--- description: The nation’s longest-running festival of international photography and multimedia art provides a counterpoint to many of the contemporary art fairs underway around the country by bringing into focus the long overlooked work of art photographers from the Arab world. title: 2014 Fotofest Biennial in Houston, Texas: Spotlight on 49 Arab Photographers and Artists image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd80cf0290237e850/6987e64d8e06011e6145d9ba/hassanhajjaj_-kesh-angels1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Shining a Spotlight on Arab Artists, Fotofest Biennial Opens in Houston by [Eugene Reznik](/author/eugene-reznik/) ## Eugene Reznik Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2014 8:00 AM CUT  Kesh Angels. Metallic lambda print on 3mm white dibond Kesh Angels. Metallic lambda print on 3mm white dibondHassan Hajjaj by [Eugene Reznik](/author/eugene-reznik/) ## Eugene Reznik Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 13, 2014 8:00 AM CUT The 15th Biennial Fotofest in Houston provides a counterpoint to many of the contemporary art fairs underway around the country, where representation of work by Arab photographers is often scant. _View From Inside: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art_ brings into focus 49 Arab visual artists, a third of whom are women, from 13 countries — the first survey of its size and scope in more than a decade. “Does contemporary art even exist in Arab countries?” writes lead Biennial curator Karin Adrian von Roques. “If so, is it good art? Don’t the artists mostly just imitate Western art? Can art even come about when there is an Islamic ban on pictures?” These are the questions and misconceptions von Roques has heard while surveying contemporary art fairs beginning in the 1990s. She first encountered an “astonishingly vibrant” art scene in Morocco during her travels and studio visits as early as the 1970s — an experience that led her all the way to the Gulf states. Yet to this day, in Europe and America, the common narrative of Arab artistic production concludes around the mid-19th century, or at the end of the centuries-long Classical Period. Arab visual art of our own time is “something like a no-man’s-land,” she writes, “about which little is known in any detail.” Recent inroads have been made in the wake of hyper-urbanization in oil-rich Qatar and United Arab Emirates: Christie’s held its first auction of contemporary and modern Arab art in Dubai in 2006\. While other auction houses have followed suit, Western stereotypes of monolithic backwardness still play a huge role in lowering expectations — and collectors’ interest — toward Arab work. “Often described as pan-ethnic, linked primarily by language,” writes Fotofest co-founder Wendy Watriss, the term “Arab” is extremely elusive. “You have may have a Palestinian artist with a passport from Kuwait, but he works in Abu Dhabi and may have studied in New York and Paris,” von Roques tells TIME. This question of identity comes up repeatedly in much of the work on view. Most of the artists have traveled extensively or lived abroad and all have created work in the midst of the digital (and social media) revolution. The artists’ self-conscious interrogation of Arabness, so to speak, is among the ways the show might set itself apart from exhibitions that risk “exoticizing” the work and having it come off as merely folkloric. By embracing the term “Arab” and confronting its limited connotations with what von Roques calls “an unusually broad and varied selection” of work, she hopes viewers can “leave behind habitual ways of seeing and risk a change in perspective.” --- **_View from Inside: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art_** _is on view at the 2014 FotoFest Biennial in Houston, Tex., March 15 – April 27, 2014._ **_Eugene Reznik_**_is a Brooklyn-based writer, photographer and editor. Follow him on Twitter @eugene\_reznik._ ---  M. Metallic lambda on 3 mm white dibond Hassan Hajjaj  Kick Start. Metallic lambda print on 3mm white dibond Hassan Hajjaj  Kesh Angels. Metallic lambda print on 3mm white dibond Hassan Hajjaj  The House That My Father Built, 2010 Sadik Alfraji—Ayyam Gallery  The House That My Father Built, 2010 Sadik Alfraji—Ayyam Gallery  From the series Mes Arabies. Remains of a sun temple, Yemen, 1994 Samer Mohdad  From the series Mes Arabies. Swimming pool for camels, Dubai, UAE, 1997 Samer Mohdad  From the series War Children. Shooting practice at the Syrian Nationalist Party’s Lion Cubs training camp in Mount Lebanon, 1989 Samer Mohdad  From the series Mes Arabies. Shopping mall in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2003 Samer Mohdad  LFM-revisited #4 Lalla Essaydi  Harem #29 Lalla Essaydi  Converging Territories #24 Lalla Essaydi  Version 1 Hicham Benohoud  La salle de classe 1 Hicham Benohoud  La salle de classe 2 Hicham Benohoud  Fom the series Distorted Reality. Performance #13, Triptych #02 (detail), 2007 Faisal Samra  Fom the series Distorted Reality. Performance #13, Triptych #02 (detail), 2007 Faisal Samra  Say Goodbye, Self Portrait, Alexandria, 2009 Youssef Nabil—Nathalie Obadia Gallery  Botticelli, Self Portrait, Florence, 2009 Youssef Nabil—Nathalie Obadia Gallery ![Al Andalus Hotel \[Familial\], 2009](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte96067dbe66b27a6/69868e48810bbbd7b9c916f5/gargash_ferrarihotel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Al Andalus Hotel \[Familial\], 2009 Lamya Gargash ![Al Andalus Hotel \[Familial\], 2009](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11a1eb786ad3df89/6987e6648e060183db45d9e3/gargash_alandalushotel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Al Andalus Hotel \[Familial\], 2009 Lamya Gargash  Beyond Memory (Series#1/3), 2012 Hazem Harb—Courtesy Athr Gallery  Beyond Memory (Series#2/3), 2012 Hazem Harb—Courtesy Athr Gallery  From the series Euphoria, 2010 Steve Sabella—Berloni Gallery  From the series Euphoria, 2010 Steve Sabella—Berloni Gallery  From the series Euphoria, 2010 Steve Sabella—Berloni Gallery ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3807793/houston-arab-photo-festival/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3807793/houston-arab-photo-festival/"},"headline":"Shining a Spotlight on Arab Artists, Fotofest Biennial Opens in Houston","datePublished":"2014-03-13T08:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:30.995Z","description":"The nation’s longest-running festival of international photography and multimedia art provides a counterpoint to many of the contemporary art fairs underway around the country by bringing into focus the long overlooked work of art photographers from the Arab world.","url":"https://time.com/3807793/houston-arab-photo-festival/","keywords":["LightBox","Houston","Out There"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd80cf0290237e850/6987e64d8e06011e6145d9ba/hassanhajjaj_-kesh-angels1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eugene Reznik","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eugene-reznik/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd80cf0290237e850/6987e64d8e06011e6145d9ba/hassanhajjaj_-kesh-angels1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hassanhajjaj_-kesh-angels1.jpg","caption":"Kesh Angels. 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