Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Lawrence Abu Hamdan was born in 1985 in Amman, Jordan
He lives and works between Dubaï and Beirut
Lawrence Abu Hamdan is an independent investigator or Private Ear. His investigations focus on sound and linguistics and have been used as evidence at the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and as advocacy for organisations such as Amnesty International and Defence for Children International together with fellow researchers from Forensic Architecture.
Abu Hamdan obtained his PhD in 2017 from Goldsmiths College University of London. He has completed fellowships at the University of Chicago, and at the New School, New York; and a professorship at the J. Gutenberg University, Mainz.
His works have been presented in solo exhibitions at MUAC UNAM, Mexico City (2023); Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2023); MoMa, New York (2023); Spike Island, Bristol (2023); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2022); Sharjah Art Foundation (2022); Kunstverein Nürnberg (2021); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2021); Secession, Vienna (2020); Towner Eastbourne, UK (2020); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2019); Institute of Modern Art, Birsbane (2019); Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2019); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2019); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2018); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); Tate Modern Tanks, London (2018); Portikus, Frankfurt (2016); Kunsthalle St Gallen (2015); Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven (2013); The Showroom, London (2012); and Casco, Utrecht (2012), among others.
Additionally he participated in many group exhibitions and international manifestations such as the 2nd Toronto Biennial (2022); the 12th Berlin Biennale (2022); Manifesta 14, Prishtina (2022); the 34th Bienal de Sao Paulo (2021); Kunsthalle Basel (2021); the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); Mudam, Luxembourg (2020); the 58th Venice Biennale (2019); Sharjah Architecture Triennale (2019); Turner Contemporary, Margate (2019); Tate Modern, London (2013, 2018); Sharjah Biennial 13 & 14 (2017, 2019); Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (2018); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); Contour Biennale 8, Mechelen (2017); MACBA, Barcelona (2017); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2017); the 11th Gwangju Biennale (2016); the 9th Liverpool Biennial (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2016); Beirut Art Center (2015); and the 10th Shanghai Biennial (2014), among many others.
Abu Hamdan’s videos have been screened at international festivals: IFFR, Rotterdam (2015, 2017, 2019, 2023); International Kurzfilmtage Witerthur (2022); New York Film Festival (2017, 2022); Punta de Vista, Pamplona (2021); Torino Film Festival (2018); Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (2018), just to mention a few.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan is the co-winner of the Turner Prize 2019. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Jean Vigo Award, the 2020 EMAF Award, the 2019 Edvard Munch Art Award, the Baloise Art Prize 2018 and the Abraaj Art Prize 2018. In 2017, he won the short film award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and in 2016, he received the Nam June Paik Award for new media. More recently, he was awarded the 2022 Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
