Artist in Focus: Saj Issa

*Originally written March 29, 2024

Today, I’m writing about Saj Issa, a rising mixed-media artist whose practice is deeply rooted in ceramics as both a material and a cultural emblem.

Issa received her BFA from Webster University and completed her MFA at the University of California in 2023. She was born in 1994 in St. Louis, Missouri, after her parents emigrated from Palestine during the First Intifada in the 1980s. Growing up, she moved back and forth between Ramallah in the West Bank and Missouri, two regions starkly different in their cultural scripts, yet influencing Issa’s use of blending Middle Eastern decorative patterns and techniques while incorporating Western brands and logos.

In discussing her practice, Issa explains that her Palestinian ancestral history and cultural existence are continually denied, fueling her desire to reinterpret everyday domestic objects through the lens of religion, politics, and East–West relations. Her work tackles issues such as capitalism, climate change, diaspora, violence, and cultural erasure. At first glance, her pieces might appear formalist, but closer inspection reveals critical social commentary embedded in the details and techniques she employs.

Loaded, 2021, ceramic on wood, 20 x 20 inches

Al-A’la/The Most High, 2021, ceramic on wood, 12 inches x 12 inches

A good introduction to Issa’s practice is her Americana Hammam series, arguably her most well-known body of work, gaining significant traction online. These wall-based pieces feature silkscreened and hand-painted patterns on ceramic tiles overlaid with corporate logos. Brands such as Nike, Chase, and Coca-Cola are selected for their lax environmental policies, implicating viewers in the global climate crisis.

Each work begins as a digital design in Illustrator before being transferred via screen printing onto individual tiles. In Loaded, Al-A’la, the Shell logo is repeated alongside Arabic script translating to “fill their pockets,” while the Nike swoosh is woven seamlessly into a pattern inspired by traditional Turkish Iznik ceramics. Issa’s interest in Turkish ceramics was solidified during a trip to Iznik, the historical center of ceramic production, where she studied centuries-old earthenware techniques firsthand.

Tiles in Islamic art have historically symbolized divine unity and order as evidence of God’s creation. Issa intentionally subverts this spiritual symbolism by layering in corporate imagery. As she explains, “I utilize traditional tile work combined with corporate logos as a way to draw connections between the way that colonization seeps into the indigenous ways of life. Repetition is also a means to communicate habits of consumption, mass production and advertising.”

Get Her Some Water, 2022. Oil on panel, ceramic tiles, paper collage, 32 x 24 x 2.25 inches

Bob's Food Mart & Liturgy. 2021. Mixed media, collage, ceramic, wood. 40 x 50 x 3 inches

Issa’s entry point into patterned tile work was her 2021 Convenience Stores series. In these two pieces, Issa alters the spaces of corner stores into shrines of intoxication and commerce. Her interest in these spaces is deeply personal, as her father and many men in her family worked in these spaces, like many Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States.

In Bob’s Food Mart & Liturgy, the artist follows the Islamic art tradition of neglecting to depict figures, as the belief is that only God can create living beings. Censoring the body of the cashiers with receipts along with hand-painted ceramic tile borders evokes Islamic traditions. Yet, logos like 7/11 and Pepsi remind us of the ever-present influence of global corporations. The receipts are not arbitrary—they’re from purchases Issa made while photographing the scenes, serving as documentation and a commentary on the reduction of a cashier's identity to a simple transaction. These portraits induce nostalgia and a lost sense of identity within a fast-paced, transactional environment.

Portrait of Father, 2022, ceramic and artist's frame, 48 inches x 24 inches

Also part of the Convenience Stores series, Portrait of Father mimics a mihrab—a niche in mosque architecture indicating the direction of Mecca. The repeating Marlboro chevron motif blurs the line between ritual and commerce, piety and consumption. Here, Issa fuses Islamic decorative traditions with American consumer symbols in a style reminiscent of Pop Art. While critiquing capitalism and greed, Issa's work simultaneously presents Islam as more palatable to Western audiences, perhaps less foreign. Her father, whose immigration story underpins much of her work, represents the struggle of carving a space for yourself that doesn’t already exist.

Fundamental Fetch, 2023, stoneware, metal.

This wall-mounted installation initially resembles a traditional water pump in a village, but on closer inspection, it’s actually a gasoline pump. Ceramic vessels in various sizes and clay bodies are mounted around, replacing a source of natural sustenance with a toxic pollutant. With this work, Issa critiques the oil industry and the way extractive economies have replaced community-centred infrastructures. The replacement of water with fuel speaks to late-stage capitalism’s prioritization of profit over health.

