Artist Lalla Essaydi combines Islamic calligraphy with representations of the female body in order to address the complexities of Arab female identity from the perspective of a Moroccan woman living in the West. She often returns to her Moroccan girlhood for inspiration, looking back on it as an adult woman caught somewhere between past and present. Her paintings appropriate Orientalist imagery from the Western painting tradition, thereby inviting viewers to reconsider the mythology that has grown out of it. Featured will be a number of photographs from Essaydi’s various series from the last 15 years.

Organized by the Hunter Museum of American Art.

Image: Bullets #6, 2009, Chromogenic print mounted to aluminum with a UV protective laminate, 40 x 30 inches, [LE.BULLETS06.3040.2], © LALLA ESSAYDI. Courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York