Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Mohammad Afifa (1972-) is a Palestinian artist and cartoonist , born in Qatif , Saudi Arabia , to a family that was displaced from the village of Tel Safi due to the Nakba of 1948 , and settled in the Dheisheh camp in Bethlehem. He holds a diploma in interior design from the Arab Community College in Amman in 1994. He worked in several newspapers such as Al-Ghad and Al-Araby Al-Jadeed in 2014, and designed characters, cartoons , and graphic designs . He was granted an artistic residency at the Marsam 301 Foundation in Bethlehem, and participated in the Saadeh Forum as part of the Jerusalem Capital of Culture celebration in Beirut in 2009, and in the Al-Mahras International Festival for Fine Arts in Tunisia in 2020.
His artistic style
Afifa was greatly influenced by the cause of his people, which led him to adopt a political stance supporting all liberation issues around the world. He focused his style on political art, i.e. combining art with harsh criticism of oppressive regimes and authorities, supporting the Palestinian struggle and Arab revolutions while providing solutions to the issues he raises. He also relies on the indirect style of the recipient in his drawings. He drew cats and birds that were dominated by black comedy , and he drew his dreamy characters, and he projected the political dimension onto most of them.
The artist has presented many solo and group exhibitions, with the most important of them being:
Solo Exhibitions:
"Untitled" at Gallery Place - Amman in 2004.
"Something Personal" at Al Hussein Cultural Center - Amman in 2005.
"Daily Cartoon" at the Jordanian Fine Artists Association - Amman in 2007.
"Memory and Thickness" at the Italian Cultural Association - Amman in 2016.
"Cats Project" at Dar Al-Anda Gallery - Amman in 2020.
Group Exhibitions:
"Young Artists" at the Royal Cultural Center - Amman in 1993.
"Posters" at the Royal Cultural Center - Amman in 2012.
"Rebellion" at Attri - Italy in 2012.
"We Draw for Gaza" at the Mahmoud Darwish Museum - Ramallah in 2014.
"On the Road to Jerusalem" at the Jordanian Fine Artists Association - Amman in 2018.
Achievements and Awards
Awards
Awards received:
Hanthala Al-Ard Award at the Naji Al-Ali International Cartoon Competition in Turkey in 2010.
Naji Al Ali Award , first session, one of the Palestine Cultural Awards from the Palestine International Foundation in 2012.
Mahmoud Kahil Award for Political Cartoons at the American University of Beirut 2018
Source
- Years in active
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