Transfer – Moving | A Group Exhibition Curated by Layan B. and Noel Maghathe

About the exhibition: “Transfer is a group exhibition featuring artists who showcase the passed-down connections and exhibit unique creative uses to share these aspects of their traditions still practiced today. This project focuses on the feelings and moments centered around the connection and transfer of knowledge, traditions, and culture through generations.

We desire to bridge different communities that relate to various details, whether food, culture, lessons taught, or hardships faced through the works presented in this show. We strive to create a safe environment for the artists to use this exhibition as a time for healing and celebration of the lineage we have inside us.”

Artists included in this exhibition: AA, Haneen Awad, Sarah Al-Khayyal, Saif Alsaegh, Nadine Altounji, AB Bedran, Elias Bouderdaben, Feda Eid, Ali El-Chaer, Mona Gazala, Christina Hajjar, Nic Hampton, Maria Khorzom, Nadia Msalek, gfn X, Amena Sheikh, Christina Sifri, Dalia Tuffaha, and Layla Zubi.

 About the curators:

 Layan B. (she/they) is a Palestinian-Kuwaiti multidisciplinary artist born in Kuwait, and based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Having spent the majority of their life between the SWANA region and Turtle Island, Layan’s work is influenced by the contrast of their lived experiences. Their father and the majority of their family are still based in Kuwait, and they spend a lot of time going back and forth. They have always appreciated all forms of art from a young age and attended culinary school at 19. While working with food, from mixing colours and creating sugar art for elaborately decorated cakes to food styling has been a passion of theirs, their current focus is fashion styling, centring BIPOC artists and their brands, and creative direction. The marriage of cultural exposure and their visual translations can be seen in the visuals for Nadine Altounji’s songs Bint El Balad and 3ala Bali on her latest EP, The Stories That Tie Us to Trees Vol.1.

 Noel Maghathe (noelmaghathe.com) (they/them) is a queer, mixed Palestinian-American performance artist and curator. They create and perform with queer functional tools to navigate the world, and their practice centers on their Palestinian heritage. Through their work, Maghathe seeks to educate audiences about the pain of occupation and their yearning for their country while also delving into the deeper dimensions of personal identity beyond surface-level labels. Maghathe values connecting with other Palestinian and Arab artists in our homelands and in the diaspora.

Maghathe holds a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where they were awarded the Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship in 2017. In 2022, they exhibited their work at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Pancake House Gallery, Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, and more. Maghathe was also selected as Curator-in-Residence at Wave Pool, where they curated Amid, an international Palestinian art exhibition. Currently based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Maghathe continues to create work in their studio.