Biography
Rasha Kahil (b. 1980) is a visual artist and creative director living and working in London, originally from Beirut, Lebanon. She completed an MA in Communication Art & Design at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2009. Her projects take the form of photography, text, video and installation. She has exhibited solo and in group shows and art fairs internationally, including in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Zurich and Beirut.
Rasha was formerly co-founder of art direction studio Barbara Creative, and is currently creative director of the Financial Times’ How To Spend It magazine.
Her creative direction work can be found here: rashakahil.studio
Artist Statement
My artwork primarily revolves around the body and its use as a space of projection for personal explorations of the intimate and the confessional. Once placed within the public sphere, it allows for shifting dialogue as it is imbued with various layers of reading granted by the overlap of the private and the public.
Rather than a blank canvas, the body carries with it the weight of its perennial use in popular culture, art history, and everyday social constructs. I am particularly interested in the reconstruction of meaning that arises from the disruption and shift of those preconceived ideas.
Through the sharing of personal storytelling, I hope to engage the viewer in more universal human concerns, as the body becomes a means for investigating displacement, social identity and its manifestation through everyday performance.
I work in different media –photography, text, video and installation– allowing the idea to dictate the form of the art project; to create a body of work that, although diverse in its visual outcomes, forms a coherent whole in its communicative aim.
Contact
rasha@rashakahil.com
Rasha Kahil (b. 1980) is a visual artist and creative director living and working in London, originally from Beirut, Lebanon. She completed an MA in Communication Art & Design at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2009. Her projects take the form of photography, text, video and installation. She has exhibited solo and in group shows and art fairs internationally, including in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Zurich and Beirut.
Rasha was formerly co-founder of art direction studio Barbara Creative, and is currently creative director of the Financial Times’ How To Spend It magazine.
Her creative direction work can be found here: rashakahil.studio
Artist Statement
My artwork primarily revolves around the body and its use as a space of projection for personal explorations of the intimate and the confessional. Once placed within the public sphere, it allows for shifting dialogue as it is imbued with various layers of reading granted by the overlap of the private and the public.
Rather than a blank canvas, the body carries with it the weight of its perennial use in popular culture, art history, and everyday social constructs. I am particularly interested in the reconstruction of meaning that arises from the disruption and shift of those preconceived ideas.
Through the sharing of personal storytelling, I hope to engage the viewer in more universal human concerns, as the body becomes a means for investigating displacement, social identity and its manifestation through everyday performance.
I work in different media –photography, text, video and installation– allowing the idea to dictate the form of the art project; to create a body of work that, although diverse in its visual outcomes, forms a coherent whole in its communicative aim.
Contact
rasha@rashakahil.com
Exhibitions
2018
— Atropelo, Arebyte Gallery, London
— Unseen Photo Festival, Amsterdam
2017
— Imago Mundi: Routes Méditerranéennes, Luciano Benetton Collection, Palermo
2016
— Anatomy of a Scandal, Art First Projects, London [ Solo Show ]
— Now You See Me, TJ Boutling, London
— Home Bound, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
2015
— Selected for the 7th Julia Margaret Cameron Award
2014
— The White Room book launch and exhibition, Long White CLoud, London
2013
— Between 11 and Noon, The Running Horse, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
— Nominated for the FOAM Paul Huf Award 2013
2012
— Art Taipei 2012, Taiwan
— Art:Gwangju, South Korea
— Beirut Art Fair, Beirut
— Hijacked III, Quad gallery, Derby UK
— Full Rabbit, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
— Photo Opportunity, Maddox Arts, London
2011
— SLICK 2011, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
— Rasha Kahil / Liane Lang, ArtFirst Projects, London
— In Your Home, The Empire Project, Istanbul [ Solo Show ]
— Human, The Empire Project, Istanbul
— In Your Home, The Running Horse contemporary art space, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
— Gems, POV Female London, book launch and exhibition, KK Outlet, London
— NoFound to New Documents #1, Victor Wynd Fine Art, London
2010
— In the Trenches, The Running Horse, Beirut
— SLICK contemporary Art Fair, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
— The Corridor to Success, The Composing Rooms, London
— The Shameless, Zico House, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
— Counting Thoughts, The Running Horse, Beirut
— Bastakiya Art Fair, Dubai
— Soft Sculpture (or the Ordinary Reinterpreted), The Running Horse, Beirut
2009
— The Corridor: PixelPops09, BolteLang Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
— Acoustic Images, British Film Institute (BFI), London
— XI and la Gueule du Monde, book launch and exhibition, London
— RCA Graduate Show 2009, Royal College of Art, London. Awarded the Carl Garnham Prize for Photographic Media.
