The Faces of Syrian Refugees

Location: Mincberg Gallery

“The Faces of Syrian Refugees,” by photographer Michael S Cohen, consists of life sized color portraits accompanied by Proust questionnaire style interviews, offering an intimate visit with 20 Syrian refugees. The exhibition will also include a special feature of Houston-area Holocaust survivors Naomi Warren, Lea Weems, Ruth Steinfeld, Anna and Emil Steinberger, Bill Orlin, Joseph Mincberg, Renee Danziger and Rosine Chappell, who thrived after being one-time refugees in America.

After a 25-year hiatus, Cohen worked with a dozen non-profits in fields ranging from education, to felon rehabilitation in inner city youth. During this time, he watched with horror as a Syrian war escalated and the refugee crisis reached unimaginable proportions. An idea formed to travel and meet successfully resettled Syrian refugees, photograph and interview them. Since the war began in 2011, millions of Syrians have been displaced from their homes, and their country. The subjects come from all walks of life and now are engaged in everything from teaching art classes to volunteering as museum docents to conducting a Syrian expat orchestra.

During the atrocities of WWII, Holocaust survivors were uprooted from their homelands and resettles in other countries. More than one half of all European Jews perished by the end of WWII; many who survived picked up the pieces of their shattered lives and moved forward. A special feature will be included in this exhibition depicting the images and stories of several local Holocaust survivors upon their arrival in Houston prior to 1955, and how they worked hard to achieve the American dream.

The exhibition is on view Friday, June 22, 2018, through Sunday, August 26, 2018, in the Mincberg Gallery. This exhibition is traveled by Art2Art Circulating Exhibitions.