Biography

Camille Zakharia

Lebanon

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Photography

Camille Zakharia

Born in 1962, Lebanon
Lives and works in Manama, Bahrain

Displaced from his homeland in 1985 by the civil war, the Lebanese-born Canadian photographer Camille Zakharia set out on a series of travels to diverse destinations, many of which served as temporary homelands. Photography remains the one constant in his life. The visual record Zakharia captures through his photographic work spans three decades and various locales including the United States, Greece, Turkey, Canada, and, most recently, Bahrain where he currently resides. But his images go beyond an autobiographical documentation of places occupied at specific moments throughout his life. The thousands of individual images that have resulted from his migrations are used as building blocks to construct larger and more compelling visual forms with a degree of complexity that is impossible to capture within a single frame. While the technique is constructive, the outcome of the process is a set of visual metaphors about identities formed and refigured through encounters with changing urban transnational environments. Photographic montages and collages of people and places, of transformed architectural facades and interiors, function as visual equivalents for spaces created by the displaced ‘self’ for the commingling of memory and desire.

Series:

2012. Background
2011. Fields of Remembrance
2010. Coastal Promenade | Belonging – Begun
2009-2008. Markings
2008. Sharjah History Images
2009-2007. Al Bilad
2007. Double Vue | Improving Lives
2006-2001. Distorted Memories
2005-2001. Division Lines
2000-1999. Elusive Homelands
1998. Assembling Places | Cultivate Your Garden | Stories from the Alley | Lebanon Canada via Bahrain
1997. Babylon
1996. My Playing Cards | A Middle Eastern Perception

Solo Exhibitions:

2012. Katara Art Center. Doha. Qatar
2011. Art Sawa Gallery. Dubai. UAE
2011. National Museum of Bahrain. Manama. Bahrain
2010. Bin Matar House. Muharraq. Bahrain
2009. Al Riwaq Gallery. Manama. Bahrain
2008. Maison Jamsheer, Centre Culturel Franco Bahreinien. Muharraq. Bahrain
2006. Art Gallery at Saint Mary's University. Halifax NS. Canada
2006. Art Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. Doha Qatar
1999. Dal Tech Exhibition Room. Halifax NS. Canada
1999. Artemisia Gallery. Chicago, Illinois. USA
1998. Multicultural Arts Resource Centre. Halifax NS. Canada
1997. Anna Leonowens Gallery NSCAD University. Halifax NS. Canada
1997. The Rounds Gallery Wichita Center for the Arts. Wichita, Kansas. USA
1997. Weidemann Gallery Wichita Center for the Arts. Wichita, Kansas. USA
1996. Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur, Cultural Center. Montreal, Quebec. Canada
1996. Clayton Staples Gallery Wichita State University. Wichita, Kansas. USA
1990. Ione Gallery. Athens. Greece
1988. Monogramma Gallery. Athens. Greece

Group Exhibitions

2012. Victoria & Albert Museum. London. UK
2012. 13th Venice Biennial for Architecture 2012, Bahrain Pavilion. Venice. Italy
2012. Museum of Architecture. London. UK
2012. Barjeel Art Foundation. Sharjah. UAE
2012. Art Gallery at Delaware County Community College. Philadelphia. USA
2011. Photoquai 2011, 3rd Biennial des Images du Monde Musee du Quai Branly. Paris. France
2011. Royal College of Art. London. UK
2011. Lucy Mackintosh Gallery. Lausanne. Switzerland
2011. Hong Kong Shenzhen, Architecture Biennale. Hong Kong. China
2011. Museum of Contemporary Art. Tokyo. Japan
2011. Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). London. UK
2011. Menasart Art Fair Represented by Janet Rady Fine Art. Beirut. Lebanon
2011. Art Dubai Represented by Lucy Mackintosh Gallery. Dubai. UAE
2011. Al Riwaq Art Space. Manama. Bahrain
2011-2009. Jameel Prize– Touring Exhibition. Victoria & Albert Museum. London. UK | Sakip Sabanci Museum. Istanbul. Turkey | La Villa des Arts. Casablanca. Morocco | Beiteddine Palace. Lebanon | Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization. Sharjah. UAE | National Museum of Damascus. Damascus. Syria | National Museum King Abdulaziz Historical Center. Riyadh. Saudi Arabia
2011-2009. My Father’s House (Organized by British Council) – Touring Exhibition. Liverpool Arts Festival, John Moores University Gallery. Liverpool. UK | The Brunei Gallery. London. UK | Waqif Art Center. Doha. Qatar | Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization. Sharjah. UAE | Bait Al Zubair Museum and Al Baranda Gallery. Muscat Oman | Bait Al Quran. Manama. Bahrain | Bait Al Bont Museum. Jeddah. Saudi Arabia | National Museum King Abdulaziz. Riyadh. Saudi Arabia
2010. 12th Venice Biennial for Architecture 2010, Bahrain Pavilion. Venice. Italy (Winner of Golden Lion Award)
2010. Bahrain Contemporary Art Association. Juffair. Bahrain
2010. Bait Muzna Gallery. Muscat. Oman
2010. Barjeel Art Foundation Maraya Art Center Al Qasba. Sharjah. UAE
2009. National Art Gallery Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Dhaka. Bangladesh
2008. Art Paris Abu Dhabi Represented by Art Sawa Gallery. Abu Dhabi. UAE
2008. Athens Photo Festival 2008, Loutro ton Aeridon. Athens. Greece
2008. Art Sawa Gallery. Dubai. UAE
2008. First International Biennial of Photography, Saba Cultural & Artistic Institute Felestin. Square Tehran. Iran
2008. Empty Quarter. Dubai. UAE
2008. Acte 2 Galerie. Paris. France
2008. Farmani Gallery. Los Angeles, California. USA
2007. Art Gallery at Virginia, Commonwealth University School of the Arts. Doha Qatar
2007. Sharjah Biennial 8, Sharjah Art Museum. Sharjah. UAE
2007. Circle 4 Mutrah. Muscat. Oman
2006. Sharjah Art Museum. Sharjah. UAE
2000. Matrix Gallery. Sacramento, California. USA
1999. City Arts Wichita. Kansas. USA
1999. Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography. Toronto, Ontario. Canada
1998. Museum of Fine Art, Florida State University Tallahassee. Florida. USA
1998. Anna Leonowens Gallery Halifax. Nova Scotia. Canada