— The Affluenza Exhibition, St. John's warehouse Clerkenwell, London
— Performed Narratives, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
— Quiet Please, GSK Contemporary at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
Publications
— Le Liban n’a Pas D’Age, Bernard Chauveau Edition, 2021
— On Photography in Lebanon, Kaph Books, 2018
— It's Always Been: Contemporary Artists from Lebanon, Imago Mundi. Luciano Benetton Collection, 2018
— The Evolution of the Image : Political Action and the Digital Self, Routledge, 2018
— The White Room, Self-published, 2014
— Hijacked III, Kehrer Verlag, UK, 2012
— In Your Home, Self-published, 2011
— Gems, POV Female London, Oodee Books, 2011
— Nuits Beyrouthines, Tamyras Editions, Lebanon, 2010
— XI and la Gueule du Monde, Self-published, 2009
2018
— Atropelo, Arebyte Gallery, London
— Unseen Photo Festival, Amsterdam
2017
— Imago Mundi: Routes Méditerranéennes, Luciano Benetton Collection, Palermo
2016
— Anatomy of a Scandal, Art First Projects, London [ Solo Show ]
— Now You See Me, TJ Boutling, London
— Home Bound, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
2015
— Selected for the 7th Julia Margaret Cameron Award
2014
— The White Room book launch and exhibition, Long White CLoud, London
2013
— Between 11 and Noon, The Running Horse, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
— Nominated for the FOAM Paul Huf Award 2013
2012
— Art Taipei 2012, Taiwan
— Art:Gwangju, South Korea
— Beirut Art Fair, Beirut
— Hijacked III, Quad gallery, Derby UK
— Full Rabbit, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
— Photo Opportunity, Maddox Arts, London
2011
— SLICK 2011, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
— Rasha Kahil / Liane Lang, ArtFirst Projects, London
— In Your Home, The Empire Project, Istanbul [ Solo Show ]
— Human, The Empire Project, Istanbul
— In Your Home, The Running Horse contemporary art space, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
— Gems, POV Female London, book launch and exhibition, KK Outlet, London
— NoFound to New Documents #1, Victor Wynd Fine Art, London
2010
— In the Trenches, The Running Horse, Beirut
— SLICK contemporary Art Fair, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
— The Corridor to Success, The Composing Rooms, London
— The Shameless, Zico House, Beirut [ Solo Show ]
— Counting Thoughts, The Running Horse, Beirut
— Bastakiya Art Fair, Dubai
— Soft Sculpture (or the Ordinary Reinterpreted), The Running Horse, Beirut
2009
— The Corridor: PixelPops09, BolteLang Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
— Acoustic Images, British Film Institute (BFI), London
— XI and la Gueule du Monde, book launch and exhibition, London
— RCA Graduate Show 2009, Royal College of Art, London. Awarded the Carl Garnham Prize for Photographic Media.
— The Affluenza Exhibition, St. John's warehouse Clerkenwell, London
— Performed Narratives, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
— Quiet Please, GSK Contemporary at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
Publications
— Le Liban n’a Pas D’Age, Bernard Chauveau Edition, 2021
— On Photography in Lebanon, Kaph Books, 2018
— It's Always Been: Contemporary Artists from Lebanon, Imago Mundi. Luciano Benetton Collection, 2018
— The Evolution of the Image : Political Action and the Digital Self, Routledge, 2018
— The White Room, Self-published, 2014
— Hijacked III, Kehrer Verlag, UK, 2012
— In Your Home, Self-published, 2011
— Gems, POV Female London, Oodee Books, 2011
— Nuits Beyrouthines, Tamyras Editions, Lebanon, 2010
— XI and la Gueule du Monde, Self-published, 2009
© All rights reserved. Rasha Kahil, 2021