James Watrous Gallery

Guest curated by Amal Azzam and Nayfa Naji, the exhibition Wherever Home Is will focus on the feeling of belonging and being at home. Azzam and Naji have been collaborating since 2019 as Fanana Banana; Fanana means ‘artist’ in Arabic, and Banana, as Naji says, “just gave it a goofy twist.” Fanana Banana uses art and community events to raise awareness of the issues faced by American Muslim and MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) communities, and to reflect on how first and second-generation immigrants and their families cope with the challenges of finding a home in a new land and bridging communities while maintaining their cultural identity. Their projects investigate how having “an identity within an identity” affects mental health, body image, and political outlook, and the emotional toll exacted by facing racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice. Azzam and Naji themselves are Palestinian Americans from Milwaukee. 

Organized through a statewide open call, Wherever Home Is will draw artists from farther afield than their previous exhibitions, which have been focused on Milwaukee artists. We anticipate that it will encompass artwork in all media, from traditional forms like calligraphy to mixed-media sculpture, video, and painting. Bookmark this page for information about gallery talks and public programs that will create opportunities for deeper engagement. 

To learn more about the open call, visit @fananamke on Instagram.

Nina Ghanbarzadeh’s art practice is rooted in the desire to share her personal experiences and understanding of the culture and history of Iran, where she was born. She often works with geometric patterns, calligraphic letters, clay, and the color turquoise, inspired by their importance in the history of Iranian art. “Living between two cultures (American and Persian)," says Ghanbarzadeh, "I find myself in constant translation. Culture is so much more than language. It is a shared visual sensibility, humor, music, rituals, past times, food, spiritual commonalities, shared history and understanding.  I draw inspiration for my art from all of this and from the limitations inherent in language. I search for the universal abstractions of lines, curves, dots that are the building blocks of the symbols that make any language and that help to describe a culture.”

In 2018, Madison artists Brenda Baker and Bird Ross set out to see if they could do their part to bring more financial equity to women visual artists right here at home.

Behind-the-Scenes Open Studio Day! Visit the artist studios of three Forward Art Prize Winners in Madison as part of the 5-10-100: Women Artists Forward exhibition.