Hisham Zreiq (Zrake)
Welcome to Hisham Zreiq website
Hisham Zreiq (Arabic: هشام زريق) is a Palestinian Independent filmmaker, poet, animator, musician and visual artist. He was born in 1968 in Nazareth to a Palestinian family. After finishing school, he studied computer science, and now works as a software developer, but his heart is where his art is. In 1991, he started doing computer animation. He used those same tools when he started doing graphic art using the computer in 1994. In 1996, he started exhibiting his work in galleries and museums. In March 2001, he went to Germany, where he now lives with his wife and son and works as a software architect, artist, and filmmaker.
In 2006, he started his film career with the documentary, The sons of Eilaboun, and in 2009 he made his first short fiction film Just another day, followed by Before You is the Sea in 2011. In 2021 Zreiq finished a short animated film ‘Don't Cry’ that won ove 40 awards and was screened in many Film Festival around the world. He uses his poetry and visual art in his films, as in Just Another Day.
Zreiq was a member of the Culture Unplugged film festival panel. In 2018 Zreiq contributed to the book An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba by writing a chapter based on the interviews from his documentary The Sons of Eilaboun. In 2023 he started a music project called 'Goddess Asherah'
Awards and honors
In 2004 Hisham Zreiq was one of the winners of the award "Kunst- und Förderpreis Sparkasse Bayreuth", and his work was exhibited at Kunst & Museum Hollfeld. After the premiere screening of his first film "The Sons of Eilaboun" in Nazareth, Hisham Zreiq was honored by Ramiz Jaraisy, the mayor of Nazareth, and by Dr. Hana Sweid, an Israeli Arab politician and member of Knesset from Eilaboun. Ramiz Jaraisy described the film as an important work which tells the Palestinian story in a contrast with the dominant Israeli version. His film won the Al-Awda award in Palestine 2008, and in April 2012 Hisham Zreiq was chosen to be the artist of the month in the magazine This Week in Palestine. Some of Zreiq's works were featured in the ArtWanted.com book Creative Minds. His animated short film Don't Cry won over 40 awards
Exhibtions
SOLO EXHIBITION
- 1997 A Look Inside, Gallery Center, Nazareth, Israel
- 1999 Life and Death, Art Gallery, Om El-Fahem, Israel
- 1999 Life and Death, Gallery Center, Nazareth, Israel
- 2006 Minimal Art, Kunst und Museum, Hollfeld, Germany
- 2013 In the search for..., Café Buch-Oase, Kassel, Germany
- 2013 An adventure through films and visual arts, Rijswijk, Holland
GROUP EXHIBITION
- 1996 Opening Exhibition, West Galilee Art Gallery, Acre, Israel
- 1998 Earth, Art Gallery, Om El-Fahem, Israel
- 1998 Arabic calligraphy, the Land of Israel Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel
- 1998 Arabic Artists, Gallery Center, Nazareth, Israel
- 1999 Arabic Artists, Art Gallery, Om El-Fahem, Israel
- 1999 Arabic calligraphy, Bet-Hagfen Gallery, Haifa, Israel
- 1999 MAC21 INTERNATIONAL Contemporary Art Fair, Malaga, Spain
- 2000 MAC21 INTERNATIONAL Contemporary Art Fair, Marbella, Spain
- 2000 More than a Letter, Kage College Gallery, Bear-Sheva, Israel
- 2001 The International Contemporary Art Fair, Costa del Sol, Spain
- 2001 Pixxelpoint 2001, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
- 2002 MAC 21 International Contemporary Art Fair, Costa del Sol, Spain
- 2002 Pixxelpoint 2002, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
- 2003 MAC 21 International Contemporary Art Fair, Marbella , Spain
- 2004 26th International Hollfeld Art Exhibition, Hollfeld, Germany
- 2005 After Hiroshima: Nuclear Imaginaries, Brunei Gallery, London, UK
- 2006 Utopias, Galerie Zukunftslabor, Stuttgart, Germany
- 2014 36th International Hollfeld Art Exhibition, Hollfeld, Germany
- 2014 Bridge to Palestine, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2015 Bridge to Palestine, Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2023 HUNTENKUNST 2023, Ulft, Netherlands
- 2024 Hope Art Festival, Turku, Finland
Hisham Zreiq's Project
