February 10 – March 6

Opening Reception: Thursday, Feb 10, 2022 6-8 pm
in the Gallery at the Visual & Performing Arts Center

Closing Celebration: Thursday, March 3, 2022, 6-8 pm
No Place Like Home: Exploring the sights, sounds, and tastes of the Middle East with artist Mohamad Hafez and guests.
in the Veronica Hagman Concert Hall, Visual & Performing Art Center

A Syrian-American artist and architect, Mohamad Hafez was born in Damascus, raised in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and educated in the Midwestern United States. Expressing the juxtaposition of East and West within him, Hafez’s art reflects the political turmoil in the Middle East through the compilation of found objects, paint, and scrap metal. Using his architectural skills, Hafez creates surrealistic Middle Eastern streetscapes that are architectural in their appearance yet politically charged in their content which addresses the devastation of war, feelings of displacement, and nostalgia for home.

The Department of Art was awarded a $13,000 National Endowment for the Arts "Project Grant" to support "The Home Project," in which Hafez will pursue an extensive program of collaborative art installations and exhibition, student mentoring, public lectures, and other activities during a year-long residency in the WCSU Department of Art that will begin in August and continue through the end of the 2021-22 academic year. Through these diverse and interactive exchanges, he will draw from his unique experiences and artistic works to challenge participants in the project to create their own artistic interpretations of the meaning and concept of home to be exhibited alongside his work in the exhibition.