Tamari, Vera (1945–)

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Tamari, Vera
(1945–)

Vera Tamari is a Palestinian artist.

PERSONAL HISTORY

Tamari was born in Jerusalem, mandatory Palestine, in 1945, to a family of Palestinian Christians originally from Jaffa. She received a B.A. in fine arts in 1966 from the Beirut College for Women (now the Lebanese American University) in Lebanon. Tamari went on to study ceramics at the Instituto Statale per la Ceramica in Florence, Italy, finishing in 1972. In 1984, she obtained an M.Phil. in Islamic Art and Architecture from Oxford University.

INFLUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Tamari primarily works with clay, including bas-reliefs, sculptural installations, and what she calls sculpted paintings. In 1975 she became the first artist to establish a ceramics studio in the West Bank when she opened one in al-Bira, near Ramallah. She was a founding member of Al-Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem, as well as the New Visions Art Group, and is a member of the League of Palestinian Artists and the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center. Tamari lectures on art at Bir Zeit University, where she founded and directs the Paltel Virtual Gallery. She also created the Founding Committee for the Development of Cultural Heritage. In 1989 she co-authored The Palestinian Village Home.

THE WORLD'S PERSPECTIVE

Tamari is recognized as one of the West Bank's leading artists. She has had solo exhibitions in Ramallah and Jerusalem, and took part in international group exhibitions such as Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World, which was shown at The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, in 1994; New Visions: Art from the Occupied Territories, shown in Amman, Jordan, Salerno, Italy, and both Bonn and Frankfurt, Germany in 1989 and 1990; Tallat: Palestinian Women's Art Exhibition, in Jerusalem in 1986; the Third World Artists Exhibition in London in 1981; and Women Arab Artists, which was shown in Baghdad, Iraq in 1980. More recently, her work was featured in the Made in Palestine exhibition that toured the United States in 2006.

LEGACY

Although her contributions to art are still ongoing, Tamari is likely to be remembered as one of the Palestinian artists who continues to live and work in the West Bank and Gaza under the difficult circumstances of occupation, war, and political upheaval, as well as for her creative use of ceramics.

BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS

Name: Vera Tamari

Birth: 1945, Jerusalem, mandatory Palestine

Nationality: Palestinian

Education: Beirut College for Women (now the Lebanese American University), B.A. fine arts; Instituto Statale per la Ceramica in Florence, Italy, 1972, ceramics studies; Oxford University, 1984, M.Phil. Islamic Art and Architecture

PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:

1975: Opens first ceramics studio in the West Bank

1989: Takes part in New Visions: Art from the Occupied Territories exhibition that toured Jordan, Italy, and Germany; co-authors The Palestinian Village Home

1994: Takes part in Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World exhibition at The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

2006: Participates in Made in Palestine exhibition that toured the United States