Deena Qabazard is a Kuwaiti-American interdisciplinary artist. She blends photography, textiles, and dance in installations that experiment with the nature of the body, breath, and mortality. Her experience living alternately between California and Kuwait imbues her work with strange familiarity, accentuates her hyphenated identity, and evokes the body in motion across shifting landscapes.
My motive is blurring the lines between what is unsightly, unsettling, in conjunction with what is transcendent and beautiful.
Education.
Current Master of Fine Arts Candidate, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
Bachelor of Arts, Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA. Interdisciplinary studies in the arts. Visual arts, sculpture.
Associate of Arts, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA. Visual arts, fashion design.
Awards.
2024 George B. Saxe Scholarship
2023 Kaiser Permanente Scholarship
2022 Recipient of Bryon Meyer Scholarship
Residency.
2024 AIR Recology, San Francisco, CA
Group Exhibitions.
2024 Casemore Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Mane 'n Tail
2024 Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA. CCA MFA Thesis Exhibition
2023 ICA SF, San Francisco, CA. Mutability Stalls
2023 Playspace Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Between Friends
2023 El Cerrito, CA. Toda Se Transforma
2023 Bass & Reiner, San Francisco, CA. Pyramid Scheme.
2022 California College of the Arts, San Francisco, New Look
2021 XP Music Futures. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Created Abandon - an experimental art space for event
2020 Asiento, San Francisco. Eclectic
2018 The Hub, Kuwait. Abolish 153
2016 JAMM Art Gallery, Dubai. Abolish 153
2016 Sunflower Theatre, Beirut, Lebanon.
2015 Dar Al Funoon, Kuwait. Distorted Realities
2015 The Mine, Dubai. Post-Oriental Odyssey
2014 Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait. Per|Form , Live group & individual performances.
2014 Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait. Stitching Cyborgs.
2013 Bait Lothan, Kuwait. “Waraq” (Paper), Curated by Visual Therapy.
2013 Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait. “Peace One Day.”
2013 FA Gallery, Kuwait. “I am spring”
2012 Gallery Tilal, Kuwait. Art Mania.
2012 Swift Louge, Portland OR. “Lighthearted.” Light Installation.
2011 FA Gallery, Kuwait. Without Boundaries.
2010 Ghadir Gallery, Kuwait. A small painting with a big heart.
2009 K Records Warehouse, Olympia WA. Earthy, Unearthly, Unearthed: the work of twenty-two object makers.
2008 Empty space, Olympia WA. Mitosis
2008 K Records Warehouse, Olympia WA. What with Hands
2007 K Records Warehouse, Olympia WA. Arranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic
Performances.
2015 The Mine, Dubai. “Internal Landscape.”
2014 Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait. “Internal Landscape.”
Public Work.
2012 Swift Lounge, Portland, OR. “Light Hearted.” Light Installation.
2011 Pushkar, India. Mural.
Collaborative Work.
2016 Designed and made masks for "In The Eruptive Mode" by Sulayman Al Bassam, Sabab Theatre Kuwait.
2012 Formed “Light Hearted” with two other members. Building lamps from reclaimed materials. Portland, OR
Art Administration & Teaching.
2014 Freelance work with Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait teaching workshops on art, dance and yoga.
2013 - 2014 Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait.