Diana al-Hadid

Al-Hadid was born in Aleppo, Syria. When she was five, her family immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, She grew up in an Islamic household. Al-Hadid decided at the age of 11 that she wanted to be an artist. She was inspired by family vacations to the middle east, visiting the Jeita Grotto in Lebanon and experiencing Islamic architecture. In 2003, Al-Hadid received a BA in art history and a BFA in sculpture from Kent State University in Ohio. the same year she had her first solo exhibition. ==Work==

Al-Hadid makes sculptures from a large variety of materials such as steel, fiberglass, wood, aluminum, bronze, cardboard, expanded polystyrene, reinforced polymer gypsum, and wax. Painting influences for Al-Hadid include northern Renaissance painting, Mannerist painting, Pieter Bruegel, Cy Twombly, and the presence of floating figures. Figures have shown up in her later work; she notes: "Islamic belief forbids figuration, and it's something I want to address." Delirious Matter was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The two murals, entitled The Arches of Old Penn Station and The Arc of Gradiva, were recognized by the CODAawards. == Other activities ==

• Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Member of the Advisory Board == Collections and awards ==

In 2009, she was a USA Rockefeller Fellow and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow. In 2007 she won a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, in 2011 she won a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2020, she received The Academy of Arts and Letters Art Award. In 2021, she was awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship to conduct research at the Freer Gallery of Art. Collections holding her work include the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Al-Hadid has shown work at the Secession in Vienna, Austria; ==References==