Manal Deeb

Manal Deeb is a Palestinian American visual artist born in Ramallah, Palestine who currently lives in Fairfax, VA. She studied studio arts at the University of Illinois, Chicago and received her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychology of Art from George Mason University in Virginia. Deeb is a resident visual artist at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA. In 2016, her artwork was selected as part of the annual Director’s Collection by the Workhouse and outside art curators and judges. Other career highlights include Deeb’s recognition as one of the Arab Women of the Year by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in 2013, and having thirty works of art representing Palestine exhibited at the United Nations Visitors Centre in New York City in 2012 – 2013. 

Deeb has had solo and group exhibits in cities across the United States, including New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Richmond, Dallas, Spokane, Denver, Boston, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles. Her work has also been exhibited internationally in Paris, Rome, and Cairo; London and Brighton, England; Delhi, India; Doha, Qatar; Amman, Jordan; Islamabad, Pakistan; and Malaga, Spain.

Deeb and her artwork have been featured in magazines, journals, radio interviews, TV interviews and newspapers throughout the world. Her mission and main subjects are: humanity, Palestine, the Palestinian people, global cultures, creating bridges between religions, Arab women, and identity. As art critic Mark Jensen comments in the Washington Post, Manal Deeb “superimposes photographs, calligraphy and fabric patterns on her face, constructing a visual metaphor for how women’s identities are overlaid with societal expectations and political circumstances,” blending realism and abstraction. “All these and more, Deeb suggests, create her self.” 

She has also published her first book, Dome of the Soul, in Arabic, in collaboration with a Palestinian poet, which merges poetry and images of her artwork. In addition, Deeb collaborated with the band Genre Peak of Sacramento, CA on a unique musical mix and CD, Fix Me Deeper, for which she composed and spoke Arabic lyrics and produced the CD cover art.

To see more of Manal Deeb’s work, visit www.ygalleri.com.