Rosalind Nashashibi

Rosalind Nashashibi’s practice, comprised of filmmaking and painting, chronicles intimate moments of contemporary life across diverse circumstances with a deeply empathetic and personal approach. In both her films and paintings, one piece often permeates into the next one, creating an ongoing dialogue between bodies of work. Nashashibi’s oeuvre is similarly imbued with precise references to the works of other filmmakers and painters — such as references to David Hockney, Pierre Bonnard and the filmmakers Alexander Kluge and Chantal Akerman.

Nashashibi is able to capture different kinds of relationships through the minutiae of her subjects’ lives and the lived environment. Her films are often non-linear, punctuated by manifestations of power dynamics and the subtext of individual and collective histories.

Starting in 2014, Nashashibi has expanded her painting practice, creating abstract and figurative works that combine lush colors with sumptuous organic forms. Her paintings incorporate motifs that are pulled from her everyday environment such as a wine glass or an illuminated taxi sign, which are then reworked in multiple variations. There is both a softness and an immediacy present in her works that comes from an intuitive, process-based exploration. Although Nashashibi’s paintings share certain qualities with German Expressionism, they are more reserved, enriched by their stillness and focus.

Nashashibi became the first artist in residence at the National Gallery in London (UK), after the program was re-established in 2020. She was a Turner Prize nominee in 2017, and represented Scotland in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Her work has been included in Documenta 14, Manifesta 7, the Nordic Triennial, and Sharjah 10. She was the first woman to win the Beck’s Futures prize in 2003.

Submitted by GRIMM