Tarek Al-Ghoussein ( ar, طارق الغصين; 17 January 1962 – 11 June 2022), was a Kuwaiti multi-genre artist best known for his work that investigates the margins between landscape photography, self-portraiture, and performance art. His work moved away from subjects of land, belonging, nostalgia and barriers and instead gravitated toward the metaphorical transit to his ancestral homeland - Palestine. He moved between abstraction and the explicit conditions found in certain places.

Career

Tarek Al-Ghoussein was born in Kuwait to Kuwaiti parents of Palestinian ancestry who were originally displaced from their ancestral homeland in

Ramleh Ramla or Ramle ( he, רַמְלָה, ''Ramlā''; ar, الرملة, ''ar-Ramleh'') is a city in the Central District of Israel. Today, Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with both a significant Jewish and Arab populations. The city was f ...

, Palestine. His father, Talat Al-Ghoussein, was a famous Kuwaiti journalist, editor and a diplomat who served as the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States during the 1960s. His family moved a lot during his childhood between Kuwait, United States, Morocco, and Japan. He received his bachelor's degree in photography from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

and completed his master's degree in Fine Arts from

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

. He held several positions during his career, worked as a photojournalist, taught photography at

the American University of Sharjah American University of Sharjah (abbreviated AUS; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية في الشارقة) is a private university in the United Arab Emirates. It was founded in 1997 by Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and ...

, and at the time of his death was a professor at New York University branch in Abu Dhabi.

Selected exhibitions

* 1995 Zwemmers Fine Photographs, London, UK * 2000

Sharjah Art Museum The Sharjah Art Museum is an art museum in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.Sharjah Art Museum

, Sharjah, UAE * 2003 Randolph Street Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand * 2004 Spectra Art Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark * 2004 Noorderlicht International Photography Exhibition, The Netherlands * 2005 Sharjah International Biennial, Sharjah, UAE * 2006 Political Realities, Heidelberg Museum, Heidelberg, Germany * 2007 Art in Public Spaces, Light Boxes, Muscat, Oman * 2008 Wonder,
Singapore Biennale The Singapore Biennale is a large-scale biennial contemporary art exhibition in Singapore, serving as the country’s major platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. It seeks to present and reflect the vigour of artistic practices in ...
, Singapore * 2009 In Absentia, Al Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem * 2011 Emirati Expressions, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE * 2013 National Pavilion of Kuwait, 55th
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, Venice, Italy * 2014 K Files, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, USA

Collection
Tarek's work has been collected by numerous museums and foundations worldwide such as Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
;
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, London; Royal Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; Darat Al-Funun, Amman, Jordan; Mathaf Museum, Doha, Qatar; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE;
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, London, UK;
Mori Art Museum The is a contemporary art museum founded by the real estate developer Minoru Mori (1934–2012) in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in the Roppongi Hills complex both of which he built in Tokyo, Japan. The exterior architect of the museum's ga ...
, Tokyo, Japan; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, and the
Sharjah Art Foundation The Sharjah Art Foundation ( ar, مؤسسة الشارقة للفنون) is a contemporary art and cultural foundation based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, founded in 2009 by Hoor Al Qasimi, daughter of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, a me ...
in Sharjah, UAE.

Publications
* Tarek Al-Ghoussein: Transfigurations * In Absentia: Photographs by Tarek Al-Ghoussein

References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghoussein, Tarek Al 1962 births 2022 deaths Kuwaiti contemporary artists Palestinian contemporary artists Kuwaiti people of Palestinian descent