Maria Saleh Mahameed (b. 1990, Uhm el Fahem) lives and works in Ein Mahel, Israel. She holds an M.Ed (awarded with excellency) and a BA and B.Ed in arts both from Oranim Art College.
Maria Saleh Mahameed
Selected solo exhibitions: Rappaport Prize winner exhibition, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2025 – scheduled); Ludmila (2023), Castello Svevo di Trani, Italy; The Last Pill (2022), Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv; Appropriate Response, Ha’Amakim Gallery (2021); Monitor, Artport, Tel Aviv (2021); Tangles of Vines, Mishkan Museum, Kibbutz Ein Harod (2020); Ana Hoon, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2019); Shoof, Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv (2019); Fahmaweya, Jerusalem Artists House (2018); Lawinta, Umm el-Fahem Gallery (2017)
Selected group exhibitions: When Things Dissolve, Wilfred Museum, Kibbutz HaZorea (2024); Another Language, Petach Tikva Museum of Art (2023); Conscious Collective, MAXXI Museum Rome (2023); Wadi , Umm el-Fahem Gallery (2022); Liquid Love, Teo art center, Herzliya (2021); My Name is Red, Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem (2021); Hoonak Hoon, Umm el Fahem (2020); Hayloft 1, Hankin Art Gallery (2018); This is also Possible, Heichal Shlomo Jewish Heritage Center, Jerusalem (2018)
Selected awards and grants: Rappaport Prize for a Young Promising Artist, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2023); Beatrice Kolliner Prize for a Young Israeli Artist, Israel Museum (2021-2022); Oranim College Excellence Award (2017); Young Creator Award from the Hecht Museum, University of Haifa (2015)
“Black charcoal is dominant in Maria Saleh Mahameed’s work, lending itself to everything from architectural drawings, to sketching and scribbling, and provides for an intimate, sensitive, and tender mode of expression, thanks largely to the direct contact of the fingers with the drawing surface, as they smear, rub, and smooth the line. For her, the use of charcoal a way of leaving a mark in a direct, visceral manner, using the locale’s own materials. Charcoal is directly linked to her birthplace, Umm el-Fahem (“Mother of Charcoal”), which, as its name suggests, has long been famous as a place of charcoal production and trade.” text by Dr. Aya Lurie, director and chief curator, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art
Born to a Christian mother and a Palestinian father who met during the father’s law studies in Kiev, Ukraine, and raised in an Arab city in Israel, Saleh Mahameed embodies this complex identity in terms of nationality and religion. While working on extremally large scales, she succeeds in creating intimate narratives while dealing with personal, social and political issues concerning the Palestinian society. Profile photo by Ethan Mikutski
Projects
