Abed Abdi

Abed Abdi ( born February 1942 in Haifa) is an Arab- Israeli painter and draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, metalsmith and lecturer.

Life

Abed Abdi studied art in Israel in Abaham Yaskil and Zvi Mairovitch and held his first exhibition in 1962 in Tel Aviv. From 1964 to 1972 studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden. His professors were Lea Grundig, Gerhard Bondzin and Gerhard Kettner. His final project at the Academy received the 2nd Award, Abdi was the chance to spend another year at art school and to specialize in murals and sculptures.

In 1972 he went back to Haifa and worked as a sculptor, painter, cartoonist, art critic and graphic artist for various Arab publications. At the same time, he designed several murals. From 1985 to 2008 he was a lecturer at the Pedagogical Academy for Teacher Education in Haifa, where he taught art.

Work

Exemplary of his allegorical monuments in Galilee, which symbolize human power and resistance, are a narrative mural depicting Elijah's defiance and survival, as well as a bronze monument, dedicated shot six Palestinians.

Abed Abdi has created numerous monuments and murals: So he designed in 1977, together with the Jewish artist Gershon Knispel, a sculpture commemorating the "Day of the country" in memory of the events of 30 March 1976, 1984, a memorial to the 75 - anniversary of the Galilean city of Shefa Amr district, in 1999 the monument in Kafr Kanna and 2001, the memorial in Kafr Manda. Murals are known by Abdi example, from Haifa, Tel Aviv and Nazareth.

Abed Abdi had solo exhibitions in Qatar, Israel, Jordan, Belgium, Hungary and Bulgaria. He has participated in over 50 group exhibitions, including at the Palestinian-Israeli Exhibitions 1980-1987, which could be seen in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. More joint exhibition, such as " It's possible" between 1988 and 1990, were shown in the U.S. and in Germany. In addition, his work in the exhibition " Solidarity with the Palestinian People" in Tokyo, Berlin, Brussels, Belgrade and Athens were seen. 2010 Abdi had the exhibition 50 years of creativity ( " 50 Years of Creativity ") in the Um el Fahem Gallery in Israel.

Abdi is a member of the " Israeli Association of Painters and Sculptors " and the Jewish- Arab Center of Beit Hagefen. This allows him to bring together Palestinian and Israeli artists and to organize joint exhibitions. Abdi founded the " Ibdaa society " to promote the visual arts in the Arab- Israeli sector and the " Arabelle Workshop" in Haifa for the promotion of Fine Arts and intercultural dialogue through art.

Abdi was president of the Al- Midan Theatre in Haifa from 2004 until 2009. Since 2008 he has been co-curator of the " Holiday of Holidays" (Haifa, Israel).

Honors

The city of Haifa said Abdi 1973 " Herman Struck Best Artist of the Year " award for which he received again in 1999. In 1973 he also received the " Young Artist Award" from the International Youth Festival in Berlin. In 2008, Abed Abdi awarded the prize for art and graphic art of the Israeli Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports as the first modern Arab artists in Israel.

In 2010 he the mayor of the city of Haifa conferred the honorary citizenship.