Greenwashing, 2023, ceramic, moss. 52 x 20 x 27 inches

For her MFA thesis exhibition, Issa presented a hand-thrown ceramic bomb hybrid. The surface of the piece is covered in preserved green moss, softening the violent, volatile nature of its design. Titled Greenwashing, the piece pokes fun at corporate PR strategies that market superficial environmentalism. The aged, overgrown look underscores a tension between destruction and regeneration. The shape recalls an ancient amphora, similar to those excavated (and looted) from Middle Eastern archaeological sites, critiquing the ongoing pillaging of both land and culture by multinational corporations and Western institutions.

They've Changed The Signs, 2023, oil on wood, ceramic. 60 x 45 inches

In They’ve Changed the Signs (2023), Issa displays wood-mounted geometric tiles and a diptych painting of Ramallah storefronts. Arabic business names, fruit arrangements, and fields of flowers are rendered with rich detail.

The piece recalls Issa’s last trip to Palestine, where she noticed that when driving through the West Bank, road signs were altered. She realized the signposts customarily written in Hebrew, Arabic, and English featured the names of towns as they would be identified in Israel. For instance, in Arabic, Jerusalem has been historically referred to as Al-Quds; now, the new Arabic translation phonetically takes on the Hebrew name - Yerushalayim.

Issa reflects, “The signs in this work, similarly to the negation of Palestinian villages, after so long of rewriting or unsolicited decisions made on behalf of our societies, influence the memory of our heritage.” By reinserting the descriptions on signs or painting native vegetation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Issa preserves the language, land and culture.

Ablution of Faith and Frustration, 2020. Ceramic on wood, 25 x 48 inches

Finally, her Bleach Scapes series appropriates traditional blue-and-white ceramic tiles inspired by Islamic and Chinese designs. Each work begins with 32 hand-painted or silkscreened tiles, which are then scrubbed with a sponge, removing glaze and distorting the decorative pattern, Issa thinking about “what becomes clear when erasure happens. The process references the history of blue-and-white Delftware, a European imitation of Chinese porcelain, implicating cultural theft in the production of colonial aesthetics.

The scrubbing recalls both Abstract Expressionism and the Islamic ritual of ablution, in which one cleanses one's sins and bodily actions before prayer. In Ablution of Faith and Frustration, the gesture becomes metaphorical: a response to cultural erasure, labour, and endurance. Issa explores how both physical work and spiritual practice require repetition and resilience—how frustration and devotion can coexist.

Bleach Scape #4, 2022, ceramic on wood, glaze, 30 inches x 30 inches

Saj Issa’s work operates at the intersection of ornament, identity, critique, and memory. Through ceramic practice, she draws new lines between tradition and modernity, visibility and erasure, East and West. Her materials are historical, but her approach is unmistakably of the present: tactile, political, and deeply personal.

Sources:

“109: Saj Issa and the Omnipresent Weight of the West | Radio Juxtapoz.” YouTube, April 7,

2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aomebKLLGx0.

Adamo, Madeline. “The Art of Belonging: Arab American Artist Saj Issa Explores Identity,

Ritual and Labor in New Works.” UCLA, April 27, 2022. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/arab-american-artist-saj-issa.

Kebbe, Natalie. “Saj Issa, Arab-American Artist, Explores Outcomes of Globalization.” About

Her, April 26, 2023. https://www.abouther.com/node/58521/entertainment/art-books/saj-issa-arab-american-artist-explores-outcomes-globalization.

Meranze, Theo. “Silence Speaks in Staccato: An Interview with Saj Issa.” Office Magazine,

February 6, 2024. https://officemagazine.net/silence-speaks-staccato-interview-saj-issa.

Pricco, Evan. “The Crossroads: Sajeda Issa’s M.F.A. @ UCLA’s Department of Art.” Juxtapoz

Magazine, July 11, 2023. https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/in-session/the-crossroads-sajeda-issa-s-m-f-a-ucla-s-department-of-art/.

“Saj Issa, I Was Out Partying While You Were Home Making Prayers.” L E M A X I M U M.

https://www.lemaximumvenice.com/saj-issa-2.

Talass, Rawaa. “Arab-American Artists: Saj Issa — ‘I’m Interested in the Consequences of

Globalization.’” Arab News, April 7, 2023. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2282871/lifestyle.

Wolfson, Sarah Quiñones. “The Palestinian-American Artist Getting Cheeky with Corporate Logos.” Hyperallergic, April 5, 2023.

https://hyperallergic.com/804900/saj-issa-palestinian-american-artist-getting-cheeky-with-corporate-logos/