The Artist:

The first solo exhibit of the artist in twenty years, the exhibit showcases work born out of the artist’s 10 year long experience with the works of clay, mud and natural dyes. The exhibit features medium scale works, large-scale mural paintings and mud sculptures of human figures. Some of the works are part of the award winning series “Ana Ismaeel” that won the first prize at the Cairo Biennial Art fair ’98.

Mansour says this exhibit highlights the change in his art style, from the more colorful to less colorful. Saying that when he began to work with mud, he was optimistic about the fate of the Palestinians. Many works in the exhibit showcase that, one even includes a key, which symbolizes the hope of return to houses and lands lost by the Palestinians in the Nakba.

Mansour says his use of color began to gradually diminish in '94, until he finally stopped using color altogether in '96 as a result of his losing hope. Cracks and parches started forming in his later works, becoming larger and larger in his murals and life-size figures. "The cracks" Mansour says, "represent the destruction and ruin that the Palestinians suffer from".