Rania Matar »

SHE

Exhibition: 23 Oct 2021 – 8 Jan 2022

SHE
Rania Matar, Lea #2, Beirut, Lebanon, 2019 , 48 x 58 inches - (other sizes & pricing available) , Pigment print from a limited edition of 2

Rania Matar: SHE
October 23–December 15

Join us on Saturday, October 23 from 2–5PM for the opening of “SHE,” Rania Matar's third exhibition with Robert Klein Gallery.

Exhibition opening: 2–5PM
Artist's talk and book signing: 3:30PM

The women photographed in SHE contain multitudes: They’re playful but self-assured; soft yet strong; curious and adventurous. From Massachusetts to Beirut, Matar collaborates with young women to create images that reflect their experiences leaving home and entering adulthood.

"Whereas in earlier projects, I photographed young women in relationship to the curated and controlled environment of their bedrooms," says Matar, "I am photographing them here in the larger environment they find themselves in after they leave home, the more global and complicated backdrop that now constitutes their lives in transitions."

Below, Matar shares the stories behind four of the works that are now on view at the gallery.

Works

  • Rania Matar, Rayven, Miami Beach, Florida, 2019 , 25 1/2 x 30 inches - (other sizes & pricing available) , Pigment print from a limited edition of 8 , , Rayven, Miami Beach, Florida, 2019 , "I met Rayven at a restaurant in Miami and was fascinated by her majestic presence. It was serendipity that our paths intersected when they did. I was heading back to Boston that evening and she was from Wichita, Kansas, on vacation in Florida. She is Black Albino from an African American father and Mexican mother. The photo session was a magical moment we shared under a stormy gray sky as waves collapsed into foamy ripples at her feet. , When I thanked her for being part of my work, she wrote back: ‘Thank you for seeing the beauty in me.’ I was touched to no end."
  • Rania Matar, Farah, Aabey, Lebanon, 2019 , 36 4/5 x 44 inches - (other sizes & pricing available) , Pigment print from a limited edition of 6 , , Farah, Aabey, Lebanon, 2020 , , "Farah was a part of the young generation who had been protesting in Lebanon during the popular uprising that started in October of 2019, demanding to get rid of the corrupt government. There were factions trying to undermine the protests, and they burned Farah's car. We collaborated to portray the moment, immortalizing the car before it went to the dump. It was an act of resistance."
  • Rania Matar, Nathalie, Sidbury, Massachusetts, 2019 , 25 1/2 x 30 inches - (other sizes & pricing available) , Pigment print from a limited edition of 8
  • Rania Matar, Alae, Khylam, Lebanon, 2019 , 25 1/2 x 30 inches - (other sizes & pricing available) , Pigment print from a limited edition of 8 , , Alae, Khiyam, Lebanon, 2019 , Nathalie, Weston, Massachusetts, 2019 , , "I have recently started collaborating with two twenty-year-old women who seemingly had nothing in common: Alae, a Shia Muslim woman from Southern Lebanon, and Nathalie, a Jewish woman from Weston, Massachusetts. Whereas their lives and backgrounds are very different, they are both college students at similar stages of their young lives and are alike in more ways than one could imagine, especially in their love of art and the artistic process. Our collaboration became regular and intense, and extended to different locations and seasons, with each bringing her own creativity to the process. , , I eventually found myself developing a similar and parallel collaborative relationship with each of them, and introduced them virtually to each other on Instagram. They instantly connected and we started a back-and-forth collaborative artistic relationship across continents, which coincided with my own trips between Lebanon and the United States. Each photographic encounter with one would elicit a photographic response from the other and so on, as I shared the images with them and acted as a visual ‘messenger.’"
  • SHE | RANIA MATAR, , "Rania Matar’s captivating photographs of young women around the world capture the transitory beauty of adolescence." , , —Katie White, Artnet , , Email inquiry@robertkleingallery.com to order , Hardcover / 11.5 x 13.5 inches , 83 images / 184 pages , ISBN 9781942185833 , Radius Books , 2021 , $60 USD