Diana al-Hadid facts for kids

Fool's Gold, 2014, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, wood, plaster, cement, gold leaf

Diana al-Hadid was born in Syria in 1981. She is an American artist known for making amazing sculptures, installations, and drawings. She uses many different materials in her art. Today, she lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Growing Up and Learning

Diana al-Hadid was born in Aleppo, Syria. When she was five, her family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. She mostly grew up in North Canton, Ohio. She decided to become an artist when she was just 11 years old.

Her family trips to the Middle East inspired her. She visited the Jeita Grotto in Lebanon. She also saw beautiful Islamic architecture. These experiences helped shape her artistic ideas.

In 2003, Diana earned two degrees from Kent State University in Ohio. She studied art history and sculpture. Later, in 2005, she received her master's degree in sculpture. This was from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. In 2007, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. That same year, she had her very first solo art show.

Her Amazing Artworks

Diana al-Hadid creates sculptures using many different materials. These include steel, fiberglass, wood, aluminum, and bronze. She also uses cardboard, foam, and special types of plaster and wax.

Her artworks are often very large. Some can be as tall as 4 meters (about 13 feet)! She makes big, dreamlike, or ghostly shapes. These often look like dripping, repeating forms.

What Inspires Her Art?

Much of Diana's sculpture is inspired by buildings and architecture. She also gets ideas from Surrealism and different styles of painting. She loves the Sagrada Família church and a house built by the artist Salvador Dalí. She also finds inspiration in the detailed designs of Islamic and Gothic architecture.

For painting, she looks at older styles like Northern Renaissance art. She also admires artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Cy Twombly. Sometimes, her later works include figures of people. She has said that Islamic beliefs usually do not show figures, and she wants to explore this idea in her art.

Stories in Her Sculptures

Many of Diana's sculptures tell stories. They often refer to myths and old tales. For example, she has been inspired by characters like Scheherazade and Ariadne. She also uses ideas from the character Gradiva, from an old novel.

Diana explains that she grew up in a culture that loves storytelling. She says her art is inspired by myths and folklore. These stories come from both Western and Arabic cultures.

Art for Everyone: Public Works

In 2018, Diana al-Hadid created her first public art project. It was called Delirious Matter. This installation was in Madison Square Park in New York City. It featured four large sculptures placed around the park. They were made from polymer gypsum and fiberglass.

In 2019, she made a permanent art installation for the MTA Arts & Design. These were two murals at the 34th Street subway station in New York. The murals are called The Arches of Old Penn Station and The Arc of Gradiva. They even won an award!

Awards and Where to See Her Art

Diana al-Hadid has won many important awards for her art. In 2009, she received a USA Rockefeller Fellow award. She also won a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow award. She received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2007 and the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2011.

In 2020, she won The American Academy of Arts and Letters Art Award. In 2021, she received a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. This allowed her to do research at the Freer Gallery of Art.

Her artworks are part of many famous collections. You can see her work at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. Her art is also at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She has also shown her art in Vienna, Austria, at the Secession.

Other Things She Does

Diana al-Hadid is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU.

See also

In Spanish: Diana Al-Hadid para niños