Syrian artist and architect Mohamad Hafez will offer a very personal view of what it's like for an upper-middle class Damascene family to become forced migrants - their lives before and after, decision points, forced hands, and adjustment to new realities.  This will be an opportunity to better understand what the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II looks like to an individual and family who have been through it. 

Mr. Hafez creates mixed and multi-media sculptures representing Middle Eastern streetscapes and buildings besieged by civil war, deliberately contrasted with hopeful verses from the Quran, audio recordings from his homeland, and other elements of his Islamic heritage.

His exhibition, Unsettled Nostalgia, is a multimedia installation that incorporates pre-war wall murals, sculpture depicting the post-war reality, miniature elements, and photography focusing on the war and the current refugee crisis. His artwork has recently been featured in several highly acclaimed exhibitions and profiled in National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The New Yorker.

Hafez is the recipient of a 2018 Connecticut Arts Hero Award for his extensive and continuous body of work on issues such as the Syrian civil war, the worldwide refugee crisis, and an overall desire to counter hate speech. He serves as a 2018 Yale University Silliman College Fellow.