SOLO EXHIBITION BY NAJJAR MUSAWWIR

SOLO EXHIBITION BY NAJJAR MUSAWWIR
Title: MUHAMMAD SPEAKS: Preserving an American Voice
26 July - 5 August 2011

ARTIST'S STATEMENT-
The connection between art and science in Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah, Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang has been more than an intellectual pursue, it has been a personal one. Twenty years ago at Southern Illinois University, I approached a young passionate and inspiring Malaysian fine art student, Hasnul Jamal Saidon, and inquired about his life and creative interest. This relation become a pivotal period in my creative journey as an art student. You see, as a young African-American Muslim student of art, I was excited by the opportunity to share both my creative and Islamic experiences in America. Twenty years later, I've been given an opportunity again to share my creative and Islamic experiences.

In this exhibit I am experimenting with preserving African-American Islamic history in a new body of work titled MUHAMMAD SPEAKS: Preserving an American Voice. This exhibition reflect images from the Muhammad Speaks newspaper (1964-1975) founded by the late Nation of Islam national spokeman Al Hajj Malik Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X. I have come to realizes that an artists should be commited to the creative process of experimenting with art making and thinking, because it is the foundation of everything within the human existence. Therefore, the art can and will become timeless. In light of this, these pieces were created to preserve a certain historical aspect of the African-American Islamic cultural experience in America. It is my hope, that this exhibition will be embraced by viewers as a doorway back into one of America's historical realities living today - African American Muslim.