From oil paintings to long-form documentaries, the artists in P21 Gallery’s exhibition grapple with nationhood in the face of genocide.
From September 2024 to January 2025, the Palestine Museum US brought the work of more than 25 artists to London’s P21 Gallery.
Entitled Art of Palestine | From the River to the Sea, the exhibition references a slogan heavily censored amongst student bodies, social media platforms, and even the Labour Government.
The original phrase ends with the promise that one day, “Palestine will be free”, a hope which emanates from each wall of the exhibition space.
Founder of Palestine Museum US and exhibition curator Faisal Saleh views art as the communication of truths hidden in plain sight.
“The media is not covering it,” he says, “they’re really dehumanising the Palestinians and making it easy for governments to get away with supporting the genocide”.
It is no accident that the exhibition takes place in a city which is home to the UK’s largest News providers: “We need to provide the truth to people […] the arts, you know, they talk to your heart, they create emotion in you”.
As Saleh moves around the exhibition, he tells the story behind each selected piece. The audio of the 2025 documentary The Palestine Exception punctuates his every word.
Displayed on a large TV screen, the film depicts the suppression of student movements which advocate for the freedom of Palestine. It features sobering footage of mass burials in Gaza and police brutality towards activists in the US, images which remain imprinted on the mind long after leaving the space.
Gaza has seen one in ten of its people killed since October 7, 2023. One of the featured artists who still resides there is Mohammed Al-Haj. He contributes a trio of ink portraits, which he titles Gaza.
Not only has Al-Haj watched his home turn to rubble, but his studio was destroyed during the war, along with the majority of his artwork.
“For me, art is a means of release — an outlet that allows the imagination to express, in one way or another, the absurd reality we have lived through and continue to endure,” Al-Haj says.
The opaque lines of his portraits fragment the silhouettes of Palestinians. In one piece, a mother holds her child’s hand while the father carries a small cloth bundle of possessions.
The family journeys into the unknown, likely to one of the 58 refugee camps across Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, the Syrian Arab Republic, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. Al-Haj’s work embodies a future of uncertainty for millions of displaced refugees.
Visitors can also see portraits by Khalil Khalidy, an artist and surgeon treating wounded civilians in Gaza City. In an Instagram post, he shares the story behind his painting 991, which depicts an angelic young boy with outstretched wings poised for flight.
“991 was a young boy killed in a carpet bombing; he took his last breath as I was checking his pulse”. Khalidy explains that the boy’s family were killed in the same airstrike, and consequently, there was no one left who knew his name. As a result, he was assigned the number “991”.
The boy died before Khalidy could send his blood samples to the lab. “I decided to preserve these samples in a unique way, as paint”. The result is both ethereal and deeply haunting. Khalidy finds the intersection between his roles as both artist and healer, expressing realities that are often difficult to behold.
While some artists engage heavily with themes of trauma and displacement, others illustrate Palestine’s rich culture. The oranges of Jaffa city are a reoccurring motif in Tala Abunuwar and Haya Kaabneh’s works, while Nabil Anani paints an idyllic memory of Palestine in the form of rolling hills and olive trees.
In one corner of the room, two thobes hang from hooks: modern iterations of traditional dress robes, handstitched with intricate embroidery.
The exhibition interweaves complex themes of loss and suffering with love and nationhood, creating an artistic tapestry of what it is to be Palestinian.
“[The exhibit] covers a lot of different things from Palestine. It’s not narrowed down to any specific area,” says Faisal Saleh on his curation process. “Think of it as like a Palestinian art 101”.
A feeling of unwavering resilience is the thread which connects each piece in the collection. “Israel is trying to clear Gaza of Palestinians completely, but they haven’t been able to do that, because the people there are determined” says Saleh.
His statement feels especially prevalent as a ceasefire deal develops between Israel and Palestine, allowing more than 500.000 Gazans to return to their homes. However, the city that awaits them is not the same one they left, and their longed-for homecoming is eclipsed by grief.
“With all the bombings and all the weapons, they still could not defeat the Gaza people”.
Featured image: Tala Abunuwar’s painting entitled When the land gives you oranges, your love for it will multiply, 2024.