Nadia Bseiso, Hot Spring, 2017. Courtesy of Palo Gallery. Few subjects carry as much emotional and political weight as exile, and Longing: In Between Homelands at Palo Gallery is an exhibition that foregrounds the personal realities of displacement with remarkable depth. Featuring the work of Palestinian artists Nadia Bseiso, Ameen Abo Kaseem, and Lina Khalid, the show presents photography as a form of testimony, capturing both the weight of loss and the resilience of memory. Each artist, working from exile, engages with themes of borders, belonging, and the precariousness of survival through their own distinct yet interconnected visual languages. In light of the genocide in Gaza we have been witnessing, the exhibition feels all the more urgent and relevant today.
Bseiso's work is deeply rooted in research, weaving history, geopolitics, and mythology into layered visual narratives. Her long-term project Infertile Crescent explores the motif of water as both an existential necessity and a contested resource. The image Hot Springs (2017), depicting children immersed in a small pool, is deceptively serene. The presence of water here is more than elemental—it is loaded with symbolic meaning, touching on scarcity, control, and the looming specter of environmental conflict. Her broader series in the exhibition turns its gaze to Jordanian villages near artificial borders, revealing communities shaped by both the physical landscape and political restrictions.
Ameen Abo Kaseem's photographs are more direct, capturing the lived experience of exile with piercing intimacy. His portraits and text-accompanied images articulate the psychological impact of displacement, creating a conversation between the external world and inner monologue. His works pose existential questions, such as "What are you scared from? Death? No, I’m afraid from being left behind," rendering the unseen emotional toll of dislocation visible. In We Deserved a Better Time on This Earth, Kaseem captures moments of survival and resilience, emphasizing the tension between personal agency and forces beyond one’s control. There is a stark contrast between the everyday moments his subjects inhabit and the broader uncertainties that define their existence, reinforcing the idea that conflict is not just an event but an ongoing condition.
Lina Khalid's photography is perhaps the most introspective. Growing up in Jordan, she visited the Dead Sea with her family, always aware that Palestine was just across the water—close enough to see, yet unreachable. In her black-and-white series Looking Over There is a Sin, the sea becomes a site of longing and loss, its placid surface disrupted by the ever-present markers of division: fences, surveillance towers, and unseen but deeply felt boundaries. Khalid's use of grayscale tones underscores this tension, stripping the landscape of color to reflect the unresolved nature of exile itself.
Together, these three artists offer a portrait of displacement that is neither purely documentary nor wholly abstract. Their images carry the weight of history but remain firmly tethered to the present, reminding viewers that exile is not just a past trauma but an ongoing reality. The fact that Palo Gallery is covering production costs and ensuring all proceeds go directly to the artists makes this exhibition not just a presentation of work, but an act of support and solidarity.
In Longing: In Between Homelands, photography becomes both witness and weapon, capturing moments of resilience amid displacement. These images do not seek closure; instead, they insist on remembrance, on visibility, and on the right to return—even if only through the lens.
The exhibition Longing: In Between Homelands will be on view at Palo Gallery in New York until February 8th, 2025.
