DIANA AL HADID: PHANTOM LIMB text by Allison Maya

Skira, 2016, First edition, 152 pp., 8" X 10 1/4", Hardcover

Fine

This book marks the occasion of Diana AI-Hadids first solo exhibition in the Arab world, where she is well known and appreciated, and presents her monumental sculpture Phantom Limb (2014). Al-Hadids work stands apart from much contemporary art via its explicit engagement with art history and architecture, particularly that of Renaissance and Classical periods, a fact that this book explores in depth. Diana Al-Hadid (b. 1981) is a Syrian-American artist who lives and works in New York, whose works of ephemeral materiality have gained international acclaim. At once enigmatic and monumental, her unconventional use of materials such as polymer gypsum, wax and gold leaf are fused with filtered references of visual histories, ranging from Hellenistic sculpture and Greek and Arab mythology, to Northern Renaissance painting. Diana AI-Hadid received a BFA from Kent State University, MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been included in numerous international group exhibitions.