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Alia El-Bermani

@aliapainter

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Contemporary Figurative Artist Iraqi-Swedish-American Also follow @aliafineartstudios for classes & invited guest workshops & @aliapainter_gouache 🎨

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Crazy busy proud moments from last weekend!
- Zach finished 1st in JV XC
- Logan painted with friends at Eno River Park
- I painted a couple plein air pieces
- Had a group art show at @goldenbeltartists

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Our October Monday Portrait Sessions are now open for registration. Join us for 4 Mondays 10a - 1p as artist Rebecca Boggs poses for us! Space is limited.

https://alia-fineart.com/product/monday-portrait-oct2026/

@illustratedbe
@aliafineartstudios

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Opening for GB Invitational. Show up through September.
#artindurham #durhamartists #artgallery #artcollector Opening reception for gallery show

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Friday, Sept 18 - 6 to 9 pm OPENING RECEPTION for G.B. Invitational - invited artists outside the Golden Belt Studios. Our Main Gallery through September.

#durhamarts #thirdfriday #durhamthirdfriday #contemporaryart #artopening Golden Belt Invitational Art Show - Friday September 18 from 6 to 9 pm - work from the show

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This FRIDAY Sept 18 - SIX 2 NINE pm
The opening PARTY for G.B. Invitational !
Show up through September.
Golden Belt Arts
800 Taylor Street
Durham, NC 27701
#artshow #durhamartists #thirdfriday #durhamevents @lyndacurrystudio @fabzart21 @kiki.farish @lee_nisbet_art @thenancydrawsshop @eichner.studio @aliapainter @christylaguardiaart @dechaffee @nyxdwolf

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The water may rise. So will I. ❤️

For Suicide Prevention Month, I want to share something deeply personal—and a piece of art whose meaning has changed profoundly for me over the years.

In 2013, artist Alia El-Bermani painted ‘Rising Tide’, and I was the model. Yup that’s me. I remember going to a lake to get the looks she needed for my hair. And I definitely pulled something while gripping that cloth from the ceiling for hours. Worth it. But that isn’t what’s special about this piece.

Alia created the painting after watching a friend she loved struggle with deep depression. She wanted desperately to save her, but came to a painful realization: we can offer someone a lifeline, but ultimately they have to choose to reach for it and hold on.

That’s why I’m lying in shallow water, gripping the red cloth. Alia described the woman as being at a “moment of choice”—to use the lifeline and rise, remain as the tide comes in, or pull herself up.

At the time, I was simply the model. This wasn’t my story.

Little did I know that years later, I would understand that water myself.

I’ve known what it feels like when depression makes the tide feel too high. I’ve known moments when simply holding on takes everything you have.

Looking at this painting more than a decade later, there’s something incredibly powerful about realizing:

I portrayed someone reaching for a lifeline long before I knew what it would feel like to need one myself.

So this Suicide Prevention Month, my message is simple:

Hold on. Take the hand. Take the rope. Make the call. Stay through this moment. You don’t have to feel hopeful to choose to stay.

The water may rise.
So can you. ❤️

Rising Tide, 2013
Artist: @aliapainter
Model: Lucy Von Light

#SuicidePrevention #SuicidePreventionMonth #MentalHealthAwareness #paintings #artwork

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Join us Wednesday evenings in September & October for this 8 week Group Figure Composition class. Students will learn how to arrange multiple human figures within a single artwork to create a unified, dynamic, and readable scene. In the first two weeks we will begin by studying the value and color structures of historical paintings to build our vocabulary and understanding of complex, group figure compositions. We will then use the remaining six weeks to work with multiple, live, clothed models to create an interesting and engaging multi-figure oil painting. Students will learn to manage focal points, overlapping shapes, visual weight, and space to compose a compelling multi-figure narrative painting. Class size is limited to just 12 students - so grab your spot soon!

This will be our final weekly class offered in our current amazing studio. We will have to move at the end of the year. Don’t miss this chance to work in this ideal studio designed by @aliapainter specifically for working with the live model under beautiful light!

https://alia-fineart.com/product/group-figure-comp-fall-2026/

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Our Monthly Monday Portrait Sessions return in September! Join us for this 4 week uninstructed portrait session with the lovely artist Hiva posing for us every Monday from 10a-1p. Space is limited to so pre-registration is required. More info at link in below and in bio.

https://alia-fineart.com/product/monday-portrait-sept-2026/

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Making great art isn’t enough.

I think many of us begin our lives as artists believing that if we just work hard enough…if we become skilled enough, make strong enough work, master our craft…eventually someone will notice.

There’s something comforting about that idea.

Because practicing is something we can control.

Putting ourselves out into the world is much more vulnerable.

In my conversation with Alia El-Bermani @aliapainter we talked about what it actually takes to build a sustainable art career, and how artistic skill is only part of it.

We also have to learn how to talk about our work. How to build relationships. How to find the people who connect with what we make. How to keep showing up, even when being seen feels uncomfortable.

None of that makes the art less sacred.

It simply helps the art find its way into the world.

And maybe that’s part of the work of becoming a professional artist, too.

🎧 More from my conversation with Alia El-Bermani on The Professional Artist Podcast.

#ProfessionalArtist #ArtCareer #WorkingArtist #ArtistLife #contemporaryartist @professionalartistaccelerator

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Last week was pretty special. So honored to have been included in the inaugural Clay Sisters Retreat created by @alicianponzio in San Francisco. Besides sculpting along side each other all day we had some fun evening adventures with incredible dinners and enjoying the acrobatics of Dear San Francisco @clubfugazisf

Thank you to Alicia and all the local sisters who helped Alicia make this happen @jacquegiuffre @heidi_wastweet @ptheissn and especially @karenmontgomery7 for hosting me in your beautiful home!

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🌧️scenes from the Durham book launch event of NOSTALGIA IS THE GHOST OF CARE在未来怀念一片云彩 @northstardurham. thank you @themusemaya for the heartfelt conversation and synergy, @esoderic3 for music, @chilicrispqueer, aida & suhailah for event support, @pen_yah for documenting, and all the amazing audience members in attendance🌧️

🚢can't make it in person? book is officially available for order on my website huiyinzhou.com :) will be shipping in bulk aug, oct and nov. also im lowkey hiring a studio assistant (durham based preferred)? dm if interested.

***2026 BOOK TOUR DATES***
6/27, Durham, NC (NorthStar Church of the Arts)
7/18, St Louis, MO (The Luminary)
7/23-26, San Francisco, CA (SF Art Book Fair)
7/26, San Francisco, CA (Unbound Bookstore)
9/19, Philadelphia, PA (Ulises Bookstore)
9/25-27, NYC, NY (Printed Matter @ MoMA PS1)
10/24, Atlanta, GA (BOOK//ZINE 002 @ Goat Farm)
More to be announced!

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9x12 Oil on Linen Panel

BTW, if you are near Durham, I can recommend visiting Alia El-Bermani’s @aliapainter Perennial show, it’s up through July 11th and it has some of her recent work from botanical to portraiture in an ongoing project of her’s. Located at Craven Allen Gallery.

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