Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | July 2022

“The memories I paint are also the hopeful visualisations of return”
says Maher.
- Exclusive to Magzoid
Maher Naji is a
Palestinian painter,
based in Gaza.
Maher's family was
forced to flee from
Northern Sawafer Village prior to
his birth, and he was born in 1963
in Jabaliya Refugee Camp in Gaza,
where he finished his primary and
secondary education.
He left for Russia in 1983 to
join the Baron Stieglitz Art
Academy in St. Petersburg
and returned to Gaza in
1994 after receiving
his PhD in Arabian
Architecture. During
his stay in Russia,
he participated
in numerous
exhibitions and
since coming
back to
Gaza he has
continued to pursue his work as an
artist, whilst under blockade since
2007.
Maher's artwork is inspired
by his family's memories of
Palestine before 1948. “He relies
on his mother's vast details of
her memories, for every line and
shape in his paintings” says Maher.
His art is a means of preserving
Palestinian culture. “The memories
I paint are also the hopeful
visualisations of return” says
Maher.
The hand mill is for Maher
Naji, a tool that elicits such
powerful memories of
the home that he was
raised in, in the village
of Al Sawafir, Gaza.
In this dreamlike
depiction entitled,
‘The Remaining
Memory’, Naji
“He relies on his
mother's vast details
of her memories, for
every line and shape
in his paintings” says
Maher.
visually interprets his mother’s
recounting of the hand mill and
the manner in which it was used
to grind wheat grains as she
conversed with the women that
surrounded her.
- feature@magzoid.com
www.magzoid.com July 2022
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