Forced Participation by Abed Elmajid Shalabi presents new commissioned sculpture projects and recent work that concludes a period of two years of research and production. The ceramic sculptures in this show mimic industrial and safety objects that are multiplied and attached into new forms that examine representation and the symbolism of these objects.

Centering migration, globalization, and Palestinian narratives of displacement and colonization, Shalabi creates highly reflective ceramic sculptures cast from industrial objects associated with protection, extraction, and infrastructure, including bulletproof vests, shock-resistant floor mats, and safety seating systems. 

His work explores the failures of the modernization project in the Middle East. As the grandson of Palestinian laborers who became citizens of Israel following the 1948 Nakba, he is interested in the gap between labor and construction work and the polished, seductive surface of his glossy ceramic forms. By remaking these objects in ceramic, he shifts them from functional systems into unstable images of power, where surface and fragility contradict their original promise of safety and control.

Abed Elmajid Shalabi (b. 1991) is a Palestinian artist based in Richmond, Virginia. Shalabi has been a fellow at Hamiltonian Artists, Washington, DC (2022–2024), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (2020, 2024), and Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, NY (2023). He is a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Artistic Research Grant (2024) and Emergency Grant (2023). He earned his MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (2021), his BFA in Fine Arts from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, Ramat Gan, Israel (2019), and studied at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He was an artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME (2022) and at ISCP, Brooklyn, NY (2024), NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY (2023) and The Virginia Center for Creative Arts (2023). His works have been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Luhring Augustine, New York; C24 Gallery, New York; SARA’S, New York; Vox Populi, Philadelphia; the OCCCA, Santa Ana, CA, CCA in Tel Aviv and 3Yoon in Copenhagen Denmark.

This project was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Creative Research Grant.