NIRVANA DABBAH
Nirvana Dabbah (born 1981, Israel), holds a Bachelor’s degree and Teaching Certification in Art from Oranim Academic College of Education, Kiryat Tivon.
We live in a place where self-identity is not equally clear for everyone. Even more so, regarding the identity of a Palestinian Israeli artist, part of a new generation in a country where she still lacks equal rights. It takes immense efforts, in both her private and public spheres, to find her unique voice and bravely make it heard so it resonates over great distances.
Born in Acre, Nirvana Dabbah is a figurative painter who lives and works in Deir al-Asad in the Upper Galilee. Her drawings and paintings are grouped with the realist school and depict what exists in her world. In a distinctive and personal painterly style, Dabbah’s works open a window onto her private world, allowing a glimpse of her soul and life, as well as disclosing a new female territory with a cultural richness of spiritual independence.
In recent years, particularly since the late 1980s, young Arab female artists have presented a model centering around the female - I. Discernible In their work is a constant and intensifying movement between spaces of identity – tangible physical spaces, rich in values and moral perceptions, and psychological and physical spaces imbued with longings and dreams of an alternative reality. Applying a traditional technique, Dabbah's drawings create a world that refuses to be simplistic. The figures appearing in them, whether they gaze directly at the viewer, or engage with their own matters, define the geographical, ideological, and psychological space where they are located.
Prayer, oil on canvas, 2021, 90x70 cm
Prayer, oil on canvas, 2021, 90x70 cm
NIRVANA DABBAH
Nirvana Dabbah (born 1981, Israel), holds a Bachelor’s degree and Teaching Certification in Art from Oranim Academic College of Education, Kiryat Tivon.
We live in a place where self-identity is not equally clear for everyone. Even more so, regarding the identity of a Palestinian Israeli artist, part of a new generation in a country where she still lacks equal rights. It takes immense efforts, in both her private and public spheres, to find her unique voice and bravely make it heard so it resonates over great distances.
Born in Acre, Nirvana Dabbah is a figurative painter who lives and works in Deir al-Asad in the Upper Galilee. Her drawings and paintings are grouped with the realist school and depict what exists in her world. In a distinctive and personal painterly style, Dabbah’s works open a window onto her private world, allowing a glimpse of her soul and life, as well as disclosing a new female territory with a cultural richness of spiritual independence.
In recent years, particularly since the late 1980s, young Arab female artists have presented a model centering around the female - I. Discernible In their work is a constant and intensifying movement between spaces of identity – tangible physical spaces, rich in values and moral perceptions, and psychological and physical spaces imbued with longings and dreams of an alternative reality. Applying a traditional technique, Dabbah's drawings create a world that refuses to be simplistic. The figures appearing in them, whether they gaze directly at the viewer, or engage with their own matters, define the geographical, ideological, and psychological space where they are located.
A Look at a Painting by Elie Shamir, 2017, oil on canvas, 145 x 190 cm
In my grandmother_s lap, oil on canvas, 2019, 90x130 cm
Grandmother Praying, 2008, oil on canvas, 160x120 cm
Dabbah grew up in Acre with Muslim parents, and as a child attended Jewish schools. She always perceived her neighbors and friends from both ethnicities as equals. When she grew up and left Acre to attend the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she first experienced the political rift close-up during the reciprocal terrorist attacks of the early 2000s. That period triggered a process of in-depth introspection and attempts to define a clear identity.
“Although I always felt I belonged to each community, I still felt foreign and different in both of them. Among the Arabs, I was considered different in terms of my character, accent, and identification with the Israeli side. Among the Jews, I was perceived as different, and sometimes even attracted anger when I showed solidarity with my people, the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank."
Dabbah’s distinctive painterly voice is not charged with tension and does not challenge tradition and the past. Her voice is a deep, cerebral woman's voice, clearly articulated but not clashing with the complex reality. It is a multi-layered voice, not necessarily reconciled and certainly not lacking in suffering, founded on the fading elements of the past yet simultaneously on the contemporary reality that offers more diverse choices than ever before regarding national and personal social identity.
Dabbah, who was awarded a Hecht Prize Commendation in 2017, is currently a graduate student in the Artist-Teacher track at Oranim College, from which she gained an undergraduate degree in Art. She is a member of the Association of Arab Artists in Israel and teaches in Yokneam Illit.
The sketch "Prayer" is a self-portrait of the artist reading the Qur'an with a scarf partially covering her head. On the one hand, the scarf recalls traditional dress, yet on the other it does not cover the entire head and hair, as is customary during prayer. The text that appears on the open page of the Qur'an is the surah Maryam where Zechariah prays for the birth of a son; it deals with the importance of doing good according to the Bible, and the Israelites also appear in it.
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