DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The Jerusalem Fund Gallery Al-Quds invites you to the opening of 

al Ab w’al Ibn
Father and Son

paintings by Zahi and Besan Khamis

Opening Reception:
Friday, 1 May, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

The opening will also feature Baltimore poet Kim Jensen
reciting some of her works. Here is an excerpt:

Breath Holding Contest (in Southern Lebanon)

“I’ve tried with others to end the brutality of wars and to find fullness in a life that leaves us all empty handed      in one way or another.”

For the first time, Gallery Al-Quds presents art from two generations, that of Palestinian painter Zahi Khamis and his son Besan.

Influenced by the modernist styles of Picasso and Matisse as well as the Mexican muralists, Zahi’s work is part of the long tradition of committed art. His bright, optimistic colors combined with the tragic expressions of his subjects, express the painful, yet luminous, contradictions of all those who struggle for liberation.

Besan Khamis is a third-year undergraduate art student at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts. He is an interdisciplinary sculpture major, and is working in a variety of disciplines: music, sound, painting, installation, 3D digital fab, and video.

Kim Jensen is a writer, educator, and political activist who has lived in France, California, and the Middle East. She and her husband Palestinian painter Zahi Khamis have been involved in human rights and social justice movements for many years. Kim’s first novel about a turbulent love affair between a Palestinian exile and an American student, The Woman I Left Behind, was published in 2006 by Curbstone Press and was finalist for Forward Magazine’s book of the year award. Her two collections of poems, Bread Alone and The Only Thing that Matters were both published by Syracuse University Press, in 2009 and 2013. Acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye calls Kim’s poems “searing and spare.” She adds: “They will haunt you and stretch your vision. You won’t be the same person after reading them that you were before.” In 2001, Kim won the Raymond Carver Prize for Short Fiction, and her writings have appeared in many books, anthologies, and journals.