Maria Saleh Mahamid’s artwork is grounded in a process of inner reflection, which delineates a search for the meaning and value of life. This much is true of her exhibition Salem, which unfolds before us like a fabric of life, charting her personal milestones and mapping them like a visual diary of emotions, thoughts and longings. Her works are inspired by traditions from the homes of her father, who was born in Umm al-Fahm, and her mother, born in Kiev, Ukraine. References and associations from the cultural landscapes and lived experiences of her fatherland and motherland lead her here, to times and places where the real and imagined converge. Salem is a panoramic pictorial installation that enables both a linear and a circular reading. It was executed at once, without a preparatory sketch or prior planning, as an action painting that evinces as both a physical and a spiritual presence the contours of her body, her legs and fingers. The deeper one delves into it, the more it reveals links and tributes to the history of art as well.
