Hend Al-mansour

Hend Al-mansour (born Hofuf, Saudi Arabia, 1956) is a Saudi Arabian-American visual artist

Biography

Hend Al-Mansour obtained a degree of medicine from Cairo University 1981. She practiced medicine in Saudi Arabia at Hofuf and Riyadh until 1997 when she immigrated to the United States. During her medical career she obtained an Internal medicine and a cardiology degrees. In the year 2000 she shifted careers from medicine to art. She obtained a master of fine art from Minneapolis College of Art and Design MCAD, 2002. Hend now is an Installation artist, silkscreen printer and a public speaker. Her work is about women in the Islamic world. She creates spaces representing private lives of women out of silk-screened fabrics. She has shown in Minnesota and other states in the United States as well as in Saudi Arabia. She is married to Dr. David Penchansky, a theology professor and writer, and they live in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Theme, Media and Style

Hend's work explores religious and social belief systems of the Arab communities, especially those dealing with women, sexuality and understanding the other. She uses calligraphy, images of Arab people, Islamic ornamentation and architecture. She investigates the status of contemporary Arab art and cultivate its independence from Western art and its distinction from other Middle Eastern and Islamic identities.

Her work is often portraiture of Muslim women as architectural spaces made out of silk screened, dyed or hennad fabrics. Her images are stylized figures and faces intertwined with Islamic ornamentation in a repetitive style. She uses large sheets of silk, wool, canvas, or other fabric. Her installation resemble shrines, tents or mosques in which the viewer walks in. There will be archways, domes, sand, cushions, rugs, bowls or geometric sculptures and distinctive Middle Eastern perfumes and scents that reflect aspect of her women’s personalities and cultures.

Important Work

*Heightened Awareness ( "2 women show") 2001, at [http://www.stkate.edu/gallery/gallery.html Catherine G Murphy gallery]
*Arab Eye "group show" 2002, at Babylon art Gallery.
*Sheherazade Risking the Passage ("Muslim women show") 2003, at [http://www.c4ia.org/resources/resources.php?cat=visual Mira Gallery] sponsored by [http://www.thewarm.org/pages/index.php WARM] .
*The three faces of Mary ( "solo show") 2004, [http://www.wisdomwayscenter.org Wisdom Ways] of the College of St. Catherine.
*Peac in the house ("theater installation") 2004, commissioned by [http://voicesofsepharad.com Voices of Sepharad]
*Fatimah in America ("3women show") 2005, at [http://www.stthomas.edu/saf/history/festival_2005.asp the Sacred Art Festival in the University of St. Thomas]
*Prizm of longing ("group show") 2006, at the [http://www.thephipps.org The Phipps Center for the Arts]
*Arousat Al-Moulid ("design and choriography") 2007, in collaboration with [http://jawaahir.org Jawaahir Dance Company]
*Fatimah in America ("solo show") 2007, at [http://gustavus.edu/finearts/hillstrom/exhibitions.cfm Hillstrom Museum of Gustavus Adolphus College]
*Continuity and Change ("group show") 2007, at [http://wahcenter.net/exhibits/2007/continuityandchange/]

External links

*Hend's [http://www.hend-al-mansour.org home page]
* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/02/09/almonsour/ Thinking about Fatimah in America]
*Prescription for art: [http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/node/4093Minnesota Women's Press]
*The personalities behind the photos: [http://weekly.gac.edu/?q=node/204 The Gustavian weekly]