Catalogues/Publication:

2012. AlieNation. Exhibition catalogue, Barjeel Art Foundation. Sharjah. UAE
2011. Photoquai 2011. Catalogue for Exhibition 3rd Biennale des Images du Monde. Paris. France. p. 56 – 59
2011. dpi Magazine. Issue 149, September 2011. p. 100 – 106
2011. Quint Magazine. Issue 7, July/August 2011. p. 60 – 62
2011. Camille Zakharia. Lotus. Issue 145, Activism in Architecture, May 2011. p. 02 - 10
2011. Beautifully Objective, Noura Al Sayeh. Exhibition catalogue Coastal Promenade, February 2011
2010. Reclaim. Exhibition catalogue, Bahrain Pavilion, Venice Biennale for Architecture 2010
2010. Under the Pavement, the Beach, Noura Al Sayeh. Brownbook. Issue 24, 2010. p. 58 – 64
2010. Reconstructing and Exploring. Soura. Special Issue, November 2010. p. 96 - 99
2010. Golden Lion for Bahrain, Murray Garrard. Time Out Bahrain, November. p. 46 - 47
2010. Architecture of Almost Nothing, Adrian Friend. Blueprint. Issue 296, November
2010. Istanbul Revisited, Sulaf Zakharia. Agenda Magazine. September. p. 14 - 25
2010. There’s No Home Without A Garden, Ali Al Saeed. Agenda Magazine . February. p. 24 - 29
2010. Camille Zakharia: Imaging, Imagining, Elsewhere, Robert Bean, for exhibition catalogue Chaos into Order. January
2010. Collage of Memories – Memory as Collage, Melissa Enders-Bhatia. For exhibition catalogue Chaos into Order. January
2010. Kan Ya Ma Kan. Catalogue for exhibition at Bait Muzna Gallery. Muscat. Oman
2009. New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century. Thames and Hudson. p. 275 – 277
2009. A Shift Of Alternate Worlds, Charles Merewether. Contemporary Practices, Vol. V. p. 82 - 91
2009. Camille Zakharia. Agenda Culturel Beirut Lebano., Issue 348, May/June
2009. Sharjah Biennial 8, 2nd Catalogue for Sharjah Biennial 8. p. 116, 330, 386, 390, 391
2009. My Father’s House, Catalogue for exhibition organized by the British Council touring the Arab world 2009

Collections:

Victoria & Albert Museum. London. UK
Canadian Museum of Civilization. Hull, Quebec. Canada
Qatar Museum Authority. Doha. Qatar
National Museum of Bahrain. Bahrain
Musee Suisse de l’Appareil Photographique. Vevey. Switzerland
Wichita Centre for the Arts. Wichita, Kansas. USA
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Dubai. UAE
Barjeel Art Foundation. Dubai. UAE
Sheikh Ebrahim Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research. Muharraq. Bahrain
Saint Mary’s University. Halifax, Nova Scotia. Canada
Beit Al Qur’an. Manama. Bahrain