
The Artist:
Abed Abdi was born in Haifa in 1942. He belongs to the generation
of post 1948 pioneering visual artists. He held his first exhibit
in Tel Aviv in 1962, and graduated from the Dresden fine arts academy
in 1972, where he studied graphics and mural painting, and obtained
the second prize. After his graduation he worked as a graphic designer
for a number of Arabic language publications. The city of Haifa awarded
him the Artist of the Year Herman Struck Award in 1972. That year,
he also obtained the Young Artist's Award at the Berlin International
youth festival in 1972.
His
work:
Abdi was commissioned to erect a sculpture to commemorate the Land Day massacre. He also completed the memorial sculpture in the Galilean municipality of Shefa Amer in 1984. In addition, he has painted a number of murals in Haifa, Nazareth, and Jaffa. Abdi has had 12 personal exhibitions in Qatar, Israel, Belgium, and Bulgaria. He has also participated in over 40 group exhibits, in Tokyo, Athens, Brussels, and Berlin…etc. Among them a joint Palestinian and Israeli exhibit that toured American and German cities in the years 1988 - 1990. He also participated in a group exhibit of Palestinian and Israeli artists in Germany in 1995 - 1996. Abdi is a founder and a member of the Ibdaa' society for the promotion of visual arts in the Arab Israeli sector.
He has been teaching fine arts since 1985 at the Arab Education College of Israel. He is a founding member of the Sakakini Centre and has exhibited twice here, in 1996 and 1999.
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