Washington, D.C. | September 12, 2025 – The MEI Art Gallery is pleased to announce Arab Pop Art: Between East and West, opening to the public on Friday, September 12, 2025 through Friday, January 23, 2026.

MEI’s latest exhibition explores the evolution of an art movement that blends Arab cultural motifs and symbols with the visual language of Western pop art to comment on social, political, and cultural issues in the Middle East. First emerging in the 1960s, Arab pop art exploded with the rise of social media and new digital technologies. Today, Arab pop artists harness creativity, satire and a savvy awareness of street culture to push social and political boundaries, while also challenging regional stereotypes. Featuring the work of 14 artists from the Arab world and its diaspora, the exhibition explores the emergence of Arab pop art as a bold fusion of cultural identity and global visual language that highlights a vibrant evolving and cosmopolitan Arab identity. Influenced by Western pop art icons like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, but rooted in the Middle East’s rich traditions, the 35 works on display blend everyday symbols, regional motifs and cultural commentary with striking imagery.

The result is a show that challenges norms while increasing understanding of art, identity and culture in the Middle East. The story of Arab Pop Art has yet to be told in the US, though many Arab artists have embraced the form—using humor and satire to challenge social taboos and the West’s narrow lens on the region. The MEI Art Gallery is proud to bring this story to DC to highlight the playful way Arab artists have engaged with their heritage to comment on social and political issues, said Lyne Sneige, Director of MEI’s Arts and Culture Center and co-curator of the show. Co-curator Leila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah added, "The exhibition illustrates how Arab artists not only enrich the broader Pop Art movement but make it their own by drawing from the Arabic language, and cultural motifs. Through their own visual language and inventiveness, these artists invite us to see the multiplicity and richness of the Arab world simultaneously through a historical and contemporary lens."

Participating artists: Yusef Alahmad (Saudi Arabia/US), Chant Avedissian (Egypt), Marwan Chamaa (Lebanon/US), Yasmine Nasser Diaz (Yemen/US), Rasha Eleyan (Palestine/UK), Hassan Hajjaj (Morocco), Tony Khawam (Syria/US), Mous Lamrabat (Morocco), Ilyes Messaoudi (Tunisia), Qarm Qart (Egypt/Italy), Rana Salam (Lebanon), Water With Water (Nathan Ross Davis & Sarah Elawad, Qatar), Helen Zughaib (Lebanon/US).