Sama Alshaibi was born in 1973 in Basra, Iraq, to an Iraqi father and Palestinian mother. She is now a naturalized U.S. citizen and associate professor of photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Her early practice was based primarily in photography, video art, and performance. Over the past several years, the scope of her work has expanded to include video/object hybrids, multimedia installations, and sculpture. Alshaibi has long negotiated spaces of conflict in her artwork, exploring the aftermath of war and exile, the power dynamics between the nation and its citizenry, and the interactions between people competing for resources and power.
Alshaibi has had over ten solo exhibitions, most recently Vs. Him (2011), Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, and Zero Sum Game (2010), Selma Feriani Gallery, London. Her most recent group exhibitions include the Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013; The Changing Room: Arab Reflections on Praxis and Times (2011), Spazio Qubi, Turin, Italy, traveling to The Hub Westminster, London, in 2012; Corps Dévoilés [Body Discovered] (2012), Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Alienation (2012), Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, U.A.E.; En Foco/In Focus: Selected Works from the Permanent Collection (2012), Light Work, Robert B. Menschel Gallery, Syracuse, New York; Breaking Ranks: Human/Nature (2011), Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to Now, Part I (2010), Museum of Modern Art, New York; The State (2010), Traffic, Dubai, U.A.E.; and Hiwar (2010), Le Violon Bleu, Tunis, Tunisia, traveled to Darb 1718, Cairo. She has also exhibited at the Bronx Museum, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Colorado. Her video art and films have screened in numerous film festival internationally, including Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece; CinemaEast Film Festival, New York; DokuFest, Prizren, Kosovo; and MidEast Cut, Copenhagen and Helsinki. Her works have been collected by public and private institutions internationally including Nadour Foundation, Germany; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, U.A.E.; Rami Farook Collection, Dubai, U.A.E.; and Museum of Modern Art, Tunis, Tunisia.
