Rosalind Nashashibi: Gaza Apollo

In 2013, a Palestinian fisherman (Joudat Ghrab) in Gaza spotted what looked like a badly burnt arm coming out of the sand on the seabed. He had discovered a life-sized, ancient Greek statue of Apollo. One finger was removed for testing; he was hoping for gold, but it turned out to be bronze. Having initially been put up for sale on eBay, it was soon seized by the Gaza authorities, and its whereabouts are now unknown to outsiders.

The only existing images all seem to have been taken in one room, and show the magnificent sculpture lying on a foam mattress with bed sheets emblazoned with Smurfs, as men stand or crouch around it. Or, it stands surrounded by the same men who reverently place hands on its head and shoulders as if to receive its power.

Five of the paintings in Nashashibi’s solo show depict this deity, and the men who take care of it in an unorthodox manner. According to the artist, the Gaza Apollo could be seen as a gift to the Palestinian people, a divine intervention coming in from the sea, where the earthly powers fail to intervene.

Several of the works contain a guiding hand or finger – hands which grasp and pull at others, fingers that reach out to touch what seems to be retreating into unreality.  Some motifs return from earlier works and speak to the history of painting on the brink of modernity -  a table with a still life, a horse, the reclining woman, a lamb, or water lilies. For the artist, these dives into historical painting are part of a continuous conversation between history and our actions today, and they are not separated from the task of evoking the materiality of the present world, without closing our eyes to the crimes and oppressions that haunt it.

GRIMM is pleased to present Gaza Apollo, an exhibition of new work by Rosalind Nashashibi, on view at the London gallery from October 13 to November 21, 2026. This is Nashashibi’s first solo exhibition in the city since her presentation at the National Gallery, London (UK) in 2020.

About the Artist

Rosalind Nashashibi (b. 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 California, CA (US) at CalArts in 1999. In 2020, Nashashibi became artist in residence at the National Gallery in London (UK). She was a Turner Prize nominee in 2017, and represented Scotland in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Her work has been included in Documenta 14, Manifesta 7, the Nordic Triennial, Sharjah 10, Gothenburg Biennial and she was the first woman to win the Beck’s Futures prize in 2003.

Nashashibi has had solo shows at Artium Museoa, Vitoria-Gasteiz (ES); KM21, Kunstmuseum, The Hague (NL); ARCH, Athens (GR); Melas Martinos, Athens (GR); Musée Art Contemporain Carré d’Art, Nîmes (FR); Radvila Palace Museum of Art for CAC, Vilnius (LT); Vienna Secession, Vienna (AT); Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (NL); The High Line, New York, NY (US); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (US); Imperial War Museum, London (UK); and ICA, London (UK).

Selected collections include: Arts Council Collection, London (UK); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (US); Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris (FR); Centre Pompidou - Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (FR); He Art Museum, Foshan (CN); Kunstmuseum, The Hague (NL); Musée Art Contemporain Carré d’Art, Nîmes (FR); National Gallery, London (UK); S.M.A.K., Ghent (BE); The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (US); Tate, London (UK), among others.