Hend Al-Mansour

Hend Al Mansour (, born 1956) is a Saudi-American visual artist and physician. Her printed silkscreens, installation art and portraits of Muslim women explore the religious and social belief systems of Arab communities. She earned degrees in cardiology and internal medicine, practicing medicine for 20 years. She immigrated to the United States in 1997 after receiving a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. She then pursued an art career, attending the Women's Art Institute at St. Catherine University and earning her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design where she was mentored by Aribert Munzner.

Biography Hend Al Mansour was born in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia in 1956. She obtained a degree of medicine from Cairo University in 1981. For 20 years, Al Mansour worked as a physician, as an Arab woman, a career that provided her "personal freedom and self-worth." She is married to Dr. David Penchansky, a theology professor and writer, and they live in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Themes, media and style Al Mansour's work explores the religious and social belief systems of the Arab communities, especially those dealing with women, sexuality, and understanding the other. She uses Arabic calligraphy, images of Arab people, Islamic ornamentation and architecture. She investigates the status of contemporary Arab art and cultivates its independence from Western art and its distinction from other Middle Eastern and Islamic identities. She defines her audience as people from home, Saudi Arabia, and people in the Middle East because they can most easily identify with her work, and she is a part of them. As an American immigrant, she feels comfortable in the United States but explains that she typically needs to offer lengthy introductions to using religious and feminist ritualistic symbols to non-Saudi or Arab women and audiences. The woman in the background has her head down, which the artist has identified as a kind of self-portrait: "It symbolizes for me, that this woman has accepted what is going on, without resistance. It represents a side of me that might have accepted things in the past."

Selected exhibitions Radical Love: Female Lust (group show) 2017, at The Crypt Gallery The Great Mother of Islam 2014, at Cathering G Murphy gallery How to Be a Feminist Artist 2014, at Catherine G Murphy gallery Continuity and Change (group show) 2007, at Fatimah in America (solo show) 2007, at Arousat Al-Moulid (design and choreography) 2007, in collaboration with Jawaahir Dance Company Prizm of longing (group show) 2006, at The Phipps Center for the Arts Fatimah in America (3 women show) 2005, at Peac in the house (theater installation) 2004, commissioned by Voices of Sepharad The three faces of Mary (solo show) 2004, Wisdom Ways of the College of St. Catherine. Sheherazade Risking the Passage (Muslim women show) 2003, at Mira Gallery sponsored by WARM. Arab Eye (group show) 2002, at Babylon art Gallery. Heightened Awareness (2 women show) 2001, at Catherine G Murphy gallery