Exhibiting Artists
By Farah Ahmed
Farah Diba Ahmed is an emerging artist based in Washington DC. A professionally trained architect and artist with a strong emphasis on both education and practical experience. Farah has developed a unique style that has been influenced by a rich combination of cultural and professional experiences spanning four continents. Farah was born in Kenya where she spent her early childhood years. She spent her formative years in Singapore, moved to the United Kingdom where she earned an undergraduate degree in Architecture, then returned to Singapore to pursue professional opportunities. After spending several years working with various clients, Farah moved to the United States to pursue a graduate degree in Architecture, subsequently joining a boutique architecture firm. She is presently working on completing her graduate degree in Fine Arts in Washington DC.
Throughout her career, Farah has dedicated time to developing her broad portfolio of art covering various mediums including oil and acrylics, digital printmaking and photography. Her portfolio showcases her multicultural heritage, life experiences and passion for traveling the globe, and ultimately her unique combination of skills as an architect, designer, and artist.
Farah has contributed her work to various exhibitions, charity auctions, and has undertaken private commissions. Most recently, her art was selected by the Winner of Columbia Heights Mosaic Project by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in Washington DC for a new fountain to be constructed in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of the City. She believes strongly in giving back to the community and actively supports Jitegemee, a school for street kids that also works in collaboration with architects for humanity, DC chapter. With architecture for humanity, she has also worked on a donation center for National Center for Children and Families and other projects.
View all of Farah Ahmad’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project 2011.
Haleema Rehman
"Surveillance #2", Silver Gelatin Print, $100
Since she first held a camera, Haleema Rehman, has been moved by its ability to convey emotions and uncover truths indiscernible to the human eye. She is fascinated by the photographs ability to tell a story, and is dedicated to telling others’ stories through the camera. You can contact Haleema at haleema.rehman@gmail.com.
As a first generation American Muslim woman, Haleema uses photography to explore her identity. From her cultural heritage, to religion, to current social issues, she strives to better understand herself by turning the lens on issues that affect her identity and many others from similar walks of life.
Haleema thoroughly enjoy the process of shooting with film and discovering the image under the dim safe light of the darkroom. However, she shoot digitally as well and also enjoy working with alternative photo processes.
View all of Haleema Rehman’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project 2011.
"Birth of a Baby"
Helen Zughaib was born in Beirut, Lebanon, living mostly in the Middle East and Europe before coming to the United States to study art. She received her BFA from Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts in 1981. She paints using gouache and ink on paper, transforming her subjects into a combination of colors and patterns, creating a nontraditional sense of space and perspective.
Her work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe and Lebanon. Her paintings are included in many private and public collections, including the White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, US Consulate General, Vancouver, Canada, American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and the Arab American National Museum in Detroit, Michigan. In 2008, she served as United States Cultural Envoy to the West Bank, Palestine. In 2009, she was sent to Switzerland under the State Department’s Speaker and Specialist Program. Most recently, President Obama gave one of Zughaib’s pieces to Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki of Iraq, upon his official visit to the White House, and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, gave one of her pieces to the King of Morocco.
As an Arab American, Helen feels that her background in the Middle East allows her to approach the experiences she has in America, in a unique way, remaining an observer of both the Arab and American cultures. She believes that the arts are one of the most important tools we have to help shape and foster dialogue and positive ideas between the Middle East and the United States.
View all of Helen Zughaib’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project 2011.
"After Every Hardship There Comes Ease"
Dr. Huda Totonji is the president of Huda Art, LLC. She is an entrepreneur visual art consultant, artist, calligrapher, educator & researcher. Her art consulting services are committed to integrate client objectives into the artistic process. She has 5 years of business experience incorporating the beauty of a culture or an environment into visual art in public and private sectors. She undertakes business projects and subcontracts with designers, artists, architects, and developers to deliver in consensus.
She is able to assess the needs of the client and match them with suitable images and text to create art that will enhance the project’s vision over time. She offers art management services including designing public art projects, graphic design in English and Arabic, professional recruitment, exhibition design, judging and gallery curation. She has 7 years of academic teaching experience in fine art and visual technology.
Dr. Huda participated in more than 60 exhibitions. Recently, her artwork was exhibited in the United Nations Headquarters in NY. As an invited guest artist, Dr. Huda spoke in most renowned universities in the U.S. and worldwide.
View all of Huda Totonji’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project 2011.
Jamiah Adams
"IMAN Mural"
Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Jamiah Aniece Adams produces political, advocacy and documentary media for web, television and film. Her consulting work for the web goes hand in hand with her keen acumen for social and new media strategy for non profit organizations as she advises these orgs on how to augment their presence on the Internet through use of existing web tools; paid advertising and software tools. In 2006, Jamiah began producing new media for CBS Entertainment and from there transitioned to a management position with a political media company.
Highlights of her political work include two videos she produced for c4 organizations that supported the campaign of President Barack Obama and covering 6 states as a new media specialist for the Service Employees International Union, supporting health care reform legislation. A recent DC transplant, Jamiah is most proud of the work she has produced for the ummah– “Count Me In” PSA featured Muslims of Pakistani; Egyptian; American; Iranian and Iraqi origin to extol the importance of US census participation within the Muslim community. Additionally she produced videos for an event surrounding the US Muslim Entrepreneurial Summit and for the progressive think tank, Center for American Progress. She uses her knowledge of production, coupled with executive experience in both the mainstream and new media to consult for advocacy, faith and policy organizations to improve the lives of working Americans and others who need their cause amplified.
View Jamiah Adam’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project.
"Swept Away"
A Bangladeshi-American born in England, Monica was raised mostly in the US and just recently returned to DC after five years in Paris. She is of mixed Hindu-Muslim heritage and her family members were split between India and present-day Bangladesh (then Pakistan) after the partition of India. As an artist and activist with degrees in art and law, Monica has been painting full-time since 2006.
Her recent mixed-media paintings explore identity, desire, female sexuality, and human connection. These fragmented narratives simultaneously speak about her own life and global issues using symbols and text from East and West. She is interested in the obsession with and control of the female body across cultures, the coverings that are considered appropriate for the female body, as well as the duality women face between being “sexy” yet “virtuous.” Monica explores these themes through a playful, irreverent visual language.
View Monica Jahan Bose’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project 2011.
"I Found my Soul in a Parking Lot"
Nadia is an artist and architect working in the Washington, D.C. area. She obtained her Masters of Architecture degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, NJ) ’05 and a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) ’00.
Nadia has been drawing and painting since childhood years, and considers art and aesthetics to be a part of everything she does. Her art and architectural work is an exploration and process of encouraging herself, and the viewer or inhabitant to look closer for the inspiration, to reflect on the relevance to our experiential lives, and to realize the beautiful.
Being an architect makes her feel a bit like the puppeteer, Geppetto. It is as if life gets breathed into a design when construction begins, and the structure takes on a whole new character onto itself; it’s nothing less than magic!
View all of Nadia’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project 2011.
"What You Left Me With"
Sarah Jawaid was born in Southern California and transplanted to Washington, D.C. a few years ago. Sarah is an urban planner so she finds herself constantly thinking about how spaces affect people and the environment. She also enjoys painting and taking pictures for fun. She has trouble calling herself an artist and instead, prefers to call herself an explorer. She is curious about every medium and just wants to try everything. This can be sewing one day to pottery class the next. Some would say she can’t sit still or commit to a medium, but Sarah would say she finds art to be a tool to reveal layers of herself both in the mirror and to the world.
View all of Sarah Jawaid’s exhibiting pieces for the We the People Project 2011