In 1999 we launched the Darat al Funun Summer Academy, which provided a key opportunity for emerging artists to study and work under the supervision of the late Syrian artist and professor of painting in Berlin, Marwan Kassab Bachi. From 1999-2003 over 60 artists from Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq attended the academy. For many of these artists, it was a formative experience in their careers.

Today, twenty years later, we revisit the works of a selected group of artists who studied under Marwan Kassab Bachi. How did their art progress, what have they become today? We will showcase works by Marwan's assistants, Ali Kaaf & Salah Saouli, and by artists Hani Alqam, Raed Ibrahim, Munjed Qasim, Iyyad Kanaan from Jordan, Ayman Baalbaki, Rafik Majzoub from Lebanon, Khaled Barakeh from Syria, Mohammad Hawajri, Mohammad Abu Sall, Shareef Sarhan, Hazem Harb, Majed Shala, Raed Issa, and Sohail Salem from Gaza and the late Hassan Hourani.

Image: Mohammad Hawajri, Animal Farm (series of 3), 2012. Ali Kaaf Aswad (series of 6), 2002-2003.