Artist Bio

Maria Saleh Mahameed lives and works in the Palestinian-Israeli village Ein Mahel. She holds an M.Ed and B.Ed in the Arts from Oranim College in Kiryat Tiv'on. Saleh Mahameed was raised in Umm el-Fahem by a Ukrainian mother and a Palestinian father, and she embodies this complex identity in her art practice by creating intimate narratives that explore personal, social, and political issues in Palestinian society. Black charcoal is a common media in her large-scale works, lending itself to everything from architectural drawings to sketching and scribbling. For Saleh Mahameed, mark-making is an intimate, sensitive, and tender mode of expression that involves direct contact on the drawing surface, using her fingers to smear, rub, and smooth lines. Using charcoal is a way to leave a direct and visceral mark with a material that has local and personal significance. Charcoal is directly linked to Saleh Mahameed’s birthplace, Umm el-Fahem (“Mother of Charcoal”), which, as its name suggests, has long been famous as a place of charcoal production and trade.

Mahameed’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2025); The Wilfrid Israel Museum, Kibbutz HaZorea (2024); Castello Svevo di Trani, Italy (2023); Petach Tikva Museum of Art (2023); MAXXI Museum, Rome (2023); Umm el-Fahem Gallery (2022); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2019); and Artport, Tel Aviv (2021), among others. She is the recipient of the Rappaport Prize for a Young Promising Artist (2023), and the Beatrice Kolliner Prize for a Young Israeli Artist (2021-2022).