This webinar/​virtual gallery talk will explore the work of sev­eral artists included in the Halal Metrop­o­lis Exhi­bi­tion at the Stamps Gallery. Amna Asghar, Adnan Charara, and Stamps Professor Endi Poskovic will sit down with Halal Metrop­o­lis cura­tor, artist, and Stamps Associate Professor Osman Khan, to dis­cuss the moti­va­tions and aes­thet­ics of the art­work they have con­tributed to this installation.

The Halal Metrop­o­lis exhi­bi­tion, by artist Osman Khan, pho­tog­ra­pher Razi Jafri, and his­to­rian Sally How­ell, explores the facts, fic­tions, and imag­i­nar­ies of the Mus­lim population(s) in Detroit and South­east Michi­gan as viewed through his­tor­i­cal research, doc­u­men­ta­tion of cur­rent con­di­tions, and explo­rations of future desires. The Halal Metrop­o­lis is one where Mus­lims prac­tice their faith freely and con­tribute to soci­ety with all of their tal­ents and com­mit­ments. It is cre­ated dia­log­i­cally and requires Mus­lims to be vis­i­ble to one another and to non-Mus­lims. It encour­ages Mus­lims to orga­nize and speak as believ­ers, cit­i­zens, and artists.

Stamps events are free and open to the pub­lic, and we are com­mit­ted to mak­ing them acces­si­ble to all atten­dees. This event will be online using the Zoom plat­form with an auto-gen­er­ated Live Tran­script avail­able. Ques­tions may be asked using the Q&A fea­ture on Zoom. If you antic­i­pate need­ing any addi­tional accom­mo­da­tions to par­tic­i­pate, please email asbaban@​umich.​edu at least one week in advance of the sched­uled event so we can arrange for your accom­mo­da­tion or an effec­tive alter­na­tive. After receiv­ing your request, our team will fol­low up with you directly. This event can also be live streamed on Halal Metrop­o­lis and Stamps Gallery’s Face­book pages, @halalmetropolis and @umstamps.

This exhi­bi­tion is pre­sented in part­ner­ship with the Uni­ver­sity of Michigan-Dearborn’s Cen­ter for Arab Amer­i­can Stud­ies (CAAS), with sup­port from the Knight Foun­da­tion, the Doris Duke Foun­da­tion, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the El-Hibri Foun­da­tion, the Com­mu­nity Foun­da­tion of SE Michi­gan, and the Michi­gan Human­i­ties Council.

Speaker Bios
Amna Asghar
Amna Asghar (b. 1984, Detroit, MI) lives and works in Detroit, MI and the Bronx, NY.

She received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014. Her work was fea­tured in the Armory Show FOCUS sec­tion with Har­mony Mur­phy Gallery, curated by Jar­rett Gre­gory. She has shown at Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York, NY; Super Dutchess, New York, NY; Hotel Art Pavil­ion, Brook­lyn, NY; Hawk­eye Crates, Brook­lyn, NY; NARS Foun­da­tion, Brook­lyn, NY; Knock­down Cen­ter, Queens, NY; Wash­ing­ton Project for the Arts, Wash­ing­ton, DC; Museum of Con­tem­po­rary Art, Den­ver, CO; Mint Museum, Char­lotte, NC and Para Site, Hong Kong, CN.

Her work was recently included in the group exhi­bi­tion Par­al­lels and Periph­eries, curated by Larry Ossei-Men­sah at Vis­Arts, Rockville, MD. She had her sec­ond solo exhi­bi­tion at Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York, NY in the Fall of 2019. Asghar’s first museum solo will be in Spring of 2021 at the Museum of Con­tem­po­rary Art Detroit.

Adnan Charara
Adnan Charara is a Lebanese-Amer­i­can artist who has lived and worked in the U.S. since 1982. With an unquench­able thirst to cre­ate since he was a child, he drew, painted, sculpted and assem­bled his way from Seat­tle to Boston to Detroit, where he cur­rently makes his artis­tic home. Adnan works in mul­ti­ple medi­ums with sev­eral ideas at a time, treat­ing his stu­dio prac­tice like a detail-ori­ented fac­tory. His hard-work­ing ded­i­ca­tion is masked, how­ever, by his whim­si­cal and humor­ous treat­ment of seri­ous sub­jects. Adnan resides in Dear­born, a quick drive from the Cass Cor­ri­dor neigh­bor­hood that houses his stu­dio. He bought the his­toric Astro build­ing in 2011 with an ambi­tious plan to develop it into a mul­ti­func­tional space, includ­ing an exquis­ite gallery, gift shop, two store-fronts and his sprawl­ing sub­di­vided stu­dio. That plan has come to life with the help of archi­tects and design­ers, and he con­tin­ues to focus his energy on both his art­work and his com­mu­nity involvement.

Adnan was fea­tured on the PBS series Arab-Amer­i­can Sto­ries in 2012. Recently he was nom­i­nated for a Smith­son­ian Fel­low­ship and was hon­ored by the Arab Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce. In addi­tion, he has served on the boards of sev­eral arts insti­tu­tions, and has exhib­ited all over the United States and inter­na­tion­ally, in Europe, Africa, and the Mid­dle East.

“In gen­eral, my art should be viewed as a visual rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the human con­di­tion. The real­iza­tion of my thoughts and emo­tions through the cre­ation of my art is a way for me to express my inner self. In turn, I under­stand that my inner self is merely a par­tic­u­lar man­i­fes­ta­tion of the human con­di­tion that con­nects every­body, and so it may be said that by express­ing my inner self and reveal­ing per­sonal truths, I am attempt­ing to reveal truths about us all.

More specif­i­cally, the cre­ation of my art is an attempt to estab­lish my iden­tity, and to resolve my inner con­flicts that have arisen from grow­ing up as a for­eigner in diverse com­mu­ni­ties. Born in Lebanon, raised partly in Sierra Leone, and finally in Amer­ica, I have always been aware of my diverse sur­round­ings as an out­sider, and, in turn, how oth­ers have viewed me as dif­fer­ent. These cir­cum­stances have com­pelled me through­out my life to con­tem­plate such themes as eth­nic­ity, iden­tity, diver­sity, anx­i­ety, fear, love, and accep­tance, just to name a few. My art helps me real­ize these con­tem­pla­tions and pro­vides oppor­tu­nity for them to be dis­cussed with oth­ers in hopes of forg­ing a con­nec­tion and an under­stand­ing between oth­ers and myself, and between emo­tions and the phys­i­cal world.”

Endi Poskovic
Born and raised in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, Endi Poskovic was edu­cated in Yugoslavia, Nor­way, and the United States. His works have been exhib­ited world­wide in numer­ous impor­tant inter­na­tional bien­ni­als and tri­en­ni­als, and have brought him many notable awards and hon­ors, includ­ing grants and fel­low­ships from the John Simon Guggen­heim Memo­r­ial Foun­da­tion, the United States Ful­bright Com­mis­sion, the John D. Rock­e­feller Foun­da­tion, the Pol­lock-Kras­ner Foun­da­tion, the Nor­we­gian Gov­ern­ment, the Camargo Foun­da­tion, the Flem­ish Min­istry of Cul­ture, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts, the Mac­dow­ell, and the Art Mat­ters Foun­da­tion, among oth­ers. Museum col­lec­tions which hold works by the artist include the Philadel­phia Museum of Art; the Detroit Insti­tute of Arts; the Fogg Art Museum, Har­vard Uni­ver­sity; the Art Museum of Esto­nia, Tallinn; Fon­da­tion Fer­net Branca, France; Alive Jin­cheon Print­mak­ing Museum, South Korea; the Uni­ver­sity of Iowa Stan­ley Museum of Art and many oth­ers. He is Pro­fes­sor of Art in the Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and Fac­ulty Affil­i­ate in the Coper­ni­cus Cen­ter for Pol­ish Stud­ies-Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan, the Cen­ter for Japan­ese Stud­ies-Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan, the Weiser Cen­ter for Emerg­ing Democ­ra­cies-Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan, and Cen­ter for Russ­ian, East Euro­pean and Eurasian Stud­ies-Uni­ver­sity of Michigan.