Susan Hefuna

Susan Hefuna (b. 1962) embraces a wide range of media, including drawing, sculpture, and installation as well as video, photography, and performance. From 2004, she began working with Cairene craftsmen who make the wooden screens known as mashrabiya that filter the light and create privacy in traditional houses. In her versions, Hefuna places within them words or short texts in Arabic or English. The designs of the wooden screens inspired her delicate abstract drawings, created from ink and layers of tracing and cartridge paper. Hefuna’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Louvre, Paris, and the Serpentine Gallery, London. They are in the collections of Centre Pompidou, Paris, MoMA, New York, LACMA, Los Angeles, British Museum, Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Guggenheim, New York and Abu Dhabi, Museum für Islamische Kunst (Pergamonmuseum), Berlin, among others.