In late 2024, a group of Palestinian artists announced the Gaza Biennale as a way of bringing Palestinian voices to the forefront. And now, the concept is coming to fruition with events opening in “pavilions” around the world. On the heels of a collective Gaza Biennale exhibition opening in New York, Spain is taking a more intimate approach with its Valencia Pavilion.
Focusing on a singular artist, Valencia’s The Gallery for Rebel Artists and Political Art (THE GRAPA) opened Hamada El Kept’s solo show Under Surveillance. El Kept’s show comes just after a group exhibition, which featured five Palestinian artists. For the artist, who was in Brussels for an art residency when the war in Gaza broke out, the multi-sensory exhibition is his way of translating the complex emotions that have come out of his situation.
With his entire family still in Gaza, El Kept can only watch from afar as his home, his studio, and several extended family members have been lost to the war. From emotional paintings filled with symbolism to installations that speak to the mistreatment of Gaza’s citizens, the show provides an unflinching look at the consequences of war.
This is particularly true of The Famine, a multimedia work that features video footage of Palestinians rushing to obtain their portion of the scarce food supply. Projected into the bottom of an empty pot, it’s a heartbreaking view of what happens when people, young and old, are reduced to stereotypes and not treated as humans.
“This exhibition invites viewers to look closely—not just at the art, but at what lies beneath it: lives disrupted and remade, voices that persist,” write the Gaza artists who organized the pavilion. “It asks us to see Gaza not as an abstraction of war, but as a place of people, culture, and imagination. In doing so, it affirms the enduring power of art to cross borders, carry memory, and connect us in our shared humanity.”
Under Surveillance is on view until September 30, 2025. A selection of El Kept’s work is available for sale via THE GRAPA’s online shop, which is a fantastic way to support the artist.
Palestinian artist Hamada El Kept opened his solo show for the Gaza Biennale in Valencia.
The opening was attended by Palestine’s first ambassador to Spain.
El Kept was in Europe on an artist residency when the war in Gaza broke out.
Under Surveillance is a multi-sensory exhibition that expresses the complex emotions of war.
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