Fine Arts Gallery Exhibit 'Lays Bare the Discomfort of the Current Political Moment'

SF WEEKLY -- Mazinani is also featured in “Mashrabiya: The Art of Looking Back,” at San Francisco State’s Fine Arts Gallery, which invited six California artists with roots in the Middle East to use the idea of the mashrabiya as a jumping-off point. A Middle East architectural feature that dates from the Middle Ages, mashrabiyas are stylized window screens, often with intricate latticework, that give people inside privacy and the discretionary ability to look outside. They’re a kind of architectural veil that masks both sides — private and public. What’s not debatable is that Jacir’s work — along with the work of Mazinani, Yamin and the other artists in “Mashrabiya” — presents a deep humanity and critique of the region that is important to see first-hand. Their work connects the greater Middle East to the United States — and to the Bay Area — at a time of extreme uncertainty when so many people are longing for a different reality.