Taking Shape: A Conversation

Join us in-gallery for a final look at Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s. In this conversation, Iris Gonzalez, will moderate a discussion between a panel of recent graduate students specializing in Islamic Art. Panelists will reflect on the importance of the art and the role it plays in Arab art history. As a TMA Visitor Experience and Engagement Representative and current USF graduate student studying contemporary Islamic art, Gonzalez offers a unique perspective on the exhibition and its reception in Tampa. Panelists include Richard Ellis, an aspiring educator and art historian based in Tampa, Azra Korajcevic, an art historian interested in Contemporary and Islamic Art, and Gina Lane, an art historian specializing in the visual culture of the Mughal Empire.

In-gallery programs at the Tampa Museum of Art are free with the cost of Admission

• Art+ Museum Members: Free
• Not-Yet-Members: $20
• Students with a valid college ID: Free

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Richard W. Ellis is an aspiring educator and art historian based in Tampa, Florida. He earned both his BA and MA in art history from the University of South Florida’s School of Art and Art History where he primarily focused on Islamic art and architecture with an emphasis on Persian poetry and the production and collection of Persian manuscripts. His current research interests lie in global manuscript studies, especially illustrated works of literature, as well as imbrications between the topics of Sufism, Surrealism, Modernism, and Orientalism.

Azra Korajcevic is a Bosnian-American art historian with an interest in Contemporary and Islamic Art. They received their Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Art History from the University of South Florida. They have written several papers on Contemporary and Islamic art such as Consumption of War through Art: The Meaning of Afghan War Rugs for their Producers and Consumers, The Abstract and the Organic in Mona Hatoum’s Oeuvre, and Faig Ahmed as National Symbol for Azerbaijan. Currently, they are working at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, assisting with exhibitions and administrative duties.

Gina Lane earned both her B.A. and M.A. in Art History from the University of South Florida’s School of Art and Art History. Her research specialty is in Islamic and South Asian Art, with an emphasis on the visual culture of the Mughal Empire. She has written on the portrayal of female dancers in Mughal painting as well as abstraction in Mughal Jewelry. She has interned at both the Polk Museum of Art and the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

Image: Omar El-Nagdi (Egypt). Untitled, 1970. Mixed media on wood, 47 x 47 in. Collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE.