New Gallery at Austin Peay State University welcomes Soulaf Abas as first artist-in-residency

CLARKSVILLE, TN − The New Gallery at Austin Peay State University and the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA) have announced painter Soulaf Abas as the first New Gallery Artist-in-Residence.

Abas will be working live on campus in the New Gallery now through Aug. 9, with a reception from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7 as part of the First Thursday ArtWalk.

Located on the first floor of the Art + Design Building, the New Gallery is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., following Austin Peay’s academic calendar and inclement weather policy. Curator guided tours of exhibitions are available upon request.

About the artist

Soulaf Abas was born and raised in Damascus, Syria. In 2008, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Indiana State University. Then she returned to Syria and taught art at the Arab European University. In 2010, Abas returned to Indiana State University to get her master’s degree. After she received her MFA in painting in 2013, she taught part time at Indiana State University.

Abas went back to visit her family in Damascus-Syria in the summer of 2012, a year after the uprising began. Her visit changed her outlook on what home means forever. Upon her return from Syria, she started creating images in painting and printmaking that depicted what she’d experienced. Over the years, her work evolved to portray the effects of loss on how we see the world and the many undetectable ways in which grief can change us. Her current work is a translation of internal landscapes to communicate her experiences.

Abas’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She received numerous residencies and awards for her work like the Social Justice Residency in Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Luxor painting symposium in Egypt, and multiple ELCE Grants from Indiana State University.

In 2017, Abas was hired to be the first tenure-track professor of art at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology (est. 1874) She started a full art program at the private engineering institute and created a wide range of art classes like drawing, printmaking, as well as multidisciplinary courses like Art & Math and Material Science in Art. Abas lives and works in Terre Haute, Indiana with her partner, dogs, cat, and many, many plants.

To learn more about the New Gallery, contact Professor Barry Jones at jonestb@apsu.edu/. To learn more about the Department of Art + Design and its opportunities for students, contact department chair McLean Fahnestock at fahnestockm@apsu.edu. For more information regarding the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, contact Dr. Andrea Spofford at spofforda@apsu.edu.