British Palestinian artist Rosalind Nashashibi is a painter and filmmaker. She is preoccupied with looking, in a way that almost crosses over into the subject's camp, passing onto the side of the observed in a way that can be disconcerting. Her films chronicle intimate moments of contemporary life across diverse circumstances with a deeply empathetic and personal approach. Nashashibi's work is marked with precise references to other filmmakers and painters such as Hockney and Degas, and the filmmakers Pasolini and Chantal Akerman.
Her films are often non-linear, punctuated by manifestations of power dynamics and collective histories. Subjects have included non-nuclear family structures, the multiple personae of the artist and chronicling Palestinian life. In her painting, sentimental or overbearing motifs such as a pair of swans or a X, intrigue us into looking at them anew, and her references to historical paintings are dives into the past to bring back new experiences.
Rosalind Nashashibi (1973, London, UK) received her BA in Painting from Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield (UK) after which she attended the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow (UK) where she received her MFA. As part of her Master's degree, Nashashibi participated in a three-month exchange program in Valencia, California (US) at CalArts in 2000. In 2020, Nashashibi became the first artist in residence at the National Gallery in London (UK), after the program was re-established.
She was a Turner Prize nominee in 2017, and represented Scotland in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Her work has been included in Documenta14, Manifesta 7, the Nordic Triennial, and Sharjah 10. She was the first woman to win the Beck's Futures prize in 2003 and in 2024, Nashashibi was one of six artists shortlisted for The Film London Jarman Award. This year, she will participate in the group exhibition a hand that is all hands combined, at the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Göteborg (SE) and present a forthcoming solo exhibition at KM21, Kunstmuseum, The Hague (NL), opening late 2025.
Nashashibi has had exhibitions at venues including Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (DK); Musée Art Contemporain Carréd'Art, Nîmes (FR); Nottingham Contemporary (UK); Radvila Palace Museum of Art for CAC, Vilnius (LT); S.M.A.K., Ghent (BE); The High Line, New York, NY (US); Tate Britain, London (UK); Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (UK); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (US); Imperial War Museum, London (UK); and ICA, London (UK). Nashashibi has participated in group exhibitions at Centre Georges Pompidou and Forum des Images, Paris (FR); Tate, London (UK); Sculpture Center, New York, NY (US); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (MX); Whitechapel, London (UK); Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main (DE); UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (US), among others.