Fatma Shanan – Leaves of Grass

Fatma Shanan (b. 1986) is a painter who lives and works in Julis, a Druze village in northern Israel, and is a graduate of Oranim College. In her work, the carpet is a central motif, often placed in open spaces, serving as a charged site that challenges stereotypical associations between carpets, women, and the East. Her paintings explore physical, emotional, and social constraints imposed on women, by examining the relationships between the carpet, the body, and space. Shanan has held solo exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM Gallery in Berlin, and The Armory Show in New York, and has participated in group exhibitions at the Israel Museum, Eretz Israel Museum, the Museum for Islamic Art, and Art Düsseldorf. She is the recipient of the Haim Shiff Prize for Figurative-Realist Art and several grants, and has participated in residencies in New York, California, and Artport Tel Aviv.