Susan Hefuna

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1962}}

| birth_place = Berlin, Germany

| nationality = German/Egyptian

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| website = {{URL|susanhefuna.com}}

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Susan Hefuna (Arabic: سوزان حفونه{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-ruQwAACAAJ|title=سوزان حفونه|last1=Hefuna|first1=Susan|last2=Obrist|first2=Hans Ulrich|date=2009|publisher=Consortium Book Sales & Dist|isbn=9783868280555|language=ar}}) is a German-Egyptian visual artist.Hanson, Sarah P. [http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/840674/susan-hefuna-uses-simple-strategy-to-create-perspective "Susan Hefuna Uses Simple Strategy to Create Perspective-Changing Works"], ArtInfo, Retrieved 28 December 2014. She works in a variety of media, including drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, video and performance. She lives and works between Cairo, Egypt and Germany.[http://www.artspace.com/susan_hefuna "Susan Hefuna"], Artspace, Retrieved 28 December 2014.

Early life and education

Hefuna was born in Berlin, Germany in 1962{{cite book |last1=Phaidon Editors |title=Great women artists |date=2019 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0714878775 |page=178}} to an Egyptian father and a German mother. Hefuna spent the first eight years of her life in Egypt, and later moved to Graz, Austria, to be closer to her mother's family. In 1992, she attained a post-graduate degree from the Institute for New Media at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany under Peter Weibel.

Hefuna connects her Egyptian and German roots in her work, using the urban imagery, typography and traditions of both to build a bridge between the two cultures.

Work

Hefuna's drawings generally employ Indian ink for works consisting of more than one layer; for works of a single layer she usually uses watercolor.Tayfun Belgin, "Actions in Space: The Drawings of Susan Hefuna," Susan Hefuna, Buildings, Osthaus Museum, Oslo, 2014,

A recurring theme in her work is the mashrabiya screen, the wooden or stone lattice-work screen that features in traditional Egyptian architecture.{{cite book|author1=Cornelia H. Butler |author1-link=Cornelia Butler |author2=M. Catherine de Zegher |author2-link=Catherine de Zegher |title=On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BL4h6Pgg3ZgC&pg=PA112 |accessdate=5 February 2013 |date=31 December 2010 |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art |isbn=978-0-87070-782-7 |pages=112–}}

These screens first appeared in Hefuna's drawings in 1990 and her photographs taken with a pinhole camera. In 2008 Hefuna had a solo exhibition of her work, entitled On the Edgware Road, at the Serpentine Galleries, which drew heavily from the recent Arab Spring uprisings.[http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/edgware-road "On the Edgware Road"], Serpentine Galleries, Retrieved 28 December 2014. In 2009 around 300 of her ink and pencil drawings on layered tracing paper were exhibited in the Giardini and the Arsenale venues at Fare Mondi, at the 53rd Venice Biennale.[http://susanhefuna.com/biography/vita/ "Vita"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628030952/http://susanhefuna.com/biography/vita/ |date=2017-06-28 }}, Susan Hefuna, Retrieved 28 December 2014. Her projects are documented in the Trilogy Pars Pro Toto by editor Hans Ulrich Obrist published by Kehrer.{{cite web|last=Ed. Obrist|first=Hans Ulrich|title=Susan Hefuna/ Pars pro Toto|url=http://www.artbooksheidelberg.com/html/en/program/detail.html?ID=298|work=Kehrer Verlag, Germany|year= 2008}}

Exhibitions

Hefuna's work was shown on several occasions in the UK: starting at Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool (2004), and with Rose Issa Projects (2008-2014) in 2014 in the "Here and Elsewhere" exhibition at the New Museum in New York.Holland Cotter, [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/arts/design/here-and-elsewhere-contemporary-work-from-the-middle-east.html?_r=0 "Far From Home, An Arab Summer,"] The New York Times, July 17, 2014 Her work has also been exhibited at the Sharjah Biennale, in the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, and in venues in London, Brussels, Vienna, Beirut, Dubai and Istanbul.

Criticism

In a review of Hefuna's exhibition, "Navigation X Cultural," at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Tracy Murinik said, "Hefuna articulates a complex web of physical references in her construction of this immense and quite astonishing palmwood structure," and praised her "immaculately dense drawings" and "bold digital prints and photographs."Tracy Murinik, "Susan Hefuna," Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, No. 13/14, Spring/Summer 2001, Duke University Press, p. 127

Awards

In 1998, Hefuna was awarded the International Award at the Cairo Biennial.[http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/archive/cvs/538.pdf "Susan Hefuna: CV"], Brooklyn Museum, Retrieved December 28, 2014. In 2013 she was awarded the Contemporary Drawing Prize by the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Foundation in Paris.[http://www.art-agenda.com/shows/susan-hefuna-wins-the-2013-drawing-prize-of-the-daniel-florence-guerlain-contemporary-art-foundation/ "Susan Hefuna wins the 2013 Drawing Prize of the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation"], Art Agenda, Retrieved 28 December 2014.

Art market

Hefuna is currently represented by Pi Artworks in London and Istanbul{{cite web|last=Esman|first=Abigail R.|title="Istanbul's Mary Boone," Yesim Turanli, Opens Pi Artworks Branch In London|url=http://blogs.artinfo.com/culturalaffairs/2013/09/11/yesim-turanli-istanbuls-mary-boone/|work=Blouin Artinfo|accessdate=29 March 2014}} and the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago.{{cite web|last=Elifritz|first=Pat|title=Review: Susan Hefuna/Rhona Hoffman Gallery|url=http://art.newcity.com/2012/05/22/review-susan-hefunarhona-hoffman-gallery/|work=Newcity Art, Chicago|date=22 May 2012|accessdate=22 May 2012}}