Born in 1941, Leila Nseir’s expansive artistic career and deft mastery of different styles, including Realism, Expressionism and Surrealism, has made her one of Syria’s foremost artists. Poet and artist Monzer Masri and Nseir have been friends for many years, first meeting at the Centre of Fine Arts decades ago, and it is this long-standing friendship that has allowed for an interview of unprecedented candour and honesty – at times poignant, at times uncomfortable – as Masri visits her, now in her late 70s and with failing health, in Latakia.

We speak with four interdisciplinary, intergenerational female artists about ideas pertaining to their artistic practice, as well as concepts of identity and life inside and outside of Syria. Here, Azza Abo Rabieh, Khadija Baker, Sulafa Hijazi and Laila Muraywid talk together from their respective homes in Beirut, Montreal, Berlin and Paris.

In line with this issue’s theme, our Spotlight section examines the works of two female artists: Hiba Alansari and Nour Asalia. The two artworks we have chosen are both faces, both created in 2016, both revealing as much as they obscure and hiding as much as they try to uncover.

Randa Maddah is a multimedia artist born in the Golan Heights in 1983. Her work deals with ideas of place and time, displacement and memory. Here, she shares some thoughts on key works in her career to date, as well as new directions emerging during her current residency in Paris at the Cité Internationale des Arts.

We are excited to announce the formation of the Atassi Foundation Advisory Committee. Created to support the Foundation’s vision for the promotion and preservation of Syrian modern and contemporary art, its purpose is to bring together experts in different fields to pool their various areas of knowledge and insight.