Fatima Mortada

Fatima Mortada (1980) is a  Lebanese artist who graduated from the Lebanese University with a first class honours diploma in Fine Arts in 2007. In 2009, she moved to the UK to pursue higher education at the University of Southampton, Winchester School of Art, where she got her MA Fine Art (with distinction) in 2010 and received a three-year scholarship for the PhD program. Upon being in the UK and having exposed to the contemporary art scene, Mortada realised her inclination to address issues of identity and conflict that refer to the social background she comes from: The Middle East. She has been experiencing a wide range of techniques and materials from drawing, printmaking and painting to soft-sculpture, installation, film, knitting, sewing and performance. In her words: ‘I believe that my art is breaking a taboo by investigating gender hierarchies and the politics of sexuality in the Arab world. I research how female powers were represented historically, especially in mythologies; then appropriate the findings of my research to the situation of the female in the contemporary Middle East.’ Fatima has participated in several group exhibitions and art fairs in Lebanon, the UK and France. She has participated in various art fairs, including Art Paris, London14 and Beirut Art Fair. In 2014, she had a solo exhibition, Labyrinth, at Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut.