Growing up between Birzeit, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, Sliman Mansour went on to study fine art at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. In 1973, he co-founded the League of Palestinian Artists, which he led for several years. In 1994, he co-established the al-Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem, demonstrating his practical commitment to younger artists, as well as to art as a social and political undertaking. Olive groves and orange trees have emerged as recurrent referen- ces in his work—motifs through which he explores a profound sense of loss and a commemoration of the Palestinian struggle. Within his oeuvre, oranges and olives are considered allegories of Palestinian land and potent metaphors of trespassing or being trespassed on. Olive Harvest (1988), one of his earlier realist works on view in the exhibition, is typical of this visual language. It shows the harvesting of olives in detail and centres two people flanked by the deep green leaves of the groves, each engrossed in the tactile activity of hand harvesting the olives. In the Marielle Franco Space the work hangs alongside several posters featuring Mansour’s paintings that have been in circulation since the mid-1970s. In an abstract and realist, and sometimes surrealist style, they collectively depict vivid symbols of Palestinian culture via rich colours, clear composition, and textures. As works created for circulation as posters, they express continuity in resistance, resilience, and hope.

Works in the exhibition: Upper row (left to right): Orange Fields (2014), print on paper, 70 × 98 cm; Olive Harvest (1988), print on paper, 54 × 45 cm; Olive Picking (2021), print on paper, 67 × 58 cm; Camel of Hardship (1973), print on paper, 58 × 37.5 cm; Land Day (2020), print on paper, 54 × 39.5 cm; Woman Carrying Jerusalem (1997), print on paper, 54 × 39.5 cm. Lower row (left to right): Desert Tunes (1977), print on paper, 48 × 47.5 cm; Memory of Places (2009), print on paper, 55 × 44 cm; The Immigrant (2017), print on paper, 48 × 42 cm; The Daughter of Jerusalem (1978), print on paper, 70 × 54 cm; Woman with Pigeon (2013), print on paper, 53.5 × 42 cm; Symbol of Hope (1985), print on paper, 52 × 41.5 cm. Courtesy of Zawyeh Gallery