Bio
Taysir Batniji
Born in Gaza in 1966, Taysir Batniji graduated in arts from Al-Najah University in Nablus, Palestine (1994), and from the Bourges School of Fine Arts in France (1997). Until 2006, he devided his time between France and Palestine, two countries and two cultures, from where he developed a multi-media practice, including drawing, installation, photography, video and performance.
Taysir Batniji’s artwork, often tinged with impermanence and fragility, draw its inspiration from his subjective story, but also from current events and history. His methods of approach always distance, divert, stretch, conceptualize or simply play with the initial subject, offering, at the end, poetic, sometimes acrid, point of view on reality.
Already involved in the Palestinian art scene since the nineties, he expanded his participation since 2002 in a number of exhibitions, biennials and residencies in Europe and across the world, including Venice, Istanbul, Berlin and Lyon Biennials; Centre Pompidou and Jeu de Paume in Paris; the Rencontres d’Arles; Aperture in New-York; Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin; Vienna Kunsthalle; Witte de With in Rotterdam, V&A Museum in London, IVAM in Valencia.
Batniji recently hold four monographic exhibitions at The Rencontres d’Arles (2018), the Mac Val in Ivry-sur-Seine (2021), the Mathaf in Doha (2022), and AGO Foundation / Palazzina dei Giardini in Modena (2025-2026).
He was awarded the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2012 and became the recipient of the Immersion residency program, supported by Hermes Foundation in alliance with Aperture Foundation in 2017. His book Disruptions, published in 2024 by LooseJoints, won Photobook of the Year at Paris Photo-Aperture Awards.
Prominent collections include his works such as the Centre Pompidou, MAC VAL, the FNAC and the CNAP in France, the V&A, The Imperial War Museum and the Tate Modern in London, IVAM in Spain, the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia, Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi, Mathaf in Doha, Art Jameel in Dubai.
Taysir Batniji’s work is represented by Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Hamburg/Beirut).