John Halaka

John Halaka
Born
John Halaka

1957 (1957)
Mansoura, Dakahlia, Egypt
EducationUniversity of Houston
MovementPalestinian art

John Halaka (born 1957) is an Egyptian-born American visual artist, documentary filmmaker, and Professor of Visual Arts at the University of San Diego in California. He is considered an expert in painting, drawing, photography, documentary filmmaking, oral history, and modern and contemporary Palestinian art.

Education and publications

Halaka was born in Mansoura, Egypt, in 1957. Born to a Greek Orthodox Christian family of Levantine background, his father was of Palestinian descent and his mother was of Lebanese descent. They moved to the United States in 1970.

He received his Master's of Fine Arts degree in 1983 from the University of Houston in Texas.

He has taught at the University of San Diego since 1991.

His writing has appeared in edited anthologies, art catalogues, and academic journals, most often Jadaliyya. He has also been interviewed for and profiled in journalistic and academic reports on contemporary Arab art.

John Halaka (top right) among artists at the California African American Museum in 2009.

Artistic works

Halaka's artwork has been exhibited in Michigan; California; Alaska; Washington, D.C.; Palestine; Spain; and the United Kingdom. He was featured in the inaugural exhibit of the Arab American National Museum. He also participated in the ongoing "I Witness Silwan" mural project in Batan al Hawa and contributed to the major exhibition (and subsequent book) The Map Is Not the Territory: Parallel Paths—Palestinians, Native Americans, Irish (2013).

He is past recipient of a Fulbright award to Lebanon, where he conducted oral history interviews among Palestinian refugees of multiple generations. He was also awarded a U.S. Scholar fellowship from the Palestinian American Research Center for 2018–2019 for his project Vanishing Harvest: Meditations on the End of Palestinian Agriculture.

Halaka is one of the artists who has created works for the I Witness Silwan art installation in East Jerusalem.

Select bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 "John Halaka – Station Museum of Contemporary Art". Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Being Palestinian : personal reflections on Palestinian identity in the diaspora. Yasir Suleiman. Edinburgh. 2016. ISBN 978-0-7486-3403-3. OCLC 963672141.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. 1 2 3 "Our Faculty: John Halaka". College of Arts and Sciences - University of San Diego. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  4. ↑ Migration across boundaries : linking research to practice and experience. Parvati Nair, Tendayi Bloom. London: Routledge. 2016. ISBN 978-1-315-59529-0. OCLC 948602987.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. ↑ Halaka, John (2016). "Between Home and Homeland: Reflections on New Paintings from the series Eltifaf-Bypass by Rafat Asad". Jadaliyya - جدلية. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  6. ↑ Halaka, John (2016). "Meditations From The Shadows of History: Reflections on Paintings from the series "Shadow of the Shadow" by Bashar Khalaf". Jadaliyya - جدلية. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  7. ↑ Halaka, John (2013). "Ghosts of Comfort and Chaos". Jadaliyya - جدلية. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  8. ↑ "إذاعة صوت فلسطين - جاليري 18/03/2017". vop.ps. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  9. ↑ Archive, Asia Art. "New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century". aaa.org.hk. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Portraits of Denial & Desire, Photographs by John Halaka". Islamic Arts Magazine. March 24, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Artist Lecture Series – John Halaka | Nevada Arts Council". www.nvartscouncil.org. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  12. ↑ "John Halaka. In/Visible". universes.art. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  13. ↑ In/visible : contemporary art by Arab American artists : Yasser Aggour, Rheim Alkadhi, Doris Bittar, Abdelai Dahrouch, Mariam Ghani, John Halaka, Nabila Hilmi, Emily Jacir, Johammad O. Khalil, Amina Mansour, Sumayyah Samaha, Athir Shayota, Helen Zughaib, Afaf Zurayk. Salwa Mikdadi Nashashibi, Arab American National Museum. Dearborn, Michigan: Arab American National Museum. 2005. ISBN 0-9767977-0-4. OCLC 64140041.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ↑ Proctor, Rebecca Anne (July 30, 2021). "As Palestinian residents of Silwan face evictions, large public artwork protests - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East". www.al-monitor.com. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  15. ↑ Bishara, Hakim (July 28, 2021). "Murals Watch Over Jerusalem Neighborhood, a Silent Protest Against Displacement". Hyperallergic. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  16. ↑ Painter, Dagmer (September 2013). "The Map Is Not the Territory: Parallel Paths—Palestinians, Native Americans, Irish". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. pp. 38–39. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  17. ↑ "The map is not the territory" : parallel paths--Palestinians, Native Americans, Irish : a touring art exhibition. Jennifer Heath. Boulder, Colorado: Baksun Books. 2015. ISBN 978-1-887997-32-4. OCLC 921870016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ↑ "The Map Is Not The Territory: Parallel Paths — Palestinians, Native Americans, Irish – Arab American National Museum". 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  19. ↑ ArtFacts. "The Map is not the Territory | Exhibition". ArtFacts. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  20. ↑ "John Halaka (author page)". Jadaliyya - جدلية. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  21. ↑ "Professor John Halaka Selected as a PARC 2018-2019 U.S. Research Fellow - University of San Diego". www.sandiego.edu. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  22. ↑ Bishara, Hakim (July 28, 2021). "Murals Watch Over Jerusalem Neighborhood, a Silent Protest Against Displacement". Hyperallergic. Retrieved March 31, 2026.