Najjar Abdul-Musawwir: IMAN’s Latest Featured Artist
We are pleased to announce that Professor Najjar Abdul-Musawwir is the latest featured artist at IMAN. Selected original works are currently on display at IMAN headquarters in Chicago, IL, from September 2013 to April 2014. Known as Artist of the People, Abdul-Musawwir has been a longtime leader and supporter of the IMAN Arts and Culture Department, having participated in Community Cafés, and Artist and Leadership Retreats in years past. From time to time, IMAN features works by artists whose themes, careers and lives resonate with, and reflect lives and issues of, communities IMAN works with.
Najjar Abdul-Musawwir was born October 25th, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. He is an Associate Professor of Fine Art at Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Art and Design, Carbondale, Illinois. He teaches “Exploration of Mixed-Media,” “Abstract Painting,” “Experimental Drawing,” “Graduate Professional Development,” and “African-American Art History.” He serves on several academic committees, such as African Studies, and Global Studies. His works illustrate culture, faith, and history through abstract language. He uses different materials as a metaphor for the human experience; and thus, he abstracts material to discuss our abstract existence. Najjar is known for using burlap sacks in his paintings. A profound and puissant symbol, the idea of burlap sacks exploiting the surface, which speaks to the power of harvesting the spiritual experiences of the human-will – past, present, and beyond the 21st century.