Refugees: Naksa Trilogy No. 1 

Woodcut print on fine thick paper, 28 cm x 20 cm (16 in x 13 in), 2021

After researching Maroun Tomb’s career and education, Abdi found parallels: from the fact that they are artists whose homes are just blocks apart in Wadi al-Nisnas neighborhood and that they have a mutual interest in graphic etching on wood, copper and zinc. In fact, Tomb had taken courses with the Jewish artist Hermann Struck, who was a leader in this practice. Therefore, Abdi chose to respond with a reprint of his pre-existing work which was born out of the Naksa Day (day of the set-back) to memorialize the displacement of the Palestinian people that took place at the close of the Six-Day War in June 1967 when Israel reigned victorious and occupied the Palestinian-populated West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Syrian Golan Heights. 

Abed Abdi is a Palestinian visual artist, and the chief curator of the Art Colony, who resides and works in Haifa. Abdi was just six years old when the Nakba took place, forcing his family to relocate to refugee camps in present-day Syria and Lebanon until his father’s family reunification request was fulfilled in 1951, bringing them back to Haifa. Abdi graduated in 1972 from the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, Germany. Abdi is most known for his works representing the Nakba and the refugee experience, including the Land Day Monument, which was the first memorial in historical Palestine commemorating the victims of land expropriation protests, in collaboration with his friend and colleague Gershon Knispel. Abdi’s accolades include the Anna Lindh Foundation and the highest honors in Palestine and Israel and his works can be found in institutional collections such as the British Museum, the Tel Aviv Museum and more.