A huge congratulations to Artists at Risk (AR) Alumna Kholod Hawash for being chosen to represent Finland at the Nordic Pavilion of the 2024 Venice Biennale!

Hawash's textile works (“jodaleias”), which are made using traditional Iraqi techniques, have been shown in exhibitions including the AR Pavilion-Helsinki "Mass Memory Machines" and such prestigious shows as ARS 22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, as well as recent group exhibitions in Arles and Oslo, among others. She combines symbolism and metaphors with contemporary social issues reflecting the role of women. After she moved to Finland as an Artists at Risk (AR) Resident in 2017, she stitched her first daring jodaleia portraying a long-haired naked woman with a traffic cone on her head. Earlier she had stitched archeological symbols and animals from nature, but she could not portray naked women.