Jordan Nassar
Jordan Nassar (b. 1985, New York City) is a visual artist who works primarily with textiles, specializing in works inspired by traditional Palestinian embroidery. With his hand-embroidered textile pieces, he addresses the intersection of craft, language, history, (geo)politics, and technology.
Using geometric patterning adapted from Islamic symbols present in traditional Palestinian hand embroidery which he creates via computer and then meticulously hand stitches, Nassar examines conflicting issues of identity and cultural participation. Nassar does not simply import or recontextualize Palestinian traditions; he brings them in contact with his own Western artistic background.
Beginning with the intricacies of identity and cultural participation, as a Palestinian-American, Nassar treats traditional craft more as medium than a topic, examining subjects such as cultural heritage, ownership, exchange, and absorption; emigrant nostalgia for the “homeland” and its generational repercussions; geography, politics, and orientalism; symbology, codes, and language systems; superstition and religious belief; post-internet visual language; and representational and geometric abstraction.
His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions, including; Fantasy and Truth, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA (2022); Jordan Nassar: Lēʻahi, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design Honolulu, Hawaii (2022) Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1: An Exercise in Looking, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2022);The Field Is Infinite, KMAC Museum, Louisville, KY, USA (2020);There is Fiction In The Space Between, The Third Line (2020); Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950-2019, The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, USA (2019) ; The New Minimalists, Abrons Art Center, NYC, USA (2018); Long, Winding Journeys: Contemporary Art and the Islamic Tradition, Katonah Museum of Art, NY, USA (2018); Dunya, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2017); And a Night, Evelyn Yard, London, UK (2016); and Ausstellung 61, Exile Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2015).
He lives and works in New York City.
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Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1: An Exercise in Looking
Curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif 19 Dec 2022 - 29 Jan 2023Perpetual Inventory and Dr. O’s Pop Shop at The Third Line, Dubai this December. The Third Line presents Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1 and Dr. O’s Pop Shop: The Live Edition,...Read more -
THERE IS FICTION IN THE SPACE BETWEEN
23 Mar - 30 Jul 2020The Third Line is pleased to present There Is Fiction In The Space Between , a group exhibition celebrating the gallery’s fifteenth anniversary. This exhibition draws on the breadth of...Read more -
FOR YOUR EYES
Jordan Nassar 16 Jan - 27 Feb 2019The Third Line is pleased to present For Your Eyes, Jordan Nassar’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Also marking the artist’s debut in the Gulf region, For Your Eyes...Read more
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How did you arrive at being an artist?
Jurrell Lewis, Art21, January 17, 2024 -
Perpetual Inventory And Dr. O’s Pop Shop
Selections Magazine, December 31, 2022 -
Embroidered visions of a peaceful Palestine – in pictures
Alice Fisher, The Guardian, January 15, 2022 -
THE BREAKDOWN: US-Palestinian artist Jordan Nassar discusses hand-embroidered artwork
Rawaa Talass, Arab News, May 21, 2021 -
How Artists Are Supporting Victims of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Tessa Solomon, ARTnews, May 20, 2021 -
An Expansive View of Asian Identity at the Asia Society Triennial
Lisa Yin Zhang, Hyperallergic, January 12, 2021 -
Jordan Nassar’s new apartment exhibition lives between the Israel, Palestine binary
Aaron Hicklin, Document Journal, November 26, 2019