Hatem Imam (Lebanon/Palestine) explores the ways in which we use representation to negotiate a relationship with place. Through painting, printmaking, installation, and sound, his work looks at the space and materiality of dreams, and constructs scenes in which desire, shame, pleasure, and guilt collide.
Biography
Hatem Imam (b.1978, Sidon) is a visual artist and a graphic designer living and working in Beirut.
He holds a BFA in graphic design from the American University of Beirut, and an MA in Fine Arts from the University of Creative Arts in Canterbury, UK.
He co-founded the design agency Studio Safar, and the design and visual culture magazine, Journal Safar. He is also one of the co-founders of the Samandal comics collective, and the artistic director of Annihaya record label. He has been teaching graphic design and printmaking at the American University of Beirut since 2007.
His exhibitions include three solo shows, Slumber’s Tongues (2023, Beirut); Threshold (2018, Beirut); Infinite Landscapes (2017, Brussels). He participated in a number of group shows at MAXXI museum in Rome; Sharjah Biennial; Sursock Museum in Beirut; Carrara Biennial; and Beirut Art Center among others.
A founding member of the artist collective Atfal Ahdath, with Vartan Avakian and Raed Yassin. Their work was exhibited at the Mori Museum in Tokyo, Sultan Gallery in Kuwait, and the Running Horse Gallery in Beirut, among others.
In 2020, He curated Mazen Kerbaj’s solo exhibition In the Presence / Absence of Mazen Kerbaj at the Ifa Gallery, Berlin.
He acted in two plays by Rabih Mroué and Line Majdalanie, Looking for a Missing Employee, and How Nancy wished that everything was an April fool’s joke that toured internationally between 2003 and 2008. He directed Ziad Antar’s lecture performance Bladder Diplomacy that was shown at Onassis Stegi in Athens in 2021.
Hatem is a resident DJ at Radio Alhara. His program Business Dinner with Hatem Imam airs at 9pm (Bethlehem time) on the first Thursday of every month.
He is represented in Lebanon by Annie Vartivarian through Art Design Lebanon.
Exhibitions
2023 Intimate Garden Scene, group show part of Ashkal Alwan’s Home Works 9, Sursock Museum, Beirut
2023 Slumber’s Tongues, solo show with Art Design Lebanon, Metro Al Madina, Beirut
2021 Lost in the Right Direction, group show with Art Design Lebanon, Beit Meri archeological site
2021 Everyone is the Creator of One’s Own Faith, group show with Art Design Lebanon, Tabbal building, Beirut
2021 Inner Structures – Outer Rhythms: Contemporary Arab & Persian Graphic Design curated by Huda
Smithshuijzen Abifares, Group show. The Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis
2019 Beirut Art Fair, selected new and old works. Letitia Gallery booth, Beirut
2018 Threshold. Solo show curated by Amanda Abi Khalil at Letitia Gallery, Beirut
2018 Sounding the Neighbors. Group show. MAXXI, Rome
2017 Infinite Landscapes. Solo show within Moussem Festival, Bozar Ravenstein, Brussels
2017 Amman Design Week. Group show. Ras El Ain Hangar, Amman
2016 Short Run Seattle. Group show. Fantagraphics Library, Seattle
2016 Sfera (Studio Safar) organised by Bokja and Aishti foundation, Aishti by the Sea, Beirut
2016 Jabal Group show organised by Beirut Art Fair. Yacht Club gallery, Beirut
2015 The City in The City (as part of 98weeks space). Twin Galleries, Sursock Museum, Beirut
2015 Like a flower waiting to bloom. Video screening. Curated by Amanda Abi Khalil Beirut Art Center
2013 Conversation Pieces. Group show. Galerie Art & Essai, Rennes
2013 Take me to this place (Atfal Ahdath collective). Covering One’s Back. Gezira Art Center, Cairo
2013 Take me to this place. Solo show, Running Horse Gallery, Beirut
2012 Take me to this place. Group show, Arab Express: Art from the Arab World. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
2011 Take me to this place. Solo show, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
2011 Des De L’interstici. Group show at Can Felipa visual art space, Barcelona, Spain
2011 Platform Translation. Group show at 98weeks project space, Beirut
2011 Plot for a Biennial. Sharjah Biennial X, curated by Suzanne Cotter and Rasha Salti
2010 Exposue 2010. Group show at the Beirut Art Center
2009 On Mar Mkhael. Research project by 98weeks, presented at their project space in Beirut
2008 Lo Spazio e Gli Altri: Una Conferenza Visiva, Carrara XIII Biennale, Carrara
2008 One Night Stand. Berlin Biennale 5, curated by Philippine Hoegen and Banu Cennetoglu
2008 The King and I Group Show, Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
2007 Unclassified. Meeting Points 5 contemporary arts festival, Saint Joseph Church Crypt, Beirut
2007 I Pear Art. Group Show, Goethe Institute, Tripoli
2006Group painting show, Tribeca lofts, New York
2006 Conversations. Final Degree Show, Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
2006 Underway. Group Show, The New Art Centre, Chatham, Kent
1999 IBDAA 99. Impremerie Catholique, Huvelin st. Achrafieh, Beirut
1999 As–Safir Newspaper 25th anniversary. Photography exhibition, Forum De Beyrouth