Paper

2009.02

May Hariri Aboutaam

Gift

Gift of Mary Hariri Aboutaam

2005

17 in

13 in

Re-Interpreting the Middle East: Beyond the Historical Stereotype (2008)

Cultural/Historical Context

MATTHEW J. EGAN was born in Canada, and recently taught printmaking for several years in the United Arab Emirates where he was an Assistant Professor of Foundations and Design at American University of Sharjah, This fall he has started a tenure-track position at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. He earned a M.F.A. in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of South Dakota and a B.F.A in Printmaking and Multi Media from the University of Windsor. One of his main areas of interest and research is forging opportunities and links between Eastern and Western image-making traditions and practices through an attempt to identify with cultural and social issues relating to both individual nations and the wider narratives of the eastern and western hemispheres. Recent projects that support his notion of eastern and western relationships include participating in the “Re-Interpreting the Middle East” portfolio exhibited at the Corcoran School of Art and sitting on the accompanying panel at Southern Graphics this year. “The Fertile Crescent Portfolio” was an initial attempt to bring Arab printmakers together, and has been shown in the U.S.A, the U.A.E, Lebanon and Pakistan. He is deeply committed to fostering exchanges between artists through print exchanges, initiating a visiting artist program at the American University of Sharjah, and conducting visiting artist workshops himself, most recently at the Emirates Cultural Center, Vanderbilt University and the University of South Dakota. In his most recent solo exhibitions, “Implication of Representational Forms” demonstrated large scale prints and dimensional paper casts exemplifying Arab icons within a western image composition, and recent prints exhibited at Frogman’s Gallery introduced the first of a series of four color lithographic narrative book pages.