Diana Al-Hadid’s work explores the interplay between the female body and the European art canon; Syrian, Muslim, and immigrant histories and mythologies; and architectural icons and the natural world. Born in 1981 in Aleppo, Syria, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Al-Hadid creates artworks that speak to her Arab, Muslim family background in concert with an interest in the melding of cultures and the transmogrification of traditional and artistic narratives. This monographic exhibition will consist of a selection of 10-15 large-scale sculptural works made between 2010 and 2020—including one major new commission and several newly created bronze sculptures—brought into interpretive grouping for the first time. Together, the sculptures identify the artist's investigation of historical, mythological, and biblical narratives of women as a fundamental through-line in her practice. While AI-Hadid's work is often interpreted primarily in relation to her interest in the art historical canon, this show situates the artist's deployment of these influences as advancing a network of feminist concerns: the female protagonist and its conflicted history, women’s agency and power, self-actualized identity, and subjugation.

The exhibition is held in conjunction with the Feminist Art Coalition (FAC), a nationwide initiative of art projects that seek to generate cultural awareness of feminist thought, experience, and action. To amplify the FAC message of inclusion and social justice, the Henry is dedicating its complete gallery footprint to exhibitions and programs conceived under this rubric in the summer/fall of 2020.

A brochure with a curatorial essay, alongside installation images, will accompany the exhibition.