Born in Kuwait in 1962, Tarek Al Ghoussein’s position as a Palestinian Kuwaiti shapes the dominant themes of identity, displacement, and structural and political control prominent in much of his work. Al Ghoussein received his Bachelor’s degree in photography from New York University and his Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. He has taught at the American University of Sharjah and is currently a professor at New York University in Abu Dhabi.
His work, photographs often featuring the figure of the artist silhouetted against barren urban and desert landscapes of the region, serves as a partial allegory for the obstacles and forms of control facing Palestinians both within and exiled from the Palestinian territories, as well as troubling Western representations of Arabs as terrorists. Other series use the desert as a stage for investigating the artist’s relationship to land and place, in the midst of the rapid urban transformation witnessed in the UAE, where the artist lives. In the words of Sabine Vogel, his work goes beyond the specific, and transforms direct political references into the existentially universal.”
Transfigurations is published in collaboration with the Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York and will represent the first major monograph of Al Ghoussein’s work to date. A solo exhibition at the gallery will coincide with the publication of the book in 2014. In response to the broad success of his works including the alphabetised series A, B, C, D and E Series,, (In) Beautification Series, Self Portrait Series and K-Files, his work has been shown internationally at the Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, the 53rd and 55th Venice Biennales, Venice, the 6th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, the Royal Photography Museum, Copenhagen, Aperture Gallery, New York, as well as being a part of public collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE, Mathaf Museum, Qatar and the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, among others.
