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      Melissa Gronlund

      Melissa Gronlund

      Art Correspondent
      Location
      London
      Melissa is an art correspondent for The National. Originally from New York City, she studied comparative literature at Princeton University and film aesthetics at Oxford. She is the author of Contemporary Art and Digital Culture. From 2007–2014 she lectured on contemporary art at Oxford University's Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art and co-edited the journal Afterall, based in London.
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      Articles

      May Muzaffar's Story of Water and Fire has recently been translated into English. Photo: May Muzaffar Archive Collection
      The memoir peeling back five decades of Iraqi cultural history

      A year on from the release of her lifetime-in-the-making memoir, Story of Water and Fire, The National looks back at the poet and artist's life and art

      BooksJune 23, 2024
      Gavin Jantjes's Freedom Hunters (1977). His career was born out of desperation to make the public aware of the realities of apartheid. Photo: Ann Purkis
      Anti-apartheid creative shares his 50 years of activism and art

      Retrospective by South African creative Gavin Jantjes follows his five decades of documenting history on a canvas

      CultureJune 20, 2024
      A detail of Nil Yalter's triptych Nesrin, 1982, which looks at the serpent – a figure found in many religions and beliefs. Photo: Nil Yalter
      Nil Yalter on her 60 years of fighting for women in art world

      Her latest exhibition at London's Ab-Anbar gallery explores the connection between sound and art

      CultureJune 10, 2024
      An undated archival photo showing Hamid Zenati wearing one of his designs – in front of another. Photo: Hamid Zenati Estate
      The compulsive, creative energy of Hamid Zenati

      Late Algerian artist's manifold works are being showcased at a new UK exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary

      CultureJune 05, 2024
      Abdel Hadi El Gazzar's daughter, Tayseer, right, writes of her father's kindness. El Gazzar is pictured with his daughters in Cairo in the 1960s. Photo: Khaf Publishers
      New book reveals who the modernist Arab artists really were

      Dubai writer sheds light on heyday of Arab modernism by interviewing family members

      Art & DesignMay 20, 2024
      An image from Maen Hammad's project, Landing, which was presented at Slidefest Palestine at the University of Greenwich. Courtesy the artist
      Photographers struggling to expose reality of life in Gaza

      Media access and misrepresentation problems are proving to be ‘extremely frustrating’

      Art & DesignMay 13, 2024
      Sukaina Kubba grew up in Abu Dhabi before moving to Toronto for university, and later teaching for years at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art. Photo: Niloofar Taghipour
      Unravelled: How rug making went from Middle East to Scotland

      Transport and transformation are themes of display now on show in Scotland

      CultureMay 03, 2024
      Members of the Aravani Art Project, known for the murals they paint across Bangalore, created 'Diaspora' at the Venice Biennale. Photo: Andrea Avezzu
      Global South art takes centre stage at Venice Biennale

      Exhibition is full of artists whose work has never before been seen in the West

      Art & DesignApril 24, 2024
      Abdallah Al-Khatib's Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege (2021) was co-financed by the Doha Film Institute and will be on display at the Venice Biennale. Photo: DFI
      Qatar's Venice Biennale show celebrates 40 years of Arab film

      A new exhibition looks at art that tells a different story to the mainstream

      Art & DesignApril 16, 2024
      Wael Shawky's I Am Hymns of the New Temples (2023) pulls together stories from Greek and Roman mythology. Photo: Lisson Gallery
      For Wael Shawky, Venice Biennale will be his Egyptian homecoming

      The internationally renowned artist will represent his home country with new work that reframes the Urabi revolt as a musical

      CultureApril 07, 2024
      Iterarte’s website opens on an animation by the Iranian artist Afsoon that emphasises the cross-cultural connections of the Mediterranean, Middle East and South Asia. Photo: Iterarte
      New art platform Iterarte aims to create a cultural Silk Road

      The online venture is oriented both towards artists and collectors

      CultureMarch 26, 2024
      Issam Kourbaj's Capsized (2020) refers to the capsizing of boats carrying migrants. Photo: This Is Photography
      Touching a nerve: Exhibition draws parallels between Syria and Gaza

      Artist Issam Kourbaj, whose work is on display in Cambridge, has had a singular focus since the conflict broke out in his home country

      CultureMarch 18, 2024
      Colour synergy and strong sales made for a sunny Art Dubai Digital. Getty Images
      Art Dubai rides its buzz to strong sales of contemporary and digital works

      A bulk of the purchases from this year's event came from private foundations and collectors

      Art & DesignMarch 03, 2024
      Palestinian artist Malak Mattar, 24, studies at the prestigious Central Saint Martins art school in London. Victoria Pertusa / The National
      Play25:31:01
      'Black speaks to me': Gaza artist can no longer see colour

      Separated from her loved ones, Malak Mattar is turning to a vast monochrome canvas to illustrate what it takes to survive

      Art & DesignJanuary 29, 2024
      A photograph from Tasneem Gad's archival project This Memory Does Not Exist, 2022. Courtesy of the artist
      Top art exhibitions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia this spring

      Masterpieces by a rich panoply of regional and international artists arrive in the Gulf

      Art & DesignJanuary 26, 2024
      More Articles

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