THE REAL GAZA (ART FROM AND ABOUT GAZA / PALESTINE)

5.12.2025–11.1.2026.
Exhibition opening on Thursday 4.12.2025 at 6-8 pm.

Critical Gallery invited RANDA AL-DAWOUDI to curate an exhibition of art from Gaza.

THE REAL GAZA exhibition has both artists from Gaza, Palestine, and also children from Gaza, Palestine. Each of them tell stories of survival, memory, and creative resistance in their own way. Through their art and self-expression they reclaim the right to be seen, remembered and heard.

The show also has contributions from two Gazans now living in Finland — and from Teemu Mäki, who helped Randa in the curatorial work and participates in the show also as an artist/researcher.

THE PARTICIPANTS

MAISARA BAROUD

Born in Gaza in 1976, Maisara Baroud is a visual artist and lecturer at 
Al-Aqsa University’s College of Fine Arts. He holds a BFA from Al-Najah University (1998) and an MFA from the College of Fine Arts in Zamalek, Cairo (2011). He has exhibited in Palestine, France, the US, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada, Qatar, Algeria, UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Kuwait, India, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and Brazil. In his art he uses a black-and-white aesthetic to express human suffering and resilience, exploring themes of war, displacement, and survival. Here’s an article about him in The Guardian.

Maisara Baroud (2024): “Through my drawings, I tell my friends: I am still alive.”

NEMAT BATTAH / WISHAMALII

Palestinian singer, oud-player and cultural educator, Nemat Battah 
maintains Palestinian memory and also expands and updates Palestinian music in her compositions and musical collaborations. She is also a Lecturer of Global Music and Community Engagement in Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland.

Nemat participates in the exhibition with music of the Wishamalii band, whose other members are Kari Ikonen and Abdissa Assefa.

RAED ISSA

Born in Al-Bureij refugee camp in 1975, Raed Issa is a contemporary 
Palestinian artist and founding member of the Eltiqa Group of 
Contemporary Arts. He holds a diploma in Computer Science from Al-Aqsa University and was a Cité Internationale des Arts fellow in Paris 
(2011). His practice explores themes of vulnerability, loss, and 
survival under siege, reflecting daily life and memory in Gaza. Issa’s 
works have been exhibited in Palestine, Jordan, Switzerland, Japan, 
Tunisia, Dubai, Italy, Australia, Ireland, and at Documenta Fifteen 
(Kassel, 2022). In the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza, his home and much of 
his artwork were destroyed — a loss that continues to inform his 
artistic vision and his ongoing testimony through art.

SOHAIL SALEM

Born in Gaza in 1974, Sohail Salem received his B.A. in Fine Arts from 
Al-Aqsa University (1999). He co-founded the Eltiqa Group of 
Contemporary Arts and held residencies in Jordan (Darat Al Funun, 2001 & 2003), Switzerland (Geneva, 2005), and France (Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2010). He has produced four solo exhibitions and participated widely in local and international shows. His practice spans painting, sculpture, photography, and installation, often using recycled materials to express internal tension and collective struggle.

RANDA AL-DAWOUDI

A Palestinian writer and journalist based in Finland, Randa Al-Dawoudi creates bridges between art, literature, and human rights through deeply personal storytelling. Her work intertwines memory, exile, and the psychological impact of war, transforming loss into language and pain into resistance.

Her upcoming book, to be published by Tammi (Finland) in May 2026, tells her own story. A journey from Gaza to exile, interwoven with the voices of women who survived, endured, and rebuilt themselves amid the ruins. 
It is both memoir and collective testimony: a book that sheds light on 
how childhood, displacement, and war shape identity, memory, and love.

Through her writing and curatorial work, Randa tries to show the human soul of Gaza, not as a place of tragedy alone, but as a living landscape of resilience, tenderness, and rebirth. She is the curator of The Real Gaza Exhibition.

TEEMU MÄKI

Teemu Mäki (1967–) is a visual artist, writer, director 
(theatre/dance/film/opera) and a researcher (Doctor of Fine Arts, 2005) from Helsinki, Finland. Since 1990 he has been an independent, 
freelancing artist, except for the years 2008–2013, when he was the 
Professor of Fine Arts in Aalto University (Finland). He is also the 
Chairperson (2018–) of The Artists’ Association of Finland. Currently he works as an artist/researcher in the Just and Unjust Environmental Wars project that investigates the connections between wars and environmental disasters. The themes of Mäki’s art include: gender, mortality, the 6th mass extinction, war/refugees/xenophobia, leftist politics, freedom of expression, the definition of good life and the role of art in society.

CHILDREN PARTICIPATING IN THE EXHIBITION

Amal Hasan
5 years old, from Gaza. Lost her home and all her toys; displaced to 
Egypt after seven months of the genocide.

Maria Hanoun
5 years old, from Gaza.

Hasan
5 years old, from Gaza.

Sham
8 years old, from Gaza.

Ayloul
5 years old, from Gaza. Suffers from asthma caused by the smoke of 
bombings; no treatment available so far.

More info: https://criticalgallery.fi