seventies and the eighties by the Palestinian Liberation Organization with the contribution of Palestinian, Arab, and international artists. Posters played a crucial role then in supporting the justice of the Palestinian cause and promoting it globally, guided by freedom, dignity, resilience, and the ongoing aspiration for independence, sought by Palestinians.

Asad Azi was born in Shafa Amr in western Galilee in 1955. In 1980 he earned his BA in art from the University of Haifa and then continued his studies for a Master’s degree at Tel-Aviv University. In his youth, he began to create figurative sculptures influenced by the art of the Near East and continued to work primarily in stone sculpture.

From the 1980s on, Asad Azi has worked in the medium of painting. His figurative works deal primarily with the concept of self-identity in an expressive style. In 1986 he represented Palestine at the Venice Biennale. 

Blending cultural and historical references, media, and techniques, Azi’s art reflects a search for his own identity, as well as that of his community. His intricate, richly colored, and multi-layered works investigate the mundane and the dramatic, the secular and the sacred. Using traces from the past, like photographs and objects, the artist reveals the forgotten history of people and places.

Azi has published several books of poetry and several articles and studies in the local Arabic newspapers. He has received numerous awards, has set up many solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 50 collective exhibitions, locally and internationally. He currently lives and teaches art in Yaffa.