Beyond his extensive work in diverse media, Abdi’s iconography marks a long contribution to the Palestinian struggle for recognition and the voicing of Palestinian particular identity, history and suffering as a central theme of his creative work.

This important artist, whose great work was compared by the award’s panel of judges to that of Nahum Gutman, has devoted himself for close to fifty years to a wide range of artistic endeavor in varied fields: painting, murals, illustration, prints, sculpture, graphic design and monument design.

Abdi has made an important contribution to the visual culture of the Palestinian public in Israel. In this respect, it is not only touching but also represents an essential, less known, period in the history of Israeli Art.

Abed Abdi is a prolific artist, having produced a significant body of work that remains largely undocumented. During the first stage of his artistic career, he primarily worked in color and black and white. The painting “Intifada” (1986) exemplifies his formal skill while also revealing that sympathies across Israel’s artificial borders and checkpoints remain strong.

Abed Abdi is a prominent Palestinian artist who has played a significant role in the advancement of art among Palestinians living in Israel. He is most notably known as the first Palestinian artist living in Israel to erect monumental works in public spaces to commemorate Palestinian modern history that are still standing in Palestinian towns and villages.

Abed Abdi is an artist and educator who has been consistently promoting Arab culture for over 40 years, and whose contribution to the visual culture of historical Palestine is unprecedented. It is these images that shaped Arab visual memory of historical events like the Nekba, the refugee camps, destroyed villages, and the events of Land Day, hence the works’ significant influence on the collective memory of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The works in the album speak in a clear language of non-acceptance of Palestinian fate […] The album is a single totality despite the differences between its subjects. For the subject is but one: identification with the fate of the refugees, non-acceptance of this fate, and an expression of hope and emotional turmoil

The Work space of the artist Abed Abdi and his works are strongly tied to each other, and are connected to the city of Haifa where he was born and where he creates, and to the history of the Palestinian people.