Diana al-Hadid

Al-Hadid was born in 1981 in Aleppo, Syria.^[2][3] When she was five, her family immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio,^[3] though she was raised principally in North Canton, Ohio.^[4] She grew up in an Islamic household.^[5] Al-Hadid resolved at the age of eleven to become an artist.^[6] She drew inspiration from family holidays to the Middle East, during which she visited the Jeita Grotto in Lebanon and encountered Islamic architecture.

In 2003, Al-Hadid received a BA in Art History and a BFA in Sculpture from Kent State University in Ohio.^[4] In 2005, she received an MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.^[4] In 2007, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture,^[7] the same year in which she held her first solo exhibition.

Al-Hadid makes sculptures from a large variety of materials such as steel, fiberglass, wood, aluminum, bronze, cardboard, expanded polystyrene, reinforced polymer gypsum, and wax.^[8][5] She often works large-scale, working up to 4 meters tall, making large dreamlike or ghostly architectural forms out of dripping repetitive forms.

Much of Al-Hadid's sculpture is inspired by architecture, Surrealism, and painting. Al-Hadid notes architectural influences such as: the Sagrada Familia, a house built by Salvador Dali, the architectural theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz, as well as the intricacy and ornamentation found in Islamic and Gothic architecture.^[9] Painting influences for Al-Hadid include northern Renaissance painting, Mannerist painting, Pieter Bruegel, Cy Twombly, and the presence of floating figures. Figures have shown up in her later work; she notes: "Islamic belief forbids figuration, and it's something I want to address."^[5]

Many of Al-Hadid's sculptures have narrative or mythological references, such as Scheherzade, Ariadne, and Gradiva from Wilhelm Jensen's 1903 novella of the same name, who was also celebrated by the Surrealists.^[3][5] Al-Hadid states: "I was raised [...] in a culture that very much prizes storytelling and the oral tradition. My work is partially inspired by myths and folklore from both Western and Arabic cultures."^[5]

Al-Hadid cites Judy Pfaff and David Altmejd as sculptural inspirations.^[9]

In 2018, Al-Hadid had her first public art installation, entitled Delirious Matter, in Madison Square Park. The installation featured four sculptures placed around the park made of polymer gypsum and fiberglass.^[10][11][12] Delirious Matter was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.^[10]

In 2019, Al-Hadid was commissioned by MTA Arts & Design to create a permanent installation of two murals in the mezzanine spaces at the 34th Street.^[13] The two murals, entitled The Arches of Old Penn Station and The Arc of Gradiva, were recognized by the CODAawards.^[14]

• Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Member of the Advisory Board^[15]

In 2009, she held a USA Rockefeller Fellowship and was a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow.^[16][17] She was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2007 and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 2011. In 2020, she received the Academy of Arts and Letters Art Award.^[18] In 2021, she received a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship to conduct research at the Freer Gallery of Art.^[19]

Collections holding her work include the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park,^[20] the Whitney Museum of American Art^[21] and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.^[22] Al-Hadid has exhibited work at the Secession in Vienna, Austria.^[23]