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Aisha A Abbassi

Aisha A Abbassi dressed in traditional Cambodian costume called "sampot."

Aisha A Abbassi is an artist and designer living in Tunis.

Since leaving the design industry in the US to return to the arts, Aisha has worked as a project coordinator and artist-in-residence in Tunis, collaboratively employing alternative forms of education and the animation of public space(s) to engage local youth and children in Fouchana and El Hafsia.

Her practice has sculptural and social emphases and employs mainly sérigraphie, patterns, textiles, and language. Aisha’s interdisciplinary works facilitate a new way of seeing and the valorization of everyday shapes and objects. Her work lies at the intersection of art, design, and civic action and is grounded in the themes of heritage and diaspora, art as social practice, and the democratization of art.

Through TASAWAR Curatorial Studios, Aisha wishes to find the intersection of contemporary and community arts in consideration of the local Tunisian and global contexts. Rather than attempting to define art, she seeks to discover its many uses and abilities in today’s context—where does it begin and end? What does art do? What can art and curation offer in the further development of our democracy, collective identity, and individual freedoms?

FORMATION
2016 | Ithaca.NY.us | Cornell University | Bachelor of Fine Arts
1998 – 2003 | Kuwait City.kw | American School of Kuwait

BIO
Since 2019 | Tunis.tn | Artist-in-Residence | Collectif Creatif El Warcha
2018 | Tunis.tn | Jasmine Foundation | Project Coordinator, The City Is Ours
Since 2016 | Various cities.us  | Graphic Design and Illustration

2012 | Moved to Ithaca.NY.us
2003 | Moved to Houston.TX.us
1998 | Moved to Kuwait
1994 | Born in Houston.TX.us

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 (upcoming) | Tunis.tn | Mawjoudin Queer Film Festival
2019 | Tunis.tn | Utopia 100 years Bauhaus | Dar Lasram | GOETHE-INSTITUT Tunesien
2016 | Ithaca.ny | Voodoo Mama Juju | John Hartell Gallery | [1]
2016 | Ithaca.ny | CCA BIENNIAL: Abject/Object Empathies | FLOSSA by Caroline Woolard | [2]
2015 | Ithaca.ny | Bookwork+Castwork | Tjaden Experimental Gallery | [3] 2015 | Ithaca.ny | NY2C15 | Olive Tjaden Gallery | [4]

LINKS
aishaaabbassi.com

PHOTO
Photo courtesy of Kevin Villalobos | Houston.tx.usa | 2019
Aisha A Abbassi dressed in a traditional Cambodian costume called the “sampot.”
Costume courtesy of Leng Chou Abbassi.