Refined Compositions: Ruba Salameh

How does one make art in the face of genocide? There is no singular nor simple answer to this question, as we are not speaking of a closed chapter but of a catastrophe unfolding in real time. Witnessing a genocide induces a state of panic and relentless horror, leading to devastation and despair.

Palestinian artist Ruba Salameh finds her way forward through abstract painting, weaving her own narrative while connecting across generations to art historian and artist Kamal Boullata’s work. Seeking filiation and meaning amid a lingering sense of loss and powerlessness, Salameh finds a transformative moment in Boullata’s Homage to the Flag (1995), whose legacy continues to echo and resonate through successive generations.

This exhibition reflects mostly on the persistence of certain symbols, like the Palestinian flag, in the work of Palestinian artists. Reducing the color palette as a gesture, Salameh revisited a similar act to other Palestinian artists before her as an act of reclamation. It revealed how even with the passing of time, these visual elements have remained charged with urgency and continue to inhabit the thoughts and practices of Palestinian artists.

The works focus less on reimagining flags as objects and more on tracing the emotional afterlife of their colors and how they manifest and shape a collective identity. Salameh’s choice of chromatic reduction in most of the paintings draws a powerful connection to a long lineage of Palestinian artists for whom the flag has symbolized both hope and censorship. Historically banned or suppressed, the flag’s palette has long stood in defiance of repression and silencing. Here, abstraction and reduction serve as a constraint that holds open a space for both grief and dissent. Many of the works in the exhibition were set aside for months, even years, then revisited and layered repeatedly until they arrived at their final form.