Join us this evening for the opening celebration of “To Gaza with Love” a collective art show featuring local and international Palestinian artists Alan Farah Morcos, Hussam, Asma Ghanem, Muftah Elsheref, Manar Harb, Ibrahim Isam, Asil Alkabariti, Lara Aburamadan,Chris Gazaleh, and Ren Allathkani,
Alan Farah Morcos. Inspired by his father’s stories of Jaffa and a deep love for art, envisioned a place where the rich narratives of the Middle East and its diaspora could shine. Gallery Habibi was born from this vision, aiming to bridge cultural divides and foster meaningful dialogue through compelling exhibitions and shared experiences. Our mission is simple yet profound: to celebrate the diversity of voices and talents from the region while making art accessible and engaging for all.
Hussam (he/him/they/them) is Palestinian American born and raised in the Bay Area. Their work can center around Palestinian culture and activism, to stunning fine nude photography, to surreal digital paintings. Hussam continues to explore with their signature style marked by elaborate motifs, dark contrasts and provocative imagery centering Palestinian identity, culture and spirituality.
Asma Ghanem is a Palestinian artist, experimental musician, and writer. She was born in Damascus, Syria in 1991. Asma has two degrees in audio-visual arts from the International Academy of Arts in Palestine (2013 - BA) and a Master’s Degree (M.A) from the University of Fine Arts in Toulouse-France (ISDAT), 2016. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, art residencies, and workshops worldwide. She won a Special Mention in The Palestine; & Out competition in Paris for her photography project “Bodies with notes” in 2015. She also won the 3rd prize in The Young Artist Award/The Hassan Al-Hourani Prize in 2016 for her experimental music project. In 2024, she gave lectures at Cornell University in New York and CalArts University in California on her life and art practice as a Palestinian artist and art from the Arab World. The works of Asma are inspired by the imaginative nature of narrating the personal experience of the occupation in Palestine. Her artistic and musical works are connected to her childhood and are centered around essential components such as the concept of homeland, the sonic experience under occupation, the world of imagination, and love stories in an occupied place. Asma employs research and content using different artistic techniques such as painting, experimental music, writing, photography, and video art. She currently lives and works in Oakland, California.
Muftah grew up and currently lives in Libya. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Omar Al-Mukhtar University in Darnah, a Master of Oil Painting from Tripoli University and a PHD in Oil Painting from Libyan Academy in Tripoli. He is currently a lecturer at OmarAl-Muktar University. His style encompasses oil, acrylic, pen & ink and mixed media. He has done 9 group exhibitions and 3 solo exhibitions.
Manar grew up in Ramallah, Palestine amid the life-draining viciousness of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its apartheid state regime. Her paintings place us in a surging and calming state of being that sees the sinews of our bodies as close-ups of plants, as abstract aerial visions of earth and water, as sound waveforms and letter shapes spiritually embodied. Manar obtained an MFA in Book Art & Creative Writing from Mills College. She is also an Arabic teacher and currently lives in Oakland. In 2024, she had a solo exhibition at Round Weather Gallery in Oakland.
Ibrahim was born in the Shati Palestinian refugee camp near the Gaza Sea. He is the father of 5 children. He finished high school education in Gaza then traveled to Ukraine to join the Institute of International Relations. After four years he returned to Gaza to practice his passion in film making to become a film maker. He was able to develop his own approach to making short films which he compiled in a book entitled “A Window on Short Film.” He then started training programs in the production of short films and cartoon films, which were specifically designed for children and young adults. He finished equipping his own film laboratory in a section of his house but when the war broke out in Gaza his family fled to the south and a group of local thieves looted his house and all of his filmmaking, editing and lighting equipment. He was able to salvage several of his cameras and has designed a special program for the psychological support of through photography. He is currently capturing many candid shots of children at sunrise and sunset on the shore of the Gaza Sea.
Asil Alkabariti a visual artist and storyteller, is originally from Gaza City and is now based in the US. Her journey with photography started back home in Gaza, where she would take countless walks through the city with her camera, Eve, exploring new ways to heal and discover herself. During this time, she was deeply inspired by the vibrant energy and diversity of her hometown. Her photography from those days is a reflection of her intimate relationship with Gaza—its streets, its people, its contradictions, and its beauty. She believes in unfiltered storytelling, so she keeps her photos lightly edited to preserve the authenticity of the scenes she captures. Through her lens, her hope is to offer a fresh and honest perspective of Gaza, showing its resilience, humanity, and the complexity of life there.
Lara Aburamadan is a Palestinian multidisciplinary artist, singer and founder of Refugee Eye. Born and raised in Gaza City, Lara is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her photographs and writings have been published in Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere.
Amani Zacharia Rodriguez is an artist, farmer and educator of Palestinian, Mexican and Colombian descent. Her work is guided by the storytellers and story-keepers in her life, and explores connection to land, the more-than-human world and diasporic remembrance. Amani’s prints are informed by her food sovereignty work, as well as her family’s relationship to land through the Nakba. She has worked in print and paper making studios with the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Women’s Studio Workshop and the Lower East Side Printshop.
Chris “C” Gazaleh is a visual artist, musician, writer, organizer and educator from San Francisco. Gazaleh has come a long way on his mission dedicated to promoting cultural, political, and social awareness about the history, people and struggle for freedom in Palestine. Reigning from an upbringing submerged in hip hop culture, he was dedicated to creating his style from a young age, starting with graffiti letters, then characters. When Gazaleh was about 19 living in Detroit at the time he started to learn to read and write in Arabic, being the language of his ancestors he picked it up within months. At 21 Gazaleh decided to move back to San Francisco where he joined GUPS at SFSU and helped put up the Edward Said mural. After this Gazaleh began painting murals in the community eventually finding his own walls, one wall in Clarion Alley has been Gazaleh’s practice wall since 2012, the wall was given to him by the late graffiti legend CUBA. Since then Gazaleh has been working to spread awareness throughout the community and working with the youth in San Francisco with a hope to spread knowledge and love, and to combat the negative stereotypes affecting peoples perspectives of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians worldwide. Gazaleh uses many mediums to create his art, from ink to paint, digital illustration to spray paint.
Ren Allathkani, a Palestinian artist born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1998, grew up in Texas, Colorado, California, and Jordan, where much of her family lives. Her roots are in Jaffa and Nablus, Palestine, before her family was displaced to Amman. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art Studio from UC Davis in 2021 and received the Gary Pruner Scholarship in 2019. Ren’s work incorporates traditional Palestinian tatreez embroidery and natural materials, aiming to reconnect with her spirituality and cultural heritage. Through her art, she explores themes of identity, displacement, and belonging, navigating the complexities of being Palestinian in a politicized context.