Sama Raena Alshaibi
Sama Raena Alshaibi also known as Sama Alshaibi (Arabic: سما الشيبي (born 1973 in Basra, Iraq) is a conceptual artist (video art, photography and media installation), in which she often deals with spaces of conflict as her primary subject. War, exile, power and the quest for survival are themes often seen in her works. She often uses her own body in her artwork, as a representation of the country or an issue she is dealing with. Her mother, Maha Yaqoubi was born in Jaffa in 1946. The Yaqoubi family were relocated to Iraq at around in 1949, as a result of the 1948 Palestinian exodus. The family settled in Baghdad and she married Alshaibi's father, Hameed, in 1968. Sama Alshaibi and her siblings and parents fled Basra, Iraq in 1981, during the Iraq Iran War. Her story of leaving Iraq is told in her film Goodbye to the Weapon and "Where The Birds Fly".
She was raised between the Middle East and United States of America, where she attended high school at Iowa City High School, in Iowa CIty Iowa. She studied photography at Columbia College in Chicago, and received her MFA at University of Colorado at Boulder, in 2005. She has exhibited extensively throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East since 2003. Her solo exhibitions include London, Dubai, Guatemala City, Jerusalem and Ramallah. Her project Silsila was exhibited at the 55th Venice Biennale, as part of the Maldives Pavilion.Wasl (Arabic for "Union") (2017) from the Silsila series was included in the inaugural 2017 Honolulu Biennial.
Sama Alshaibi: Sand Rushes In, the first monograph of Sama Alshaibi, published by Aperture Foundation. It presents work from Silsila, a video and photographic project that Alshaibi worked on over five years in the deserts and threatened water sources of North Africa and West Asia. Part of that project premiered at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The book also presents other series including Thowra, Negatives Capable Hands and The Pessimists in the context of Silsila which means 'chain' or 'link' in Arabic. Alshaibi's book was published as part of the Aperture's First Book program, and she is the first artist from the Middle East to have a monograph published by Aperture."
Received her BA in Photography at Columbia College Chicago and her Masters of Fine Arts (Photography, Video and New Media) at University of Colorado at Boulder. She is an Associate Professor of Photography at University of Arizona. She served as an elected member of the National Board of Directors for Society For Photographic Education (2009–2013). She was the co-founder of the feminist collective 6+ before leaving in 2009. Alshaibi represented the United States of America as the U.S. Department of State Arts Envoy to the UAE from May 21–30, 2012.
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