Mention Palestine to most Americans and vivid newspaper and television images from the last decade come rapidly to mind. Beginning Feb. 24, visitors to the DePaul Art Museum (DAM), 2350 N. Kenmore Ave., will have the rare opportunity to view Palestine through art works that illustrate the diversity, complexity and human experience of the Palestinian people.

“The Subject of Palestine,” a collection of 33 mixed-media works by Palestinian artists, opens Feb. 24 with a reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and will be exhibited in the North Gallery of the DAM through May 6. Roughly half of the artists represented in the exhibition live within the West Bank and Gaza, while the rest live abroad in Western Europe and the United States.

According to Louise Lincoln, director of the DAM, the works produced by the two groups differ significantly. “The artists living within the region tend to create two-dimensional, literal images that often focus on events of recent history. In contrast, the works of those living outside are larger, often involve video and mixed-media, and address issues of government policy and personal experience. The range of expression contained in the exhibition is a powerful counter-argument to the tendency to stereotype all Palestinians as extremists.”

The exhibition is the brainchild of a DePaul student group, Students for Justice in Palestine. The students brought the idea to Lincoln last fall, as part of their plan for a peace awareness campaign that will unfold throughout the school year. “We wanted to give DePaul’s population and communities beyond the university a clearer understanding of what it means to identify oneself as Palestinian, ” said Salma Nassar, president of the organization. “We also wanted to shed light on the suffering and humanitarian injustices that Palestinians struggle with daily. What better way to do this than through the eyes of artists?”

“While the exhibition provides a new perspective on the situation in the Middle East, it also allows viewers to consider how issues of identity are understood and represented within a particular group, and how groups present and express their identity to the outside world,” said Lincoln.

The exhibition is curated by Samia Halaby, a Palestinian artist who resides in New York City, and Chris Mack, assistant curator for the museum.

Three of the artists featured in the show and Halaby will take part in a panel discussion of the exhibit on opening day, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., in Room 100 of the Thomas Levan Center, 2322 N. Kenmore Ave.

The DePaul Art Museum is free and open to the public. Museum hours are: Mon. – Thurs., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. For more information about “The Subject of Palestine” and future exhibitions of the DePaul Art Museum, call 773/325-7506 or visit the Web site at museums.depaul.edu/artwebsite.

Editors’ Note: J-PEG images from “The Subject of Palestine” are available upon request.