Tina Sherwell
Co-Director of Masters of Fine Arts in Art and Media; Associate Arts Professor
Affiliation: Visiting
Education: BA Goldsmiths College, University of London, PhD University of Kent at Canterbury
Research Areas: identity; landscape; Arab art; Palestinian art; visual culture
Tina Sherwell works across art practice, art history, and curating. Her art practice focuses on landscapes of Palestine, exploring questions of representations of scarred landscapes through mixed media, while her written work focuses on the representation of place and identity in relation to questions of homeland, belonging, loss, and exile in the work of Palestinian and Arab artists. Her research interests also lies in the different historical periods of the Arab world, including the anti-colonial struggle, heightened nationalism, and globalization that have framed the contexts of art production, its reception, and circulation. Her research interests also encompass visual cultural theory, in particular the role and importance of images in contemporary society.
She was Head of the Contemporary Visual Art Program at Birzeit University (2017-2021) and worked on the development of the Faculty of Art, Music, and Design at the university, She was also the Director of Birzeit University Museum (2017-2018). She was Director of The International Academy of Art, Palestine (2007-2012 and 2013-2017). Previously she was Programme Leader of Fine Art at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton (2005-2007). She was also Executive Director of the Virtual Gallery at Birzeit University and has worked with the Tate Online on their digital archives. She won the prize of Alexandria Biennele in 2001 for her map series of Palestine.
Recently curated exhibitions include: Intimate Terrains; Representations of a Disappearing Landscape, The Palestinian Museum (2019 ) Degree Show of the International Academy of Art, Palestine (2011-2018), Disrupted Intimacies, French German Cultural Centre, Ramallah (2015), Retrospective of Sliman Mansour, Al Hoash Art Court, East Jerusalem, (2011). Recent talks include: The Mental Traveller discussant with W.J.T. Mitchell, A.M Qattan Foundation (2021), Feminist Art in the Middle East CBRL (2021). Art Education, Towards a New Kind of Autonomy, KUNO Network, (2017). The Curriculum, Creative Time Summit, (Venice 2015), Recent texts include: “In the Pocket of the Earth, I Heard a Soliloquy of a Landscape.” Visual Culture Journal (2021) “Jumana Abboud: On Landscapes and Longing”, Black Dog, London, UK. (2018) “Curatorial Expeditions: The Ramallah Safari, Stedelijk Studies, Netherlands (2014).