b. 1967, Manama, Bahrain; lives and works in Bahrain Ghada Khunji is an acclaimed photographer who is celebrated for her portrayal of diverse landscapes and people, while emphasizing human dignity....
b. 1967, Manama, Bahrain; lives and works in Bahrain
Ghada Khunji is an acclaimed photographer who is celebrated for her portrayal of diverse landscapes and people, while emphasizing human dignity. Her most recent work delves into her own identity as a woman.
In 2015, Khunji was reintroduced to the art of Frida Kahlo, whose self-absorbed paintings left a profound impact on her. She delved into photomontage as an alternative medium to photography, resulting in her creation FaRIDA: a recreation of a Frida Kahlo self-portrait, with FaRIDA bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Mexican painter. Khunji infused her personal motifs and family heirlooms into these montages to narrate her own story of pain, resilience, and beauty. FaRIDA is a work in progress used to confront societal taboos surrounding gender, heritage, class, and the anguish of loss.
Khunji holds degrees from the Parsons School of Design and the International Center of Photography, New York. She is recipient of the Lucie Discovery of the Year and American Photo Magazine’s Image of the Year Award. Her art has been exhibited worldwide, notably at Sotheby’s in London, the Venice and Paris Biennales, and UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. She represented Bahrain at Al Burda Festival in Dubai and is participating in the Cities Under Quarantine: The Mailbox Project exhibited at the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar,