Barbara Davis Gallery hosts encounters, a solo-exhibition by Sueraya Shaheen in conjunction with FotoFest 2014 Biennial. In the exhibition, Shaheen presents a collection of documentary-style portraits of internationally known Middle Eastern artists, which she has archived over the past two years. Born in Beirut to Syrian parents, Shaheen left Lebanon in 1975 after the outbreak of war. For her latest group of portraits, Shaheen returns to the Middle East to investigate her roots and examine a demographic of working artists in a developing art world.

Traveling extensively throughout the Arab region to find her subjects, Shaheen's portraits are shot on location and illustrate the essence of the artist in his or her surrounding environment. Shaheen allows the viewer to see these iconic figures in raw form, removed from the identification as "other" and realized purely as "artist." In an era of constant change, Shaheen's intimate portraits capture the artists and visionaries who are reshaping the cultural landscape of the Middle East.

On view through April 19.