Palestinian artist paints a dream world for Gaza residents in '1030+' exhibition

Palestinian artist Khaled Hourani temporarily rescues people in the Gaza Strip from death, rubble, and destruction, lifting them toward the clouds as if they were a dreamlike refuge in his paintings, which also invite a temporary escape from the Israeli killing machine’s genocidal war and the weight of occupation.

Khaled Hourani’s exhibition, titled “1030+,” recently opened at Zawaya Gallery in al-Bireh, in the West Bank. It transcends the clamor of news reports and the staggering numbers of martyrs, wounded, missing, and victims of urban annihilation in the genocidal war, focusing instead on the human being without severing him from his reality, offering a momentary respite to process what is happening.

The exhibition’s title, “1030+,” refers to the number of days of the genocidal war committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip up to the day of the exhibition’s opening. The paintings are based on photographs from Gaza, into which the artist intervenes by reconfiguring the images, retaining only the human figures to grant them an enduring, indelible presence.