Bashar Alhroub was born in Jerusalem in 1978 and grew up in Hebron, currently living and working in Ramallah.
Alhroub graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Al-Najah National University, Palestine in 2001. He was awarded the Ford Foundation fellowship to pursue an MFA, which he completed in 2010 from the Winchester School of Art, the University of Southampton in the UK. In 2012, Alhroub was awarded the first grand prize at the 14th Art Asian Biennial, Bangladesh.
Alhroub graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Al-Najah National University, Palestine in 2001. He was awarded the Ford Foundation fellowship to pursue an MFA, which he completed in 2010 from the Winchester School of Art, the University of Southampton in the UK. In 2012, Alhroub was awarded the first grand prize at the 14th Art Asian Biennial, Bangladesh.
Alhroub works with a variety of media including photography, video installation, drawing and paintings. His work directly deals with the polemics of a place, questioning its role in humanity and its influence on creativity. His work is deeply influenced by the socio-political sentiments that assert his identity as well as his desire to belong to a social and cultural community; rooted in a particular place, Alhroub constantly longs for a feeling of attachment, a sense of significant ownership of that place. More recently, his work began to engage with the search into the self. Using the body as a signifier, his work shows the threatened self-identity through the process of scrutiny and experimentation. The work deals with personal vulnerability and experience of existential anxiety strongly associated with issues such as religion, nationalism, conflict, and identity construction. Moreover, it looks for meaning, not in the individual sign, but in the context of exile and fragmentation.
Alhroub exhibited at various museums, biennales, and art venues including: The Institution of Contemporary ICA, London; Paul Valery Museum – France, American University Museum, Katzen Arts Centre, Washington Dc, USA; The Arab World Institute، Paris – France; The Aga Khan Museum, Toronto – Canada; Imperial War Museum, London, UK; Frieze Art Fair, London, UK; Krannert Art Museum, USA; Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem; Gallery One, Ramallah, Palestine; Jordan National Gallery, Amman, Jordan; Art Dubai, Dubai; Abu Dhabi Art, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Gallery Mana, Istanbul, Turkey; Eli and Edythe Broad Museum, USA; 15th,16th, 17th Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh; The Barjeel Art Foundation, UAE; Instants Vidéo Festival 24th Marseille, France; Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia, Gdansk, Poland; Green Art Gallery, Dubai; The Mosaic Rooms, London; Twin Gallery – Madrid- Spain;
Alhroub also participated in several International artist residencies a such as Art Omi, New York; Artist residency in Matters Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, USA; Delfina Foundation Residency, London; China Printmaking Museum and Goanlan Artist village residency, China; Bag Art Camp Residency and Workshop, Bergen, Norway; “Shatna” International Artists Workshop, Jordan; he International Artists Workshop “Braziers”, UK.
Bashar Alhroub’s work is also included in a number of International collections and museums including the Imperial War Museum, London; Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; China Printmaking Museum- China; Jordan National Gallery, The Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF)Beirut - Lebanon, khaleeji Art Museum, UAE: Omi Art Centre, New York; and Michael Abbate collection, Bengal National Gallery, Bangladesh; Birzeit University Museum collection, Palestine; New York; Bank of Palestine collection, Palestine; Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait- Kuwait and in many other renowned private collections worldwide.
My work has developed from paintings and mixed media, and has directly dealt with the polemics of a place, how to humanise it and its influence on our creativity. I assert my identity as essentially part of and perhaps born out of those places. We all want to feel that we belong to a social and cultural community, constantly longing for a feeling of attachment, rooted in a particular place with a sense of significant ownership of that place. My work is deeply influenced by these socio-political sentiments. Questions such as who we are are often intimately related to questions of where we are, so inextricably bound to defining our location in relation to self and other.
More recently my work began to engage with the search into the self. To achieve this I used the body as signifier. The work often shows threatened self-identity through the process of scrutiny and experimentation. The work deals with personal vulnerability and an experience of existential anxiety strongly associated with issues such as religion, nationalism, conflict and identity construction and looks for meaning not in the individual sign but in the context of exile and fragmentation.
My work touches on completely new creative surroundings with new physical freedom, away from the alienating materialistic and visual effects of my occupied homeland. I study the place’s materialistic, psychological, aesthetic and meditational effects. I believe that the human self is an essential part of this holistic system, regardless of its closeness or distance from a place. I try to touch the inner state of the viewer by creating a state of chaos to get his or her psychological and emotional attention. Through this inner confusion, the physical experience forces the viewer to reconsider the self and its relationship with its surroundings, dominated by division and exile, where “progress” seems to mean bloody destruction and enslavement of the human soul.