I first met Abdul Rahman Katanani, late in the autumn of 2015, at a dinner party my late father hosted, at our home in Beirut. I was so looking forward to meeting him because we already had a work by him called “In Six Days And We Will Be Back Inshallah”. It’s an iconic piece, by my now dear friend, made of corrugated steel and various other objects, depicting a Palestinian family fleeing what became known as the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, just as his own grandfather had, when he took his family out of Jaffa, Palestine and headed for Lebanon, ending up in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut.
Abdul Rahman is quite a character, one you couldn’t but instantly like, always smiling and constantly finding ways to make those around him laugh. He’s the kind of person you feel happy around, or in whose company any unhappy mood can never last long. We became fast friends. Abed, as most of his good friends call him, comes with quite a fascinating story. He was born in Beirut, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra, where after receiving several degrees in fine arts, he returned to work, teach and inspire in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, giving hope and inspiration to the children and youth of the two sprawling camps that he calls home.
“He’s the kind of person you feel happy around, or in whose company any unhappy mood can never last long.”
I visited Abed at his studio in the Sabra camp a couple of times. The building was a decommissioned, dilapidated hospital that was converted into homes after the Israeli invasion of 1982, one family to a room. Abed and his family lived there, so acquired a room when one became available, and converted it into his studio until he moved out of the camp, with his family, to a larger home and studio he had built on a plot of land he had acquired south of Beirut. Going through the Sabra and Shatila camps with Abed to visit his then-humble studio was quite an experience. My dear friend has to be one of the most popular guys in the camps. People there admire, respect and genuinely love him, just like any of us who are privileged to know him do.
Abed cleverly resorts to using materials in his works that are easily found in the camps, like metal from oil barrels, corrugated steel, used for roofs in the camps, wood, and barbed wire. My dear friend is a genius at taking these difficult materials, like barbed wire for example, and weaving it into anything he wants, from a wave to a carpet, or even a tornado! This ability of his to take basic materials and turn them into stunning art is what sets him apart from others, but don’t take my humble word for it: in 2019, the French government saw something quite special in Abed, special enough to bestow on him French citizenship.
“This ability of his to take basic materials and turn them into stunning artworks is what sets him apart from others.”
As an artist, Abdul Rahman Katanani enjoys a deep friendship with the Dalloul Art Foundation, built on mutual trust and respect. The foundation features and celebrates his unique and impactful work and maintains an extensive digital archive of him. As a friend, I’ve recommended him to fellow collectors and fans of his work, some of whom have given him commissions. As a big fan and collector of his work myself, I’ve also commissioned Abed to produce specific works for me. As chairman of the Dalloul Art Foundation, I commissioned him to produce a piece to be sold at a Christie’s auction in London in October 2020, in aid of the victims of the August 2020 Beirut Port explosion, which I ended up acquiring for the foundation. I also recently commissioned Abed to work
on a piece, inspired by something very much tied to Palestinian culture (I don’t want to ruin the surprise by disclosing it now), which then turned into a new series he’s currently working on, and which the foundation is looking forward to promoting and perhaps touring.
At this point in time, Abed is no longer a rising star, but a shooting star! We have yet to see his full impact as an artist in the works he has yet to conceive and create. I personally am looking forward to an art future, with my dear friend Abdul Rahman Katanani prominently in it!
“At this point in time, Abed is no longer a rising star, but a shooting star!”
