"Desperate Cargo" by Mohamed Hafez

A U.S. resident born in Syria, Mohamad Hafez creates intricate miniatures of the neighborhoods he wandered and sketched as a teenager, which now are scarred by bombings and other atrocities of the Syrian war.

The artist and architect was born in Damascus, raised in Saudi Arabia, and educated in the United States. Expressing the juxtaposition of East and West within him, Hafez’s art reflects the political turmoil in the Middle East through the compilation of found objects, paint and scrap metal. He creates surrealistic Middle Eastern streetscapes that are both architectural and politically charged.

The works capture the magnitude of the devastation and expose the fragility of human life, but also convey hope through deliberate incorporation of verses from the Holy Quran—offering stark contrast to the pessimistic reality of destruction.